Critics' choice theatre shows in Melbourne

Looking for something to warm your heart this winter? We've got just the answer: beloved musical Annie is returning to Melbourne after a smash-hit run in Sydney. With a knock-out cast that includes Anthony Warlow as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks, Debora Krizak as Miss Hannigan and Greg Page (aka the OG Yellow Wiggle) as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, this tale of hope, family and friendship is one you won't want to miss.  Annie is showing at the Princess Theatre until November 8. Now, who's ready to belt out 'It’s the Hard-Knock Life'? *** Time Out Sydney reviewed Annie when it played at the Capitol Theatre in April. Read on for that four-star review:   Just over a decade since it was last seen in Australia, Annie is back – bursting onto the Capitol Theatre stage filled with optimism, joy, and hope. Director Karen Mortimer revives this quintessential piece of musical theatre with a sentimental production that preserves the charm and flair found in Thomas Meehan’s book. For those living under a rock (mainly me), this Tony Award-winning musical follows the story of 11-year-old Annie, who is growing up in an orphanage in 1930s New York, under the cruel eye of Miss Hannigan. In the midst of the Great Depression, pessimism is all around, but chipper young Annie has the antidote: hope. Encouraging others to believe that “the sun will come out tomorrow”, Annie’s enduringly positive spirit seems to finally pay off, when billionaire Oliver Warbucks chooses to take her in for two...

Congratulations to Beetlejuice the Musical, which took out the Critics' Choice Best Musical, and Karis Oka, who was awarded the Best Performance in a Musical for her role as Lydia Deetz, at the 2025 Time Out Melbourne Arts & Culture Awards, presented in partnership with the Australian Cultural Fund. Way back when Tim Burton was a much weirder filmmaker, my wee brother and I were unreasonably thrilled by the chaos engine of awfully bad behaviour that was Michael Keaton’s unhinged and unwashed demon, Betelgeuse.  The grotty stripe-suited monster ate up the 1988 film of not quite the same name – the studio figured folks would stay away unless the title was simplified to Beetlejuice. Named after the red supergiant star blazing ferociously in the constellation of Orion, some 600 light years from our solar system, Betelgeuse is an outcast from the hilariously bureaucratic afterlife, aka the Netherworld. Which leaves him preying on the naïve recently deceased, like sweet young couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), in an attempt to crowbar open the sort of ridiculous loophole the Greek gods are fond of. Say his – apparently too complex – name three times and he’ll be unleashed on the mortal coil once more.  But Betelgeuse’s sleazy attentions are soon distracted by Winona Ryder’s goth child Lydia, when she reluctantly moves into Adam and Barbara’s now-empty house with her dad, Charles (disgraced actor Jeffrey Jones), and his new squeeze, OTT sculptor...

It’s not uncommon for theatre productions to cast teenage characters a good bit older, body-swerving labour laws limiting the amount of time a young performer is on stage, and rightly so. At least the audience’s distance, unless you forked out for exxy tickets, allows hand-waving fuzz. When Ben Platt was cast in the Tony Award-winning Broadway run of Dear Evan Hansen, he could just about pass for 20. Not so much when he also played the high schooler in the big screen adaptation while closer to 30. So if you go in cold to MTC’s latest Tony-festooned Broadway import, Kimberly Akimbo, you might find yourself blinking for a moment at 60-something soprano and musical theatre matriarch Marina Prior doing so. But there’s an in-show explanation. Her titular character, Kimberly Levaco, is an old soul in a 16-year-old’s body, one that’s rapidly aging at four times the normal rate because of a rare genetic condition.Jaunty opening number ‘Skater Planet’, set at the local ice rink, establishes her outsider status. “It’s Saturday night and I’m the new girl, so I get to start from scratch… Sure, tonight I’m getting looks, but tomorrow they might see me.” The theys are a quartet of Bergen County, New Jersey, teenagers who look the part: Delia (Allycia Angeles), who secretly fancies Teresa (Alana Iannace), who quietly digs Martin (Marty Alix), who’s pining for Aaron (Jacob Rozario), who in turn only has eyes for Delia.  An adorkably awkward gang, they aren’t in touch with their feelings...

Hola! Long before he created the smash-hit musical phenomenon Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda was best known for In The Heights – a colourful, high-energy celebration of community, culture and chasing your dreams. Set in New York’s Washington Heights, it blends hip hop, salsa and Latin beats to create an uplifting theatre experience. The Melbourne season will see Ryan González and Olivia Vásquez reprise their roles as Usnavi and Vanessa, with Mariah Gonzalez, Ngali Shaw and Steve Costi joining them in key roles. In The Heights is showing at the Comedy Theatre until September 6. For more information and to book tickets, head to the website. *** Time Out Sydney reviewed In The Heights when it played at the Sydney Opera House in July, 2024. Read on for that four-star review:   First hitting the Broadway stage in 2008 (before it inspired the 2021 feature film), this rags-to-riches story returns to the Harbour City with gusto for the first time since 2019. A fiery fusion of poetry and passion, In the Heights is an idyllic love letter to the riches of community, cariños and carnaval! The story is simple enough: Usnavi (Ryan Gonzalez, they/them), a bodega owner living in the largely Latin-American neighbourhood of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, dreams of returning to his homeland and pines for the strong and beautiful Vanessa (Olivia Vásquez, she/her). Amongst the struggles of the day-to-day – the rising threat of gentrification, the cost of living, tighter immigration...

We on the affirmative team contend that taking a high school debating tournament, making feminism the topic of discussion and turning it all into a play is a recipe for a fascinating night of theatre.  This will be the fourth year in a row that Trophy Boys has played to local audiences, following sold-out seasons at La Mama in 2022, fortyfivedownstairs in 2023 and Arts Centre Melbourne in 2024. This time around, the dark drag extravaganza is playing once again at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio from August 12-24. Tickets range from $30-60 and you can get yours here. Read on for Time Out Sydney's five-star take on the 2024 Sydney run of Trophy Boys. *** If you had asked me what I thought the next canonical Australian text would be before I watched Trophy Boys, I certainly wouldn’t have pegged a play that features a sign boldly emblazoned with the words “Feminism has failed women” set against a backdrop of portraits of “powerful women leaders”. (Jacinda Ardern, Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Malala Youzafi and Grace Tame are accounted for, to name a few.) And yet, with this hilariously profound production, Trophy Boys proves that a provocative and unexpected approach can pay off handsomely.  We are introduced to a gang of four private school boys from the fictional Saint Imperium College as they strut into a classroom with the kind of boisterous raucousness that can only come from teenage boys. However, these aren’t your average young men – this queer black comedy...