The biggest musicals to see in Australia this year

It’s a tale as old as time, but the Australian premiere of Disney Theatrical’s Broadway blockbuster Beauty and the Beast is getting a modern makeover. The enchanting tale – which Time Out Sydney crowned five stars – will be brought to life in a reimagined production from the producers of The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Aladdin and Frozen. Audiences can expect to be bedazzled by the cutting-edge technology, costumes and Broadway-style dance numbers paired with live orchestral scores by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. 

Touring dates: Melbourne from June 2024, Adelaide from May 2025, and Perth from July 2025

What if the Spice Girls did a concept album about King Henry VIII’s wives and Baz Luhrmann directed the concert video? That, in a nutshell, is Six’s vibe: an up-tempo, empowering, all-singing, all-dancing account of the lives of the six key ladies in the Tudor monarch’s orbit. Much like Hamilton before it, the pop musical is making history buffs out of legions of musical theatre tragics, and making musical theatre tragics out of pop and hip hop lovers.  The conceptual space is a rock concert with the wives reimagined as a girl group bickering over who will get to be lead singer. It’s decided that whoever suffered the most at the hands of their mutual ex should take the crown, as it were, and so the six compete with their tales of woe, told as irresistibly catchy dance floor bangers. 

Touring dates: Melbourne from August 2024, Sydney from October 2024, Brisbane from January 2025, and Newcastle from April 2025

A sparkling concoction of puppetry, music, charm and stagecraft, this Peter Pan spin-off tells the magical story of Neverland before it became what we know it as now,. Debuting in Australia for the first time in 2024, this smash-hit, five-time Tony Award-winning production is sprinkled with shimmering, inventive puppetry that brings a delightful layer of magic to the stage. 

Touring dates: Canberra from October 2024, Melbourne from November 2024, Sydney from January 2025 and Brisbane from March 2025

Whoopi Goldberg had us laughing in the (church) aisles with her epic performance in the 1992 movie Sister Act, and now it's time to do it all again – with more pizzazz! Praise be, the hilarious and heavenly stage musical inspired by the cult flick is finally heading Down Under. After receiving all the praise and five Tony award nominations on Broadway, Sister Act will be hitting up London’s West End (again) in May this year before touring Sydney and Melbourne.

Touring dates: Melbourne from November 2024, Brisbane from February 2025, Adelaide from March 2025, and Perth from April 2025

Dear Evan Hansen is the raw, moving and inspiring story of a socially anxious high schooler who is suddenly thrust into the spotlight when he inadvertently invents an important role for himself at the centre of a local tragedy. If you were let down by the 2021 movie adaptation of this much-loved musical, just wait til you get a load of what STC is going to achieve with the input of the Michael Cassel Group (the company that brought Hamilton and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to our shores).

Touring dates: Sydney from October 2024, Melbourne from December 2024, Canberra from February 2025, and Adelaide from April 2025

Jesus Christ! The messiah will return to rock the Australian stage when Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s celebrated musical Jesus Christ Superstar arrives in Oz later this year, following huge acclaim and sold-out seasons in London, as well as an extensive tour of North America. The Olivier Award-winning reimagined production of this celebrated rock musical will open in Sydney in November, where the original Australian production began in 1972, ahead of stops in Perth and Melbourne. International recording artist Javon King will star as Jesus, alongside triple threat Michael Paynter in the role of Judas and vocal powerhouse Mahalia Barnes as Mary. 

Touring dates: Sydney from November 2024, Perth from February 2025, Melbourne from March 2025, Brisbane from June 2025

Many fantasy series have come and gone, but it seems that there is no escaping the pull of the one to rule them all. Middle-earth is about to collide with the Harbour City, with the news that The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale is set to make its Australian debut in Sydney. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved epic trilogy, the stage production will premiere with a strictly limited season, just in time for the 70th anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring (the first book in the trilogy) hitting the shelves.

Touring dates: Sydney from January 2025, Perth from March 2025, Melbourne from April 2025, and Brisbane from July 2025

Is it getting hot in here? Seen by three million, streamed by over 350 million and adored by fans all around the world – the acclaimed West End and Broadway musical phenomenon Hadestown will make its Australian premiere in 2025. For the uninitiated, the gist is this: written by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, Hadestown is a genre-defying musical adaption of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in a dystopian steampunk-esque underworld, set to an evocative score that blends New Orleans-style jazz and blues with modern American folk music – with a live brass band on stage, to boot. The show won eight Tony Awards when it opened in 2019, including Best Musical, and is still playing to packed houses five years later. Hadestown already has a dedicated fandom around the world and here in Australia, and it has an edge that will also appeal to everyone who isn’t already a die-hard musical theatre fan. 

Touring dates: Sydney from February 2025 and Melbourne from May 2025

Tomorrow couldn’t come faster – or more like 2025 – when Annie is set to make its grand return to Australia. Based on the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, first published in 1924, this family-friendly musical has gone on to become one of the most awarded and loved productions of all time. Bet your bottom dollar that there'll be sun when the musical brightens up the stage of Sydney’s Capitol Theatre in March 2025, marking its first return to Australia since 2012.

Touring dates: Sydney from March 2025 and Melbourne from July 2025

Attention lovers of the strange and unusual – this one's for you! This musical adaptation of a kooky cult classic is finally making its way Down Under, with the Broadway production of Beetlejuice the Musical set to premiere in Australia in 2025. The unnerving, green-haired and striped-suit-wearing ghost that featured in the nightmares of '90s kids has been transported from screen to stage in the critically acclaimed musical version with a serious cult following, which will hit Melbourne's Regent Theatre in May 2025. Fun fact: the musical’s original score is composed by Australia's own homegrown star, Eddie Perfect. 

Touring dates: Melbourne from May 2025

Rawr! Four decades since its Aussie debut, the British “mega-musical” Cats is headed back home for its 40th anniversary. This iconic, feline-focused musical is based on T.S. Eliot's poem collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and first premiered in London in 1981, where it ran for a record-breaking 21 years with almost 9,000 performances. Featuring timeless tunes (including hit song ‘Memory’), spectacular sets and captivating costumes, this musical is sure to be a claw-some night out for the young and old. 

Touring dates: Sydney from June, Adelaide from September and Melbourne from December 2025

First hitting the Broadway stage in 2008 (before it inspired the 2021 feature film), this rags-to-riches story is dancing its
way from Sydney to Melbourne and the Gold Coast in 2025. A fiery fusion of poetry and passion, In the Heights is an idyllic love letter to the riches of community, cariños and carnival. Our reviewers in Sydney gave the production a four-star rating, so you'll have to go see what the buzz is about for yourself.

If you know exactly how many minutes are in a year (it's 525,600, in case you were wondering), then you'll be very excited to read these words: Rent has arrived in Australia. A new production of the legendary '90s rock musical premiered earlier this year as part of a national tour, the first since 1998. The multi-Tony Award-winning show, written by Jonathan Larson, follows a close-knit community of artists living in New York City's East Village as they navigate the joyous highs and crushing lows in an unrelenting city. Featuring catchy hits like 'Seasons of Love', 'Take Me or Leave Me' and 'La Vie Bohème', Rent is a rollercoaster of a musical that will have you gripping your sides with laughter and dancing in your seat, before wiping away tears during truly poignant theatrical moments. 

Touring dates: Sydney from September 2025

It’s time to slip on your self-lacing sneakers and grab your hoverboard – because the Sydney Lyric Theatre is set to host the Australian premiere of Back to the Future: The Musical in September 2025. Based on the blockbuster movie from 1985, the story follows the adventures of high school student Marty McFly and the eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown as they time travel to different periods in history and Marty faces the critical paradoxical question of “Wait, am I my own grandfather!?” While the critical reception for Back to the Future's theatrical spin has been mixed, you can’t argue with its popularity – it's been seen by nearly 3 million people worldwide to date. It also broke box office records for London’s Adelphi Theatre when it opened, and the West End production is now in its fourth year – with an extended season now running through to mid-2025.

Touring dates: Sydney from September 2025 

Since its debut on Broadway in 2018, Pretty Woman: The Musical has broken box office records and captivated audiences in London’s West End. Now, Pretty Woman: The Musical is heading our way, with its Australian premiere set to open in Brisbane in 2025. Based on one of Hollywood’s most beloved rom-coms, the 1990 blockbuster Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, this musical adaptation tells the iconic tale of a chance meeting between Edward (a ruthless businessman) and Vivian (a free-spirited escort) in a whole new way. It's going to be big. And we mean BIG! HUGE! 

Touring dates: Brisbane from October 2025

We’re already having a huge year for musicals in Australia – but now, the world’s #1 musical is heading back Down Under, with Disney Theatrical Group announcing that an all-new Australian staging of Disney’s The Lion King will premiere in Sydney from April 2026. Approaching 30 landmark years on Broadway, The Lion King has been seen by over 112 million people worldwide, and continues to ascend as one of the most popular stage musicals in the world. It has been more than a decade since The Lion King’s last Australian tour – and this epic show has captivated nearly 4 million audience members during its two previous tours Down Under.

Touring dates: Sydney from April 2026