In The Heights - Sydney Opera House 2024
Photograph: SOH/Daniel Boud
Photograph: SOH/Daniel Boud

The best of Melbourne theatre and musicals this month

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

Leah Glynn
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August 2025: Don't miss musical theatre powerhouses Marina Prior, Casey Donovan and Christie Whelan-Brown shine in MTC's 'Kimberly Akimbo' – a goofy-cute show about a teenager old beyond her years. Loved 'Hamilton'? Before he created the smash-hit musical phenomenon, Lin-Manuel Miranda was best known for 'In The Heights' – a colourful, high-energy production that just opened at the Comedy Theatre. Plus, 'Annie' continues to charm at the Princess Theatre, and 'Beetlejuice the Musical' has been extended until September 11.

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
  • Southbank
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

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. 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.

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

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.

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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'?

  • 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
Contributor
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  • Southbank
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

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 at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio from August 12-24. 

  • Drama
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

When the gauzy wall of Christina Smith’s simple but effective set swooshes up, sweeping us into the first of five apartments we will visit during Mother Play – subtitled A Play in Five Evictions – it is impossible to escape the all-commanding presence of Sigrid ThorntonClad in a fur coat and sporting a bouffant wig of Nicole Kidman-level mightiness, even before she is spun around to face us in a classically stylish Eames chair, her imperiously anxious Phyllis exerts the magnetic pull of a black hole. And that’s more or less where we find ourselves in this latest work from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, who borrows her own mother’s name and a little of their personal history.

Stephen A Russell
Stephen A Russell
Contributor

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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