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Theatre

Theatre Review: Cameron Mackintosh’s Miss Saigon is a beautiful journey of love, longing and loss

November 6, 2023

Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed production of Boublil and Schöberg’s award-winning musical, Miss Saigon, premiered at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre on Friday night and let me tell you now – you’re not going to want to miss this one. With a star-studded guest list, the red carpet was rolled out and the drinks were flowing as attendees […]

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Theatre Review: Sydney Theatre Company’s The Dictionary of Lost Words at the Sydney Opera House proves that the pen is mightier than the sword

November 2, 2023

Adapted by Verity Laughton from the novel by Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words centres around the Scriptorium, where the very first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is being compiled. It is 1886, and researcher Harry Nicoll (Brett Archer) is working while his four-year-old daughter Esme (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) plays under the table. The […]

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A man and a woman in period costume embrace on a lounge. His arm is around her waist as she tries to pull away.

Theatre Review: Legend Nancye Hayes AM steals the show in A Little Night Music at Hayes Theatre Co. in Sydney

October 20, 2023

With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the Tony Award winner, A Little Night Music at Hayes Theatre Co. encompasses love, desire and regret. Indeed, regret is the most poignant emotion of the production, touching everyone in different ways. Directed by Dean Bryant, we follow the story of two couples, each with their own secrets and […]

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Ink is an entertaining story of Rupert Murdoch’s first Fleet Street success

October 14, 2023

Ink, a play by James Graham, tells the compelling story of the first year of Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of The Sun newspaper in 1969. Initially performed in London’s West End in 2017, this performance from the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild by directors Robert Bell and Rebecca Kemp takes place in the Little Theatre, buried […]

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Theatre Review: Elvis: A Musical Revolution is a (mostly) rockin’ good time

October 10, 2023

Leather jacket? Check. Guitar? Check. Blue suede shoes? Uh-huh. Get ready to relive the life and music of Elvis Presley, the global phenomenon who would go on to birth a musical revolution. Going from his upbringing in Tupelo, Mississippi all the way to his iconic 1968 NBC Comeback Special, Elvis: A Musical Revolution tells the […]

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Theatre Review: Sydney Theatre Company’s Is God Is is a rollicking journey through Black revenge

October 5, 2023

Twins, Anaia (Henrietta Enyonam Amevor) and Racine (Masego Pitso), get a letter from their estranged mother (Cessalee Stovall), whom they long thought dead, to come to her nursing home in the dirty south. Bedridden with the effects of major burns, she reminds them of the incidents preceding their father’s leaving, having set her and the […]

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Theatre Review: The Importance of Being Earnest is a feast for the eyes and a delight for the ears

September 15, 2023

The first thing you will notice about The Importance of Being Earnest at the Sydney Theatre Company is the stage. Impressive seems an inadequate description for such an elaborate set design. Created by Charles Davis, the audience is transported to another world, a world of excess, decadence and extremely high ceilings. With incredible attention to […]

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Theatre Review: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is beautifully raw and emotional

August 30, 2023

Adelaide’s Space Theatre has been wonderfully transformed into Emerson’s Bar and Grill. With moody dark lighting, café seating near the stage and a three-piece jazz band, the audience is transported back to the 1920s. Kym Purling plays the part of pianist Jimmy Powers, who introduces us to the band, with Victor Rounds on Double Bass […]

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Get ready to “jump in the line” for tickets, as Beetlejuice announces Melbourne premiere for 2025

August 14, 2023

Michael Cassel Group, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures and Langley Park Productions have just announced that the Ghost with the Most is heading Down Under, with the eight-time Tony Award-nominated hit musical Beetlejuice set to premiere at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in 2025. Based on the iconic Tim Burton comedy-horror of the same name, Beetlejuice centres around […]

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Constellations

Theatre Review: Sydney Theatre Company’s Constellations is an impeccably performed exploration into the multiverse of relationships

August 13, 2023

Boy meets girl. Then meets again. And again, and again across various states of time and space in numerous dimensions. Some meetings see a failure to launch, others bloom, with the couple going through a number of relationships across the multiverse, with only minor alterations making, in this case, literal worlds of difference. Ian Michael […]

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Theatre review: Bernadette Robinson mesmerises with star performances in Divas

August 6, 2023

Directed by Simon Phillips, Divas is a captivating journey through time, exploring the (often quite short) lives of the biggest music stars to ever grace stage and screen. There are ten, in fact, each with their own unique personality, connection to music, and outlook on life and love. Unbelievably, there is one star who brings […]

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Theatre Review: 2:22 A Ghost Story is a good, not great, slow-burn supernatural thriller

August 2, 2023

Do you believe in ghosts? Keep an open mind and uncover the truth in 2:22 A Ghost Story – a supernatural thriller play that’s transformed Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre into the innards of a potentially haunted house. Belief and skepticism clash when Jenny (Gemma Ward) senses a strange presence in her home, but her husband […]

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A man and a woman sit on the end of a pier. They are looking into each others eyes as they lean in for a kiss.

Theatre Review: Sydney Theatre Company’s stunning adaptation of On the Beach hits close to home

July 27, 2023

If the end of the world was upon you, how would you respond? Hopeful optimism? Or perhaps defiant acceptance? It’s a question that has found its way into social consciousness a lot over the last few years, and it forms an integral part of Sydney Theatre Company’s On the Beach. Directed by Kip Williams and […]

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Theatre Review: Unfair Verona sees Shakespeare meet The Play That Goes Wrong

July 24, 2023

Romeo & Juliet is a classic love story. It has inspired many different adaptations over the years including Baz Luhrmann’s famous film and the stage musical & Juliet, which ponders what could have happened if Juliet didn’t die. Unfair Verona is another new interpretation, in a style largely cut from the same cloth as The […]

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Theatre Review: Miss Peony tells a courageous fun-filled tale of family and pursuit of one’s true self

July 23, 2023

At the tender age of five, my life took a remarkable turn as my family migrated to this sunburnt Australian land from Northern China. Little did I know that this journey would shape the very core of my identity, transforming it forever from the days of my humble industrial neighbourhood in Shenyang. As the years […]

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Five Brisbane Festival 2023 shows you’d be mad to miss

July 10, 2023

The Brisbane Festival is gearing up to kick off the festivities this September, and the line-up they recently dropped is MASSIVE. Boasting an incredible number of acts from across the worlds of music, theatre, cabaret, comedy, visual art and every other medium you can think of, the program is absolutely stacked. Running in its current […]

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Theatre Review: Tick, Tick… Boom! doesn’t fully explode

June 30, 2023

Tick, Tick… Boom! is the semi-autobiographical story of playwright Jonathon Larson, who was most notable for creating the musical RENT. This story focuses on his time as a struggling writer, living in New York, writing his first musical, Superbia. The story opens with the sound of ticking, the sound that becomes louder and louder in […]

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Queensland Theatre brings Nia Vardalos’ adaptation of Tiny Beautiful Things to Brisbane

June 27, 2023

Queensland Theatre‘s production of Cheryl Strayed New York Times bestseller Tiny Beautiful Things took to the Billie Brown theatre stage earlier this month. Adapted for the stage by Academy Award nominee Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Tiny Beautiful Things follows Sugar, an online advice columnist, as she helps strangers navigate the contradictions and complexities […]

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Beauty and the Beast

Theatre Review: You’ll be honoured to be a guest at the new staging of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

June 23, 2023

Direct from the West End, Disney’s classic Beauty and the Beast has arrived in Sydney at the Capitol Theatre. This reimagined production brings together the original creative team: Broadway’s Matt West as director/choreographer, Alan Menken as composer, Tim Rice & Howard Ashman as lyricists. Alongside them are Natasha Katz (lighting designer) and Ann Hould-Ward (costume […]

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Poison of Polygamy

Review: Sydney Theatre Company’s The Poison of Polygamy is a journey you’ll want to go on

June 22, 2023

The Poison of Polygamy at the Sydney Theatre Company will take you on a journey. From China’s Qing dynasty to Victoria’s nineteenth-century goldfields, and the colourful landscape of Melbourne’s Chinatown, the play seamlessly shifts focus. Based on the novel by Wong Shee Ping and adapted for the stage by Anchuli Felicia King, The Poison of […]

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Grease the Musical announces its Melbourne and Sydney cast

June 21, 2023

Your summer nights are sorted! Grease the Musical is coming back to Australian shores just in time for the New Year, and has recently announced cast and ticket details for its Melbourne and Sydney runs. From a Broadway mainstay to an iconic film starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, Grease has stood the test of […]

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Six singers perform on a stage with a band behind them.

Review: ARETHA: A Love Letter to the Queen of Soul is a fitting tribute to an unforgettable icon

June 20, 2023

Known around the world as the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin is one of the most iconic singers of all time. During her impressive career, she won 18 Grammy awards and sold over 75 million records. Her incredible life and the songs defining her career form the heart of the stage production, ARETHA: A Love […]

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Theatre Review: Driftwood the Musical presents a timeless story of love, courage and survival

June 12, 2023

It’s an exciting time for the Australian arts when we get to see an ambitious, personal, and original Australian musical take the stage. Driftwood the Musical presents a captivating tale of hope and perseverance which delves into poignant themes involving the Holocaust, inter-generational trauma, sacrifices in times of war, and the perseverance of art. Created, […]

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Scenes From A Climate Era

Theatre Review: Scenes from the Climate Era at Belvoir is a lesson we should have learnt a long time ago

June 3, 2023

Climate change, global warming, greenhouse effect, carbon emissions – there are many words to describe it and even more emotions associated with its impacts. Scenes from the Climate Era at Belvoir explores our complicated and tumultuous relationship with climate change. Presenting over fifty stories which delve into climate science, activism, and denial, it doesn’t pull […]

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Elvis

Elvis: A Musical Revolution will be in the building (Sydney and Melbourne) from August

May 31, 2023

Lace up your blue suede shoes and get ready to relive the storied life of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley in the premiere of a brand new bio-musical – Elvis: A Musical Revolution. Following successful Australian runs of The Wedding Singer and Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical, David Venn Enterprises presents a […]

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Mamma Mia

Theatre Review: MAMMA MIA! The Musical, is back and…here we go again!

May 28, 2023

MAMMA MIA! The Musical boasts a coverage of 22 of ABBA’s greatest hits, loved by multiple generations since the super group first stepped on stage in the 1970s. This stage musical, first coming to life in London in the 1990s, has gone on to perform in over 20 languages around the world. It also turned […]

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Review: Once is a touching story of love, life and music at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre

May 11, 2023

From the big screen to the stage, the story of Once has struck a chord with audiences all around the world since its inception in 2007, evoking tears of laughter, tears of joy and tears of sadness. Making its long-awaited return to Melbourne, this award-winning production from Darlinghurst Theatre Company is a truly enchanting musical […]

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A man and a woman sit on opposite side of a lift, actively ignoring each other.

Theatre Review: Expiration Date tackles abortion rights and we need to be talking about this

May 1, 2023

Trigger warning: this review/play covers the topic of abortion, if that’s triggering for you please give it a miss. For many, the idea of being trapped in an elevator is the stuff of nightmares. Throw in an ex-partner and it suddenly becomes the last place you want to be in the world. Unfortunately for the […]

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Interview: Driftwood The Musical is the new high calibre Australian production set for the world stage

April 24, 2023

Having already enjoyed a sold-out world premiere Melbourne season in 2022, Driftwood The Musical is set to return to Melbourne on 3rd May before debuting in Sydney across a run of three venues from 24th May. Ahead of this run of shows, and off the back of the news that the show will be heading to […]

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Theatre Review: Come From Away is a delightfully heartwarming story (Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide)

March 31, 2023

Come From Away is a hit musical based on the true story events of the September 11 WTC tragedy. It tells the incredible story of how 38 planes were diverted from North American airspace to a remote town in Newfoundland, Canada. The locals opened their hearts and homes to almost 7000 scared and confused passengers. […]

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