Jasmine Joyan

There’s never been a quiet year for theatre in Australia. From the bright lights of Broadway and West End to our very own stages in Australia, we’re lucky to play host to some of the world’s biggest and best musicals. We’re also a hotbed for homegrown gems, with fresh and experimental shows lighting up stages across the country every month.  From the grand return of a British “mega-musical” starring cats to the Aussie premiere of a musical based on Pretty Woman, this year’s theatre line-up is shaping up to be one of the most exciting yet. Here are all the biggest musicals currently playing in Australia or headed Down Under in the next year or so. 🖼 The best Australian art galleries🔍 Australia's greatest museums 👀 The best art exhibitions to see in Australia right now

There is a lot happening on Sydney's stages each and every month. But how do you even know where to start? Thankfully, our critics are out road-testing musicals, plays, operas, dance, cabaret and more all year round. Here are their recommendations. Want more culture? Check out the best art exhibitions in Sydney.

Many of us try not to think about death too much. Even if it is discussed or thought about, it’s considered in the abstract – a distant experience we will deal with someday, maybe later. From beloved Australian novelist Helen Garner, The Spare Room brings the later to now in an unflinchingly raw and brutal confrontation with death. Adapted and directed by Belvoir St Theatre’s artistic director Eamon Flack (Counting and Cracking), these heavy themes are carried with compassion, humour and drama in an evocative performance that lingers long after the final moment.  After going through multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, Nicola (Elizabeth Alexander) decides to stay with her old friend Helen (Judy Davis) in Melbourne for three weeks while she undertakes an alternative cancer treatment. From Vitamin C-infused IV drips to sitting naked in “ozone saunas”, these alternative therapies claim to destroy cancer much in the same manner an octopus can break rocks. (Their words, not mine.) The three weeks force both Nicola and Helen to go beyond the platitudes and formalities, and to confront the raw and infuriating experience of both having a terminal illness, and supporting a loved one through it. a provocative portrayal of the communal experience of death  The play commences with a profound silence, held by Helen for a moment longer than comfortable. Davis’s command and authority are masterfully established in this stillness, and do not falter for the rest of the performance.

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 weeks over Christmas. Four spirited young performers share the titular role in this production, alongside an alternating cast of child actors. On opening night, Dakota Chanel’s Annie is a ray of sunshine, fully embodying the doe-eyed optimism of the character, balancing warmth and comedy with the more tender and emotional segments. The whole ensemble of “orphans” share an incredible chemistry, which is strongly on display in their performance of ‘It’s The Hard Knock Life’. The stakes are high when it comes to such a well-known and well-loved song, but this ensemble more than meets the challenge with a passionate and committed performance.  Annie is the chick

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 fea

Fearlessness, thy name is woman. We’ve seen it in Juliet’s defiance, Lady Macbeth’s ambition, and even Viola’s convictions. And what of the “feeble” Ophelia? Well, she is more than fearless, perhaps more than any of Shakespeare’s women, because she holds something that very few still have, and that very few still hold sacred: her virginity. Not the narrow, cherry-popping concept of virginity as we understand it today, linked to sex or purity – but rather, Ophelia is reclaiming the original meaning of the word, an embodied sense of virtuousness defined, above all, by being true to thine self.  Playwright Jean Betts flips the script on one of Shakespeare’s famous tragedies in the fantastically profound and introspective Ophelia Thinks Harder. The script stays (mostly) true to the original plot of Hamlet – however, this story begins just before Queen Gertrude’s remarriage to Prince Hamlet’s uncle, King Claudius. The audience is introduced to a young Ophelia as she manages the weight of her strained relationship with Hamlet, her father’s expectations, the death of her mother, and her coming into adulthood – all while the Danish kingdom is on the brink of collapse. Interweaving humour and heartache with contemporary dialogue and an array of beautifully selected lines and speeches from across Shakespeare’s canonical works, Betts has created an incredibly witty and thought provoking play.  Heavy lies the head that takes up this masterfully complex script, but director Alex Kendall R

Sydney Theatre Company’s new production of Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles marks the second time this comedic-yet-tense finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama has appeared on the Sydney stage. With a focus on struggle, resilience and change in both the personal and generational senses, the play explores the evolving relationship between 21-year-old Leo (Shiv Palekar, The Tempest) and his 91-year-old grandmother, Vera (Nancye Hayes).  After Leo’s cross-country cycling trip goes terribly wrong, no one is more surprised than Vera when he turns up on the doorstep of her Greenwich Village apartment in the middle of the night. Over the course of this one-act drama, the pair navigates grief, identity, generational differences, and the weight of the past.  Kenneth Moraleda’s direction brings out the play’s delicate balance of humour and emotional depth, ensuring that each moment feels intimate and impactful, and a sense of the love and care between Leo and Vera is quickly established. However, something about this play left this reviewer wanting more. [Nancye] Hayes is a dynamic performer...with fantastic comedic timing Although both Leo and Vera’s motivations remain uncertain, one thing is made clear: both protagonists are staunchly counter-cultural ‘lefties’. But this doesn’t mean they always see eye to eye. Leo is an impassioned young Obama-era ‘woke-ist’ who’s critical of the 'institution' – although his girlfriend Bec (Ariadne Sgouros, Belvoir’s The Curious Incident of the Dog

What was the time of death for the American dream? In her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat, Brooklyn-born playwright Lynn Nottage offers a compelling starting point: with the heedless disregard for the plight of the working class, which flatlined with the North American Free Trade Agreement. Set in Reading, Pennsylvania, as the country’s once-strong Steel Belt turned to rust, the play is a sociological exploration of class struggle in the United States. Directed by Zindzi Okenyo (Is God Is, Orange Thrower, Choir Boy) the play’s timely Australian premiere is here to close out Sydney Theatre Company's huge 2024 season. Sweat is oft-quoted as the “play that explained Trump’s win” in the 2016 presidential elections. However, this description does not do justice to the depth of Nottage’s work and extensive research. Sweat is not merely an explanation, as that connotes a retrospective reflection – rather, when it debuted in 2014, the play served as a prescient warning that highlighted the dissatisfaction of blue-collar workers, who were once regarded as the backbone of the American economy. There is an eerie sense of déjà vu that comes with watching this play in light of the result of the United States’ recent presidential election. Sweat’s themes and concerns are just as relevant today, and have arguably become worse for both the working and middle classes. The story unfolds in a bar, the watering hole of choice for the factory workers who toil away at the local steel mill. The n

Well-behaved women seldom make history, and a well-behaved production seldom breaks new ground. A celebratory (if not a touch tokenistic) musical tribute to real women who have left their own impact on the zeitgeist, Well-Behaved Women debuted on the New York stage in early 2020. It’s a contemporary song cycle that explores the stories of sixteen her-storical figures, and this new production directed by Blazey Best (Tell Me on a Sunday) tasks just four of Sydney’s most respected performers to portray all of them.   From the compact stage of Surry Hills’ Belvoir St Theatre, the show kicks off with an impressive bang. Zahra Newman’s (star of STC’s Dracula, Belvoir’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill) performance as Eve (from the bible) is a sultry rendition of the original sin, leaving you as mesmerised as Eve herself was by that serpent. Newman takes up space with an assertion of authority, commanding attention with her every movement. The stage quickly fades into blackness, and for a moment, it seems we might be intruding on the fateful moment when Eve takes the apple. As quickly as Newman’s performance begins, the show suddenly cuts to another song – this one centered on Queen Boudica, warrior queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, portrayed by Sarah Murr (& Juliet). Murr’s own gravitas continues to build on Newman’s momentum – tasked with portraying a lesser-known figure, her vocal clarity allows the audience to hear every lyric of Boudica’s story clearly. Murr’s vocal

Nine years on from its Broadway debut, audiences still can’t get enough of Hamilton. While theatre lovers anxiously await Sydney’s exclusive return season of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, we also have the chance to go back to where it all began. The hit hip-hop musical’s multi-Tony-Award-winning predecessor, In the Heights, has landed at the Sydney Opera House to heat things up this winter. 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 - Zombie! The Musical), 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 laws, and heat-induced blackouts – the news of a winning lottery ticket could change everything for the local community, catalysing dreams about what a future beyond the Heights might look like.  The only thing hotter than the Fourth of July is this show and its suave cast. Sydney’s winter chill is soon forgotten at the entrance of the Drama Theatr

To revive and reimagine a classic novel is no easy feat. It takes a particular skill to balance traditional concepts in a contemporary context – and when the novel in question is as enduringly popular as Little Women, the stakes are even higher.  Broadway’s 2005 adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 coming-of-age classic has arrived for a highly-anticipated season at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Company under the eye of director and choreographer Amy Campbell (A Chorus Line, Once). Little Women has been churned through countless adaptations (most recently, Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film). The question is – is this musical (with book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and music by Jason Howland) able to capture the charming essence of the original text? And has the local team been able to tap into that spirit of sisterhood love, while also embracing a modern perspective? In some ways, the answer is yes, but the balance is off. ...under Campbell’s direction, Little Women is a uniquely innovative musical that will surprise you until the very end Tanwee Shrestha’s set design is thoroughly minimalist, the stage is almost bare except for some strategic arrangements of stretch cords (2 kilometres in total!). While this modern design is an unconventional choice, it beautifully enables the finely crafted execution of every emotion, thought and action as the performers weave, crawl, and bounce through the cords. It’s a fantastic use of the space, inviting the audience into the March sisters

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 features an all-women and non-binary cast serving masculine drag.  Trophy Boys is a masterful play that I hope we will continue to see not only in theatres, but in future school curricula. Trophy Boys makes its Sydney debut after receiving rave reviews in Melbourne for three years running, and it's an overdue homecoming of sorts for playwright Emmanuelle Mattana, who was inspired by spending their adolescence working their way through Sydney’s competitive debating scene (which is a very real thing, we’re told). It is a world that director Marni Mount is also intimately familiar with. Over a tight 70-minute runtime, we witness the boys prepare to go toe-to-toe with

The premiere of Jane Harrison’s Stolen marks the second production of this poignant play from Sydney Theatre Company in less than twenty years. The performance, directed by Ian Michael, stays true to Harrison’s work while evolving the play for a new generation. However this generation, albeit more cognisant of the truth of Stolen Generations, may be unaware of the extent of the hurt and trauma, which Michael effectively centres on here.  The play focuses on the lives of five Indigenous children who have been forcibly removed and sent to live in a children’s home. Each child's life diverges as teenagers and young adults, as they begin to cope with the aftermath of being removed from their families and their culture in their own way.  This production takes a powerfully eerie approach, opening with a focus on Renée Mulder's simple but effective set design, featuring an oversized filing cabinet and a single  dingy, institutional iron bed. The abnormally large size of these props creates a nightmarish spectacle. This effect is amplified when each character enters against a backdrop of silence, which is abruptly broken as they plead to the audience for any information about their parents. This gut-wrenching opening scene is an incredibly impactful choice.However, it also sets a high bar for the remainder of the play to keep pace with, and the chilling opening is also heavily relied on for expressing the extent of the horror and cruelty these children experience. This production emp

What would you do if you were struggling to afford to pay your rent, gas, and electricity bills, only to discover that you’ve been priced out of paying for basic groceries too? When the quick-witted Antonia (the prolific actor Mandy McElhinney – who, yes, is also “Rhonda” from those insurance ads) and her fellow weary housewives discover that prices at the local supermarket have doubled overnight, their shopping run erupts into a revolt. The women begin to loot – or, as Antonia would describe it, “liberate” – food off the shelves. When the excitement is over, Antonia finds herself back home with a random assortment of fruits and vegetables, dog food (she doesn’t own a dog), canary pellets (she doesn’t own a canary) and rabbit heads. She enlists the help of her neighbour Margherita (Emma Harvie) to hide the stolen goods from her moralist husband Giovanni (Glenn Hazeldine), a staunch unionist who’s a stickler for rules and due process. The supermarket riot sets a ripple effect of absurdity in motion, ranging from a briny phantom pregnancy with added  “womb olives”, to an unconscious cop with a flatulence problem – and that’s just the highlights.  ...simultaneously leaves you wheezing from laughter and slightly deaf from the roars of others No Pay? No Way! is two hours and twenty minutes of comedic gold. Marieke Hardy’s laugh-out-loud political satire initially premiered with Sydney Theatre Company in February 2020, before it was plagued by lockdowns. But with the way that the