The best shows to see on Sydney stages this week

If you’re of a certain age, you have history (HIStory, perhaps?) with Michael Jackson. I remember getting ‘Thriller’ on cassette as a kid. ‘Dangerous’ was one of the first CDs I ever owned. I remember seeing the extended music video for ‘Thriller’ on VHS, which came packaged with a behind-the-scenes documentary. One woman, cornered for a quick vox pop at one of the filming locations, asserted that she loved Jackson because he was “down to earth”, which is darkly hilarious in hindsight.  Down to earth? The press called him “wacko Jacko” – we all did. He slept in a hyperbaric chamber. He owned the Elephant Man’s skeleton. His skin kept getting paler, his nose thinner. What a weird guy! Was any of it true? Hard to say. Even today, when a careless tweet is like a drop of blood in a shark tank to fans and journos alike, the media furor around Michael Jackson stands as one of the most frenetic in living memory, eclipsing the likes of Beatlemania. Jackson wasn’t bigger than God, he was God to a lot of people – the King of Pop, the first Black artist to smash through the MTV colour barrier, an artist, an icon, a living legend. Then came the allegations of child sexual abuse, which first began in August 1993, and continue to this day. For those who were still on the fence, the documentary Leaving Neverland, released in 2019, saw many more fans abandon Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50. And so, it makes sense that MJ the Musical would set Jackson’s relationship with the...

Call it “One Flew Over the Old Bird’s Nest”, if you like. Following its hugely successful debut with Melbourne Theatre Company in 2023, veteran comedian and Working Dog mainstay Tom Gleisner’s (The Castle, ABC television's Utopia) catchy new musical comedy set in a nursing home (and seasoned with a dash of tears, as expected) is now Sydney Theatre Company’s latest and very welcome offering. Directed by Dean Bryant (Dear Evan Hansen) with music by Katie Weston, Bloom is an across-the-board crowd-pleaser, the kind of popular four-quadrant gem that’s almost impossible to dislike. It even has a few pointed comments to make about the fraught state of aged care in Australia, but these never overwhelm the palpable sense of fun. What more could you want? We get two fish out of water (or Randle McMurphys, if you will) for the price of one here, both arriving at the understaffed, underfunded (and, as it eventuates, underestimated) Pine Grove Aged Care facility on the same day. One is new resident (or possibly inmate?) Rose (played by Evelyn Krape, reprising her role from the Melbourne run) – a feisty-to-the-point-of-prickly old dame, age has not wearied Rose, but it did lead to an accidental fire that made her an unwilling candidate for permanent care. The other is stoner/slacker/music student Finn (Sloan Sudiro), who was drawn here by the promise of a free room and board in exchange for some light duties. The duties turn out to be anything but light, as the frazzled staff –...

To the common eye, the scene laid out in the Old Fitz Theatre (designed by Soham Apte) may appear lavish: a long oak table prepared for a feast; walls of wooden panelling and patterned green wallpaper; gilded portraits of dead aristocrats; an icy chandelier glittering above it all. But to the Oxford boys of the Riot Club, this private dining room of a regional gastro pub is a humiliating exile. Not only that – staffed by a father and daughter who aren’t educated in the natural, money-greased rules of subordination to their ‘betters’ – it’s an existential threat. The ten members of this exclusive club were banished here, on the outskirts of London, to host their next dinner (a quarterly custom) after one of them breached the strict pact of absolute secrecy. Once open and proud, their bizarre rituals of excess must now keep to the shadows. Gone are the days of legendary mayhem and glorious carnage without consequence; when their promised inheritance of seats of national power was iron-clad. (Or are they?)  As entertaining as it is savage... A dark comedy turned social horror over two acts penned by UK playwright Laura Wade in 2014, Posh is a study into how the “good old boys” have survived society’s staggered lunges towards equality over the last century. Inspired by real-life events, we see two generations conspiring to uphold the obscene traditions of class entitlement, patriarchal privilege, and their cashed-up “right” to do whatever they want. Director Margaret Thanos...

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...

Ah, the Titanic. An unsinkable cultural icon, the “Ship of Dreams” has appeared in almost as many movies and stage productions as the songs of Canada’s queen of the power ballad, Céline Dion. It’s even got a two-and-a-half-hour (surprisingly serious) movie musical adaptation based on Maury Yeston’s Titanic: the Musical. Although, none can hold a candle to the cultural impact of James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster – you know, the one with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. So, with nostalgia being such hot property right now, it was only a matter of time before we got the camp-as-hell musical fantasia made-for-and-by-the-gays that is Titanique. Created by Marla Mindelle (who originated the role of Céline Dion – well, as imagined in this show), Constantine Rousouli (who originated the role of Jack) and director Tye Blue (whose countless industry credits include working on the casting team of RuPaul’s Drag Race), Titanique is revisionist history at its best. Loaded with Céline Dion’s greatest bangers, it casts Queen Dion herself (played so wonderfully by cabaret legend Marney McQueen here in Aus) as the narrator of the tragic tale, who continuously places herself at the center of the action – quite literally – much to Jack and Rose’s repeated dismay. It brings the campness of the film to the front, with Stephen Anderson (Mary Poppins) playing Rose’s awful mother Ruth (complete with a bird’s nest headpiece), and Abu Kebe (Choirboy) playing a brilliant, tear-jerking drag parody...

Following the runaway success of theatrical epics Counting and Cracking and The Jungle and the Sea, Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre presents the world premiere of S. Shakthidharan’s brand new play, The Wrong Gods (May 3 – June 1).  Taking an interesting detour from the huge scale of the critically-acclaimed playwright’s previous hits, this gripping tale of local justice and global power unfolds over a short, sharp 90 minutes with an all-star cast of four.  In a valley in India, paintings on a cave wall bear testimony to the presence of people – and their gods – for fifty-thousand years. Close by, Nirmala farms the soil as her ancestors did, but her daughter Isha wants something more – a city education, and the opportunity it promises. And there are outsiders in the valley now, bringing new crops, new technologies, new visions of the future. There are new gods loose in the valley. But they are asking Nirmala and her people to pay a heavy price. Co-directed by S. Shakthidharan and Belvoir’s Resident Director Hannah Goodwin (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Never Closer), The Wrong Gods features Manali Datar (Fangirls), Nadie Kammallaweera (Counting and Cracking), Radhika Mudaliyar (Counting and Cracking), and Vaishnavi Suryaprakash (Counting and Cracking, Nayika: A Dancing Girl), with set and costume design by Keerthi Subramanyam (Never Closer) and original music by Hindustani musician Sabyasachi (Rahul) Bhattacharya. Filled with hope, betrayal, tradition and...

Would-be detectives, riddle me this: do you think you can guess which novel penned by British crime writer extraordinaire Agatha Christie is her best seller?  If you’re thinking of a tale featuring Miss Marple or Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, then you might need to revisit your list of clues. In fact, of all 66 novels attributed to Christie, her most popular mystery is actually And Then There Were None. (And trust us, do not look up the original title.) It’s one of only a handful of Christie’s novels that features no recurring characters – and that’s probably because there aren’t many left standing after a group of ten perfect strangers are summoned to a mysterious, storm-lashed island and promptly accused of murder most horrid. As gripping a whodunnit as it’s possible to be, the tightly-plotted head-scratcher has long captivated readers the world over. Unsurprisingly, it’s been adapted oodles of times, including multiple films, radio and TV shows, including being spoofed on Family Guy.  Well, hold on to your alibis, because the producers of the recent huge national tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap are bringing a brand-new production of And Then There Were None to Sydney’s Theatre Royal, following its premiere season in Melbourne. Stage and screen luminary Robyn Nevin is back in the director’s chair, with a stacked cast featuring Mia Morrissey (Deadloch), Nicholas Hammond (The Sound of Music), Tom Stokes (Death of a Salesman), Jack Bannister (The Mousetrap), Eden...