By Darby Turnbull So much is made in our society about ‘safety’ and ‘comfort’; often as vague, symbolic things ‘I’m feeling unsafe/uncomfortable/threatened ’ is an extremely effective tool for shutting someone down; safe spaces and boundaries as essential as they tend...

  By Nic Conolly     As the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Playhouse plunged into darkness, the strumming guitar chords transported the audience from contemporary Brisbane to New York's East Village in December 1989. Amidst global events, one...

  Created by director, choreographer, and dancer Matías Jaime, Malevo is a high-energy and passionate performance with a contemporary take on the traditional Argentinian folk dance, the Malambo. The show opens with an energetic drumming performance executed with...

 By Adam Rafferty The last day of secondary school is a seminal moment that marks the point at which, for many, pivotal decisions are made that will have a heavy influence on the rest of our lives. Yet, at an age of seventeen, the proto-adults most of us are at that...

By Karyn Hodgkinson  It’s been over 30 years since I have seen the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. It began in 1979 as a local project for school kids. Now, 45 years later, it is a member of the Arts8 group of elite performing arts training organisations, which include the...

  Review by George Dixon     The stage show Grease the Musical is in Melbourne town, and the whole city is buzzing with delight.   Grease was created by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey in 1971. It premiered on Broadway on Valentine's Day 1972. The film...

By Bronwyn Cook Anyone who is from the UK or has visited will tell you that the local pub can often be the heartbeat of a town (or village). For me, it was Bartons Mill in Basingstoke, a charming place by a stream which I walked to through a country field. For the...

By Jessica Taurins Harkening back to the carnivals and big tops of a hundred years ago, Circus 1903 is an absolute feast for the senses (including taste, if the ringmaster happens to toss some popcorn your way) and a delight for all ages. Aside from the acrobats,...

By Chenoah Eljan The Australian Shakespeare Company’s 2023 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is perhaps their best and most polished production yet. Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens provides a stunning backdrop; cleverly, the paired-back, simple set does not...

By David Gardette Following a highly successful sold-out Brisbane season A Very Naughty Christmas (AVNC) makes its way to Melbourne for a limited festive season. Creatives Alex Woodward and Dan Venz have devised and developed over the past 7 years this raunchy crowd...

  Review by Suzanne Tate   Kinky Boots was an absolute powerhouse of a show!   Unlike most theatre folks, I have never seen the show or film, and as I don’t list to the soundtrack until I’ve seen a show, I’ve also never heard any of the music. I came to...

By Nick Pilgrim Written by the late Edward Albee (1928-2016), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is considered a modern theatrical classic. Sixty years ago since its Broadway debut and set on a university campus, the story is a gripping character study of two marriages...

By Chenoah Eljan A Christmas Carol is a timeless classic that reminds us there are many things more valuable than money, including love, human connection, charity and generosity. This adaptation written by Jack Thorne does so with wit, music, and a contemporary...

By Nick Pilgrim In the vast and varied landscape of Australia’s independent live entertainment scene, for more than a decade Little Ones Theatre has carved itself an impressive niche. Known for their commitment to showcasing queer comedy and drama at capital city...

By Carissa Shale Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah or Chrismukkah, ‘A Very Jewish Christmas Carol’ is a heart-warming, must-see production, just in time for the holiday season. Produced by Melbourne Theatre Company, this original festive comedy is a fresh and...

By Anna Hayes The story of Julian Assange is one that dots in and out of our media consumption these days. After seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, he was arrested in April 2019 and transferred to Belmarsh Prison where he remains while fighting against a...

  Review by Josiah Hilbig   First premiered in France in 1994, Art is an award-winning play that tells a simple story inspired by a personal experience of the playwright Yasmina Reza: Serge buys a particularly expensive painting—no more than white lines on a...

By David Gardette Based on the 1973 French farce of the same name, La Cage Aux Folles (The Cage of Mad Women), premiered on Broadway in 1983 and enjoyed a hit four-year run, culminating in 6 Tony Awards. With numerous revivals, International stagings, more awards and...

By Annie Zeleznikow Dogfight is a soulful musical about a rag tag team of young marines heading for Vietnam in the 1960’s. Before they are deployed they spend their last few hours of freedom in San Francisco, conforming to the tradition of marine’s past by hosting a...

By Rebecca Waese  Orlando, the first musical production by Antipodes Theatre Company, adapts Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name, portraying a young, privileged artist who writes and loves, changes from a man to a woman, and lives almost 300 years. The production...

Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's epic musical Miss Saigon was originally inspired by a single photograph. A distressed young child in Saigon was being taken away from her mother to join her ex-GI father in America. The pain is evident, as the mother gives up...

Reviewed by Tim Garratt   With a music career spanning six decades, Sting has achieved astonishing global success. He has 17 Grammy Awards to his name and over 100 million record sales, and his critically acclaimed Australian tour earlier this year played to...

By Adam Rafferty Great American jazz singer Billie Holiday, nicknamed ‘Lady Day’ and famous for her unique vocal style, is about as intimidating a historical character one can choose to portray. Yet Zahra Newman, in a virtuosic performance, captures the diva so...

By Ash Cottrell It was Friday night at, Malthouse Theatre and the weather could only be characterised as, European-esque. There was a stillness to the evening and a frivolity in the air. One of COVID’s lasting benefits, the extended outdoor area, adjacent to ACCA, was...

By Chenoah Eljan Latchkey is a sketch comedy show from the brilliant minds of The Improv Conspiracy alums Taylor Griffiths and Matt Jenner. This show has precious little in the way of set design, costumes, props and sound cues. Instead, it is 68% Griffiths’ hilarious...

By Chenoah Eljan Nicole Gulasekharam has adapted her 2021 short film The Quirky Best Friend for the stage in this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. It is a one-woman rom com-esque tale that relies heavily on the tropes it parodies, to great comedic effect....

By Chenoah Eljan Every seat is filled for Victorian Theatre Company’s production of Angus Cameron’s For Love Nor Money. Word has got out, this is, quite literally, one to watch. It is a story about an aspiring poet, Liam (Alexander Lloyd), and an aspiring filmmaker,...

By Chenoah Eljan Alex Lowes has always wanted to be the most famous person in the world and so he made a show about it. This is Lowes’s first Fringe festival show, which is surprising given his comfort on stage and the ease with which he rolls with technical...

By Nick Pilgrim Situated in Melbourne’s inner south, Red Stitch / The Actors’ Theatre is known for producing exciting and diverse local and international content. Thanks to the company’s compact black box space, viewers are treated to an experience never far away from...

By Darby Turnbull Three girls, one boy, minus one sister.  Minusonesister, Anna Barnes’ 2013 adaption of Sophocles Electra, which was the recipient of the Patrick White Playwrighting award that year, makes a welcome return at this year's Fringe Festival. Barne’s savvy...

By Natalie Ristovski One thought pervaded my mind for the bulk of my foray into the world of Mythos: Ragnarok this Melbourne Fringe Season, and that thought was: Why is this not a dinner theatre show? To be fair, one would be forgiven for wanting to avoid tying...

By Anja Eljan (age 8) The maddest of mad scientists, Magnus D Magnus, is the ruler of the show KABOOM! Magnes D Magnes calls himself “the world’s stupidest genius and the smartest idiot”. He shows the audience mind-blowing science experiments and shocking explosions....

By Chenoah Eljan Prehysterical is Head First Acrobats’ kids show at the Fringe, to offset their adult only offerings Crème de la Crème and GODZ. The show is expertly crafted with clever attention to detail and outstanding direction from Adam Opus. The audience is...

By Darby Tunbull Harry Styles is a fascinating pop culture figure, you either get him or you don’t, I’m the latter, however I think I just about get the people that get him. The break-out star of teen heartthrob sensation One Direction he’s managed to parlay his...

By Darby Turnbull There’s a moment in every maturing reader's experience when they realize how dense and disturbing JM Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy actually is. Alongside the fairies, pirates, mermaids and flying with the aid of some fairy dust and happy thoughts are...

By Chenoah Eljan One beautiful Melbourne evening Dylan Marshall and Earl Marrows were sitting on a park bench together admiring the beauty before them when Marshall turned to Marrow and said: “I bet I can come up with more tree puns than you can.” And so, Pining for...

By Karyn Hodgkinson Alienation by Jake Silvestro & Romain Hassanin @ NICA 4 stars It has been fascinating to see how circus has developed in my living memory. As a child, it was the proverbial clowns with red noses - sometimes scary to a small child - trapeze...

By Jessica Taurins "Be a Doll, Won't You?" brutally forces the audience to consider their role in human objectification, their opinions on sex work, and their ability to separate performance from performer... plus there's a fun dance sequence in the middle! Developed...

By Ash Cottrell If I’m being honest, The Vault, a temporary structure erected at the Queen Vic markets for the glorious, Melbourne Fringe Festival was somewhat difficult to find. Surprising, given it is a twenty-metre geodesic dome, constructed for outdoor...

By Chenoah Eljan Dylan Cole enters the stage wearing head-to-toe black with his headphones on. Large, achromatic puzzle pieces are spread out on the floor. Piano music plays. Cole picks up a single puzzle piece, cradles it like a baby, sets it down. The puzzle piece...

  By George Dixon   Elvis has always been a controversial figure; you may love Elvis or loathe him, take him, or leave him, but there is one thing for sure, Elvis and his music became a Musical Revolution.   This new production, Elvis: A Musical...

  With music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and book and lyrics by Tim Rice, Chess The Musical has had a somewhat checkered past. The original concept album released in 1984 received rave reviews and the single 'I Know Him So Well', performed by Elaine...

By Darby Turnbull Nick Payne’s Constellations is a story that explores multitudes, but to my eye doesn’t contain them. A high concept love story that explores a relationship between Physicist Marianne and Beekeeper Roland through the seemingly infinite possibilities...

By Darby Turnbull It’s all there in John O’Donovan’s title. It’s a mouthful, it’s slightly audacious and its verbosity immediately catches our attention. Cocaine is a play about barriers and the incremental things we need to transcend them; drugs, sweets, alcohol,...

By Darby Turnbull This is the third two hander relationship drama I’ve seen over the Fringe Festival and for one that makes aims towards explorations of mortality, grief, guilt and finding some momentum in life after profound loss it feels the emptiest. Liam Borrett’s...

By Chenoah Eljan It’s 2am and Ange Lavoipierre can’t sleep because life, mental load, anxiety, and that catch-all bag of delightful and absurd crap called the human condition. What ensues is one hour of sharp dialogue, guided sleep meditations, celebrity apologies,...

By Chenoah Eljan MATADOR sabor de amor (taste of love) is a series of transitions interspersed with brief dance numbers, matter-of-fact corset removals, and the soundtrack of a Zumba class. The show is performed in “The Vault”, a 20-meter geodesic dome intended for...

 By Chenoah Eljan Crème de la Crème by Head First Acrobats is a perfect medley of acts in this year's Fringe, deftly led by MC Cal Harris. As a whole the show is so polished its relaxed in the best way possible, the timing is punchy and the impressive tricks and...

  Review by Bronwyn Cook   Mamma Mia…here we go again! Making its third decade appearance, Mamma Mia! The Musical is back after its 2001-2005, 2009-2010 and 2017-2018 productions.   Whilst the world sure has changed since we last saw these dancing...

By Darby Turnbull After over a decade of performing Bradley Storer, the ‘dark princeling’ of Melbourne Cabaret makes a triumphant return to the Butterfly Club for a musical retrospective of some of his favorite musical performances. Pithy self-deprecation within his...

By Anna Hayes The notion of aging is something that we’ve all thought about in one way or another over the years; when you’re young, you hope the bouncer won’t ask for ID, when you get a bit older, you’re flattered when he does… All jokes aside, aging is a serious...

By Darby Turnbull Niusia, takes its name from creator and performer Beth Paterson’s indomitable grandmother who she knew in the final decade and a half of her life as a bitter, vitriolic crank, who whilst loving and enigmatic, had a pointed mean streak. Through 60...

By Adam Rafferty As one of our most prolific playwrights, Melbourne’s own Patricia Cornelius hasn’t had her works produced by our mainstage theatre companies nearly as often as you might think. Considering how well her writing captures uniquely Australian voices it...

By Rhylee Nowell Go on a delicious treat of a Journey with Innes Lloyd So, I’m going preface this with I am a huge fan of Innes Lloyd. They always bring me so much joy. And Journey to the Centre of the Earth is no different. A delightful romp from beginning to end,...

By Bec Johnston The contemporary audience often maintains a one-sided and undeviating relationship with the art they choose to consume. With the advent of on-demand streaming, indulging in movies and even stage performances from the comfort of the living room has...

Review by George Dixon Melbourne Opera’s Maria Stuarda is the second of Donizettis’s Tudor Trilogy (Anne Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux.) While the previous performance, “Mary Stuart” (2015-2017), was presented in English, Maria Stuarda is sung in its...

By Nick Pilgrim In more than a decade of reviewing, I have had the privilege to witness a tremendous range of shows, events, and experiences. From plays and musicals, or cabaret to comedy, perhaps the most diverse and challenging category I have critiqued would be...

By Anna Hayes There’s been a lot of talk recently about space – there’s a kind of revived race to the moon and, of course, we’re busily looking for stuff on Mars, and Elon Musk is using all of his hot air to try get a rocket off the ground – it’s a wonder that one...

  By Jody Miller   The Broadway sensation WICKED looks at what happened in the Land of Oz… but from a different angle. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another young woman, born with emerald-green skin, who is smart, fiery, misunderstood and possessing...

By Jessica Taurins Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is touted as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, and thankfully the 2023 Melbourne production entirely lives up to such a grandiose descriptor. Written in 1949, Miller wrote his two act play about his...

By George Dixon. The Melbourne performance of “idk” played at North Melbourne’s Arts House. The venue was perfect - its extra depth and ample stage area provided opportunities for every inch to be utilised. This seventy-minute production is admirably titled “idk” with...

By Ash Cottrell What’s better than an evening out with a glass of prosecco and a side of The Bard? Last Friday night was precisely this kind of evening at the dynamic, fortyfivedownstairs, with the hotly anticipated opening night of, Julius Caesar – brought to life in...

By Cedar Brown Entering Prophet’s play space, I was struck by the visually exciting design – suggestions of protest, war, and destitution suspended around the audience; the characters, wrapped in their own realities, occupying scaffolding, stages, and platforms of...

  Moulin Rouge! The Musical is back at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne's East End Theatre District.   After a COVID-interrupted start, Moulin Rouge! The Musical finally made its Australian premiere in Melbourne in November 2021. The COVID-shortened Melbourne...

By Karyn Hodgkinson  One can be forgiven for thinking that How to Save a Tree is solely about protecting the environment. Though concern for the environment is ever-present, we are asked to consider other ideas and issues specific to particular protests in Melbourne....

By Heather Bosted Newly elected Edith, is the youngest woman to ever lead her country and she has 90 minutes to get ready for the most important speech of her life. Enter a young makeup artist from David Jones, Rosie, with the mission of giving Australia's Youngest...

By Chenoah Eljan The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) is exactly what it says on the packet: the Bard’s 38 plays condensed into an hour and half, roughly 152 costume changes, four dozen murders and a kiss. It would seem an impossible feat, and yet...

By Cedar Brown Coming into the foyer of the Werribee Mansion’s adjacent hotel at 7.45 for an 8pm start to the show, we happened across a TV playing the women's soccer world cup. Australia vs France playing for who goes into the semi finals, nil all. The would-be...

By Adam Rafferty Often described as Britain’s greatest living playwright, the brilliant Caryl Churchill is renowned for works that take unusual and experimental forms, while always being wondrously relatable. With more than 30 plays to choose from, companies who wish...

  Review by Suzanne Tate   The Antipodes Theatre Company’s production of Guys & Dolls: A Musical Fable of Broadway at Chapel off Chapel is a refreshing new take on a classic from the Golden Age of Musical Theatre. To begin with, the casting exemplifies...

  Originally a 1967 novel by Joan Lindsey, the story of Picnic At Hanging Rock took on mythical proportions when a film adaptation first hit cinemas in 1975. Growing up in the 1970s it was almost impossible to not have at least some understanding of Picnic At...

By Darby Turnbull I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Kerosene and Sirens individually and each were on my list of theatrical highlights for 2021 and 2022 respectively. It’s a rare treat to be able to revisit a piece, rarer still with the original creatives, and it’s long...

By Darby Turnbull Sex comedies throughout the ages; Shakespeare to Neil Simon, have traditionally relied on miscommunication or straight up deceit in their pursuit of amorous exploits. One genre I’m enjoying emerge in modern writing and production is the ‘consent’...

By Jessica Taurins Life after death is polarising. There could be an afterlife where your dreams come true, or everything could end at brain death, or some of us poor souls could be trapped between one ending and another. Ghosts, poltergeists, spectres, phantoms - all...

 Review by Jody Miller   A Dark and Thrilling Masterpiece, Sweeney Todd - The Musical  The Demon Barber of Fleet Street A Musical Thriller 22 July - 27 August 2023 In the Drama Theatre | Sydney Opera House Presents | Musical Theatre   Stephen Sondheim’s Tony...

By Kristopher Hinz Black humour is the silver lining in this coming of age tale with a twist. Perfectly paced for drama throughout, Rachel Edmond’s masterpiece When You Wore Braces is two-person theater at its best. Edmonds debut play is unafraid of exploring the...

 By Nick Pilgrim Stewart Reeve is an award-winning one of a kind. Or, to put his brilliant hour-long roller coaster ride in sharp perspective, he is every kind. In over a decade of reviewing, I have had the privilege to witness a solid handful of world-class local and...

By George Dixon I always find that any production performed by the originator (writer) tends to enhance the intent and meaning of the script, as the interpretation is presented from the writer’s perspective. Rough Trade is a one-person play written and performed by...

By Nick Pilgrim Just as Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean did for figure skating (Face The Music) or Michael Flatley with Celtic Folk (Riverdance / Lord Of The Dance), Burn The Floor turns the conservative world of ballroom upside down. What was once perceived as...

By Adam Rafferty A brand-new musical from the team at Working Dog, (i.e., the producers of television’s Utopia and Frontline, films The Castle and The Dish, and 2014’s wildly successful MTC play, The Speechmaker) … you had me at new musical, but this is an unexplored...

By Darby Turnbull Welcome back Patalog! After a 4 year hiatus which contained a global pandemic and one of their producers Ben Walter’s term in Harry Potter and the cursed child, one of our finest local companies returns to 45 downstairs with a smashing presentation...

By Darby Turnbull It feels like Melbourne Theatre Company and Malthouse are trying on each other's frocks in an interesting piece of contrast programming. MTC has the incendiary, in ya face (by mainstage standards) Is God is and it’s Malthouse who’s doing the sedate...

  While we have the opportunity to watch old films, it's impossible to go back in time to watch a theatre performance. There are so many incredible performances that will be remembered only by those privileged to have witnessed them at the time. Therefore, the...

By Anna Hayes  Anticipation for a good holiday is at the heart of Michael Gow’s classic play ‘Away’ which has been revived for a run at Theatre Works’ HQ in Acland Street. I say ‘revived’ but it seems like this is a work that is never too far from the Australian...

By Karyn Hodgkinson There is much to admire about Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s work. A Yorta Yorta woman, soprano, composer, educator and nurturer of indigenous artists, she continues to give much to the Australian cultural landscape. She is also an innovator, which...

By Darby Turnbull I’m a huge admirer of romantic comedies, a genre much maligned as somehow being insubstantial mainly because their most devoted audience members consist of femme individuals, women, queer men etc and so complacently derided. But when done right...

By George Dixon Quicker Than the Eye The Melbourne Magic Festival has grown over the years into one of Melbourne’s major festivals. One of the wonderful aspects is that, generally, magic is a fantastic live visual experience. It is a skill that takes years to master...

By Stephen Mitchell After premiering at La Mama Courthouse in 2018, Just A Boy Standing In Front of A Girl has endured a couple of false starts at fortyfivedownstairs, courtesy of everyone's favourite pandemic, previewing in 2021 and finally opening in 2023 after what...

Whether it's the original book, the film starring Judy Garland or the various musical stage adaptations, L Frank Baum's story of The Wizard of Oz is a well-loved classic tale. Under the direction of Kim Anderson, Theatrical's production has retained all the familiar...

Review by Jody Miller   A Mesmerising Blend of Mystery and Melody: City of Angels at The Hayes Theatre Sydney   Presented by Joshua Robson Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co   City of Angels, the critically acclaimed musical, has found a...

By Adam Rafferty This is a very unique play and a very unique production for Melbourne Theatre Company (in co-production with Sydney Theatre Company), not just in storyline, but in style too. This is a tale of revenge in almost a comic book kind of ‘action-writ-large’...

By Anna Hayes Red Stitch Theatre is the venue for the Australian premiere of U.S. playwright Clare Barron’s challenging work ‘Shhh’, a play that explores the concept of consent through a number of different characters. The play follows a relatively loose narrative,...

By Jessica Taurins Underneath Ms Archer has a number of themes running throughout, from modernity vs. antiquity to social media and its hold on the world. So, it was a bit of a shame to find one of its central story conceits was a bit lost without the relevant...

    World premiere musicals in our country are all too often small-scale productions by independent companies in little theatres outside the CBD; applauded by the small audiences who get to witness them, but soon forgotten without a producer willing to develop it...

  Review by Tim Garratt In 1994, Disney made its first foray into musical theatre, mounting a stage adaptation of one of its most recent and revered films. Only a few years earlier, Beauty and the Beast had become a box office smash, earning $403 million at the...

Review by Tim Garratt Celebrating 70 years since its first performance in London, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is now inviting Australian audiences to experience its tale of murder mystery. Theatregoers in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra have had...

By Ian Nott MJ Wilson knows how to make an entrance albeit an understated one. He parted the maroon curtains of the Butterfly Club stage on Monday night with panache and a wide welcoming smile. He has gliding, wistful way of moving on the stage and the audience was...