An all-cast scene from Beetlejuice the Musical.
Photograph: Michelle Grace Hunder
Photograph: Michelle Grace Hunder

The best of Melbourne theatre and musicals this month

Get your culture fix via all the world-class productions happening in Melbourne this July

Leah Glynn
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July 2025: Listen up! It's your last chance to catch the smash-hit musical 'Hadestown', with the folk and jazz-infused production finishing up on July 13. Trust us, you'll have the soundtrack on repeat after you've seen it. 'Beetlejuice the Musical' is also continuing its mega successful run this month, leaving audiences in stitches night after night. For something completely unexpected, dont miss the Malthouse Theatre's 'ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen'. Each night will see playwright Nassim Soleimanpour guide a new guest through the script for a (totally unrehearsed) performance that quite literally no one has seen before.

From the toe-tapping to the cathartic, consider this your ultimate guide to all the best Melbourne theatre shows happening this month.

When stuck for things to do between shows, you can also always rely on our catch-all lists of Melbourne's best bars, restaurants, museums, parks and galleries, or consult our bucket list of 100 things to do in Melbourne before you die

Want something else to do this month? Check out our gig guide.

Melbourne's best theatre shows this month

  • Musicals

Melbourne, it’s time to put on some makeup and pull the wig down from the shelf – because Hedwig has finally announced plans to head on over to our wicked little town. Following a smash-hit season with Adelaide Festival, GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents have confirmed that Hedwig and the Angry Inch will unleash its raw energy at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre from June 13 as part of RisingSeann Miley Moore stars as the hedonistic anti-heroine herself, Hedwig, opposite acclaimed actor, singer, songwriter Adam Noviello as Hedwig’s devoted yet defiant partner, Yitzhak. 

  • Musicals
  • Melbourne
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

The auditorium of the Regent Theatre is doused in a blood-red glow tinged with anaemic green as we take our seats, a buzzing neon sign already dropping his name twice. Providing both the manic music and leery lyrics, Perfect is, well, perfect as our unseen by most living souls poltergeist of ill-repute, accompanied by a jaw-droppingly bawdy book from Scott Brown and Anthony KingExpertly conjuring the blithe spirit of the movie, complete with its iconic ‘D’ay-O (The Banana Boat Song)’ possession, you’ll want to ‘Jump In The Line’ by curtain call on this riotously rabid real good time. 

Stephen A Russell
Stephen A Russell
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  • Musicals
  • Melbourne
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

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 from July 8. Now, who's ready to belt out 'It’s the Hard-Knock Life'?

  • Drama
  • St Kilda
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

Emilie Collyer’s new play, Super, which is currently running at Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre, is interested in more intimate powers that might help you day-to-day. Phoenix (Lucy Ansell) has the ability to dissipate someone’s anger; calm them down without a fight. Rae (Caroline Lee) brings people into her emotional vulnerability; if she cries, everyone else cries. And Nel (Laila Thacker) is so efficient, she can do the most basic tasks in the blink of an eye – and she can whip up a spreadsheet that will blow your mind. This production is a clever excavation of our dream to be more than what we really are, grappling with a society that forces us to question our own power – super or not.

Keith Gow
Keith Gow
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  • Musicals
  • Melbourne
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

Tackled by everyone from Roman poets Virgil and Ovid to Canadian indie rockers Arcade Fire and Katee Robert’s queered novel, Midnight Ruin, the myth of Eurydice and her Orpheus finds new life in the hands of folk singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. Her eight Tony Award-winning smash-hit musical Hadestown began life as a sung-through community project before she turned it into a concept album, and then a Broadway smash with help from director Rachel Chavkin.

Stephen A Russell
Stephen A Russell
Contributor
  • Performance art
  • Southbank

There’s no more rehearsing. In fact, there was none to begin with. Not a single cast member of ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen knows the part by heart. Welcome to a spectacle that is deliberately unprepared, unorthodox and unpredictable. Nassim Soleimanpour is the most performed playwright in the history of Iranian theatre. You may know him for his acclaimed works like White Rabbit, Red Rabbit or NASSIM. This July, he’s joining audiences at Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre all the way from Berlin for a spectacle that plays with technology and tricks of the trade to redefine the idea of ‘home’. 

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Before you book...

Not all seats are created equal. Sure, there are some shows so spectacular and unmissable you’d happily sit anywhere, but most experiences in the theatre can be augmented by the best seats in the house. And occasionally ruined by the worst. So, without further ado, we give them to you.

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