The best theatre to see in Sydney this week

Love, for all its risks, is rarely framed as something unsettling or dangerous. Desire, hope and care are often gathered together in pursuit of joy. Though sometimes what emerges is darker: love can shift your sense of self, clouded by danger, deceit and dread. The River, directed by Margaret Thanos, explores the space between desire and deceit in an evocative introspection on love. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth, the production forces the audience to confront not only what love reveals, but what it conceals. What is the premise of The River? The Man (Ewen Leslie) and The Woman (Miranda Otto) spend a weekend together at his remote cabin by a river. He is eager to share a particular fishing expedition with her – one that can only happen at night, with no moon. As the play unfolds, what begins as ripples of a tender, romantic escape becomes more uncertain – an estuary sifting through contradiction, manipulation and honesty. The production never fully decides what it wants to be – a romance, a tragedy, or something in between. While these questions linger, Thanos’s creative vision allows the ambiguities to become an asset, giving the audience space to remain in the uneasy territory between desire and distrust, where each confession feels both revelatory and suspect. Rather than resolving its tensions, the production lets them pool and deepen, leaving the audience suspended – albeit a little too long – in its murky emotional currents. Who are the cast...

It seems that across time, the pursuit of creative expression has often been, in itself, an act of rebellion and self-sacrifice. Writers and artists rarely live lives of stability or wealth, and yet, in humanity’s most uncertain and desperate moments, it is to poetry, theatre and art that we turn to make sense of the world. The relentless act of writing, of shaping and sharing one’s perspective on life, still carries a quiet defiance, even in a technological age where everyone has a keyboard and an opinion. It is perhaps for this reason that My Brilliant Career continues to resonate today. Since its publication in 1901, the novel has been adapted across multiple forms, including film and stage, with a television adaptation currently in development by Netflix. Now, it’s on at Sydney Theatre Company’s Roslyn Packer Theatre. What is the premise of My Brilliant Career? This award-winning iteration of My Brilliant Career, which debuted at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2024, is a musical theatre adaptation with a book by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant, music by Mathew Frank, and lyrics by Bryant. It follows Sybylla Melvyn (Kala Gare, SIX the musical), a fiercely independent young woman growing up in rural Australia in the 1800s. Chafing against the limitations placed on her as a woman – particularly the expectation that she should marry for security – Sybylla dreams instead of becoming a writer and forging a life of her own making. As she navigates family hardship, social...

Anastasia (1997) was among the first musical films I knew in its entirety. While many children frolicked to Timon and Pumbaa’s playful anthem in The Lion King, I was instead reenacting “Once Upon a December” in my living room, captivated by a heroine whose quiet determination carried her through danger and uncertainty. At the time, I could not have anticipated how deeply this film would shape my relationship with musical theatre. “Journey to the Past” soon became a staple audition piece, and Anya’s unwavering belief in her own worth quietly informed my own developing sense of confidence.  What I did not yet understand, however, was the historical context behind the story: the execution of the Russian imperial family in 1918 and the long-standing myth that Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov survived. The 1997 animated film leans fully into fantasy, using magic and spectacle to distance itself from historical reality. The stage musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2017 with a book by Terrence McNally and music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, takes a different approach, removing the supernatural elements in favour of a more realistic political setting. This creative decision has lingered uneasily over the production since its premiere, inviting criticism for its revisionist narrative – a species of theatrical “fake news,” further undermined by the musical’s questionable commitment to American accents. In performance, now at Sydney Lyric Theatre, this shift...

After a cancellation the previous evening due to the raging storm and winds, the opening night of The Phantom of the Opera was looking dire. But magically at the stroke of 6pm, when the team of Opera Australia’s Handa Opera rolled out the red carpet, the rain dissipated and a warm setting sun floated over Sydney Harbour. The Phantom still has magic left up his sleeve after all. Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour represents that age-old maxim, “The show must go on”. And go on The Phantom of the Opera shall! Rain, wind, or sun, the show is at the mercy of nature, but overcoming the natural challenges from Mother Nature makes it all the more thrilling to witness. Every outdoor spectacle presented by Handa Opera is consistently infused with decadence, and this restaging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic is no different. This is a highbrow spectacle at its most luxurious. What type of show is The Phantom of the Opera? The musical version of the mysteriously masked Phantom living beneath the Paris Opera House has captivated audiences around the world for 40 years. His obsession with the young Christine Daaé and subsequent devious nurturing of her talents has played to more than 160 million people in 58 territories and 205 cities in 21 languages.  As a character, Christine is at the mercy of the men she’s surrounded by. Be it the Phantom’s obsessive love, her saviour in the shape of Raoul, Vicomte De Chagny, or the whims of the new owners of the Paris Opera House, Monsieur...

If you’re looking for a night out where serotonin is dialled up to the max – it’s a seat at The Grand Electric. La Ronde is a cheeky, jaw-dropping performance hitting the intimate stage in Surry Hills this autumn. It has wowed audiences in Adelaide, Newcastle, Darwin, Auckland and Sydney, and now it’s now back in town for a second season.  The high-adrenaline affair made waves as one of the must-see shows of the Adelaide Fringe – clocking up an immense amount of five-star reviews in the process. While some of the other shows by the same creators, like Blanc de Blanc, are a little more risqué, La Ronde is a fun night out for anyone over 15.  Live music sets the stage for some gravity-defying stunts and glitzy disco fever. There’s so much variety in the show that it’s got something for everyone from avid theatre-goers to couples on date night. With a super interactive ringside experience, it also serves as the ultimate group night out where bubbles and gasps flow generously.  Catch La Ronde at The Grand Electric in Surry Hills until May 10. Tickets start from $86 and you can get yours here. 

The glitz and glamour of the cinema's golden age was gilded with the grunt work of working actresses. Their complex lives were replaced with one-dimensional characters and sound bites (some things don’t change). Anton Burge’s Bette & Joan pulls away the façade of the silver screen to delve deeper into one of the biggest Hollywood rivalries of the twentieth century – between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. In its Australian premiere, directed by Liesel Badorrek, this show balances the vulnerability and venom. What is the premise of Bette & Joan? Loosely based on their real lives, the play is set in the early sixties, with almost-out-of-work actresses, Bette Davis (Jeanette Cronin) and Joan Crawford (Lucia Mastrantone) in the middle of the production of What Happened to Baby Jane?. Both actresses are long past the Hollywood heyday of the thirties and have been provided an opportunity not only to relive the successes of their past but to also critique and challenge the role of older women in the film industry. But the success of this film is probably the only idea Joan and Bette will admit they are in agreement on. The pair’s bitter rivalry stems from their early days of work, and follows the pair through their films, marriages, parenthood and into production. What appears at first to be verbal sparring from two people who seem to be completely different is revealed to be a more thought-provoking exploration of the values and people who shaped them. The production excels in...

Theatre fans, take note. Sydney Theatre Company – Sydney’s largest and most prominent theatre producer – has just dropped the details for its 2026 season. The beautifully varied 2026 season will comprise 13 productions, with more than 80 beloved and emerging performers set to take to the stage throughout the year. Following Kip Williams' departure from the company, the 2026 season will be the first curated by new Artistic Director Mitchell Butel, who joined STC in late 2025. Reflecting on what theatre-goers can expect in 2026, Butel described the 2026 program as a "season of dream teams: celebrating the diversity of Australian storytelling. Highlights from STC’s 2026 season will include three world premieres of brand-new Australian works, the Australian Premiere of the most awarded Broadway play of 2025, the Sydney premiere of a new Australian musical and a handful of other Australian and international plays. If you’re keen to see something new, get in line for the season’s key world premieres: Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical (from award-winning writer and director Jack Yabsley), Bennelong in London (by Jane Harrison, the brilliant playwright behind The Visitors and Stolen) and Strong is the New Pretty by Olivier Award-winning playwright Suzie Miller. Bennelong in London will be showing from July 24 until August 16 2026, Strong is the New Pretty will be playing from October 26 until December 5 2026, and Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical will be showing...