Theatre and musicals in Melbourne this week

From the story’s origins hundreds of years ago, to its transformation into the classic 1991 Disney film, Beauty and the Beast really is a tale as old as time. In its musical form, the production hasn’t been seen in Melbourne since the ’90s, when Hugh Jackman famously performed as Gaston in his first professional role. Fast forward three decades and we’re once again seeing a Melbourne stage transformed into the provincial town and Baroque castle we know so well. Only this time round, the lavish set design is augmented with cleverly integrated digital screens. It’s just one of several updates that ensure this reimagined production of the beloved fairytale keeps up with the times. From the moment the curtain rises, it’s clear this is a large-scale musical with all the belles, whistles and big bucks. Visual splendour is the MO here – think kaleidoscopic costumes, gasp-inducing illusions and spectacular lighting – and it’s easy to see why this show broke box office records at Brisbane’s QPAC.  However, all that Disney investment would be useless without the gifted cast. Shubshri Kandiah exudes whimsy-with-a-backbone as bookworm Belle, charming us with her sweet songs and sassy moments – though the folks in her provincial town just don’t get it.  Brendan Xavier’s beast is alternately ferocious and boyish. His startled squeals and hair-twirling moments help make Belle’s dramatic change in feelings a touch more believable. Both leads shine in their solo numbers, with Xavier’s ‘If...

Midsumma Festival, one of Melbourne’s most loved celebrations of LGBTQIA+ communities, is returning once more in 2025 with an electric three week-long party. The festival explores and platforms queer culture, amplifying marginalised voices through visual arts, theatre, film, cabaret and much more.  From January 19 to February 9, Melbourne will come alive with around 200 performances and events held across the city, all responding to this year’s theme of ‘collective identity(s). Highlights of the 2025 program include Thirty-Six at Fortyfivedownstairs, Truth to Power Café at Theatre Works and Feeling Afraid as if Something Terrible is Going to Happen at Arts Centre Melbourne. Browse the full program here.  It all kicks off when the free Midsumma Carnival opens the festival on Sunday, January 19. Alexandra Gardens will play host to all sorts of performances, lip sync extravaganzas, a dog show, food stalls, pop-up bars and more. As the sun goes down, DJs will take over the entertainment stages to turn the carnival into one massive dance party.  Then, the signature Midsumma Pride March is happening on Sunday, February 2, which will see tens of thousands of marchers and onlookers gather in St Kilda in support of LGBTIQA+ communities. The parade, which runs through Fitzroy Street and Catani Gardens, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Closing out the festival is Victoria’s Pride, a massive, glitterific street party that will transform Fitzroy’s Gertrude and Smith Street...

Tina Turner was the bread and butter of our household TV screen. She belted alongside Mick Jagger at Live Aid, leather-clad and big hair, raced her supercharged engine across Coober Pedy in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and assured the world that everything would be alright as David Bowie slipped out of the shadows during her Private Dancer Tour. She was one of music’s indomitable icons, a powerhouse; she was the Queen of Rock‘n’Roll. When Tina – The Tina Turner Musical finally rolled into Melbourne’s Princess Theatre after its West End debut and national run, it arrived with sky-high expectations. Having stacked up Tony and Olivier nominations as well as praise from Rolling Stone for its ability to simultaneously “entertain and enlighten”, I’m relieved to say that this Melbourne production did not disappoint. Leather, shoulder pads and sequins that would make Tina herself proud, danced across the red carpet on opening night with hundreds, including local Australian stars, paying homage. For someone like me, who never experienced Tina live beyond the glow of a television screen, the energy certainly made it feel like the real deal.  The musical, written by Katori Hall alongside Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins, and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, stays true to Tina’s journey – thanks, in part, to Tina herself. From her early days in Nutbush, Tennessee, with gospel choirs and dusty churches, to the St. Louis blues scene where she met Ike Turner, across the globe to the soggy streets...

Depending on who you ask, Evan Hansen, the neurotic heart of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s 2015 smash-hit musical Dear Evan Hansen, is either a manipulative megalomaniac or a stumbling spokesperson for mental health with the edgy appeal of an anti-hero. Following nine years as the go-to for theatre kids looking for an easy Halloween costume – chuck on a blue-striped polo and an arm cast – the divisive teen arrives at Melbourne’s Arts Centre in a beautiful production of an imperfect show. A stellar cast backed by creative technical design lands every tear-jerking ballad and pop-rock anthem with a skill sure to both thrill long-time fans and convert newcomers. But the elephant in the room is Evan (Beau Woodbridge), or rather it’s the show’s tonal problem that he represents. It’s a macabre story. Evan is that brand of socially anxious and self-deprecating anyone who grew up on Tumblr will immediately recognise. On the first day of his senior year he has an affirming letter he wrote to himself at the direction of his therapist stolen by resident high school loner with an incel vibe, Connor Murphy (Harry Targett). When Connor takes his own life soon after, the letter is found in his pocket, leading his family to believe that Evan was his friend. Cornered by the grief-stricken Murphys and craving connection, Evan leans into the lie. It's all very morally dubious, and the show works best when it leans into the darker, more cynical themes raised by Evan’s deceit. ‘Sincerely, Me’, a...

They say you should never speak 'Macbeth' while in a theatre, lest you invite tragedy. The cast of the Australian Shakespeare Company's latest foray into the Scottish Play need not worry about that particular superstition, however, as they will be performing William Shakespeare's Macbeth outside in the Royal Botanic Gardens this summer. From January 31 until February 28, Melburnians are invited into the gardens to see the Shakespearean tragedy unfold among the trees. Steeped in witchcraft, murder and the lust for power, Macbeth has become something of a timeless, cautionary tale for those who would blindly and ruthlessly chase ambition.   The Australian Shakespeare Company's production stars Hugh Sexton as Macbeth and Nicole Nabout as the real power behind the throne, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is being held at night on the Royal Botanic Gardens' Southern Cross Lawn, to take advantage of the balmy summer evenings.  In the words of Australian Shakespeare Company artistic director Glenn Elston, Macbeth’s “themes of power, politics, and corruption remain as prevalent today as they did 400 years ago”. The play runs for an hour and 50 minutes, including an intermission. You’re encouraged to make yourself comfortable by bringing blankets, cushions, beanbags or camping chairs. Limited chair hire is also available for $5, while A reserve tickets come with pre-allocated low-rise chairs. Find out more and get tickets over at the Australian Shakespeare Company website. After more...

Fall in love with life on a baking hot Greek island with the woman who has had enough of being unappreciated.  “Don’t say maybe, maybe,” sang Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the track ‘Voodoo Child’, back in her Rogue Traders-fronting days.  It may as well be the catchcry of frustrated housewife Shirley Valentine, who experiences a never-too-old awakening on an idyllic Greek island holiday in Willy Russell’s beloved one-woman play. It was adapted into a big-screen adventure for stage star Pauline Collins, who shared the limelight with Joanna Lumley and Tom Conti. Bassingthwaighte fronts this new staging at Melbourne’s grand old dame, the Athenaeum, as directed by theatrical wonderwoman Lee Lewis. She’s in good hands, with Lewis having run both Queensland Theatre and Sydney’s Griffin Theatre, where she helmed another smash hit solo show, Prima Facie. An empowering tale for the ages, Shirley Valentine introduces us to the Liverpudlian who was breaking the fourth wall way before Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. Literally. She’s so bored out of her mind looking after her lazy husband that she monologues at the kitchen wallpaper while fixing him chips and eggs for dinner. So when her best mate wins a trip for two to Greece, she thinks, ‘What the hell?’ and makes a break for the sun by her side.  But how easy is it to go home to a monotonous bloke’s crushing mundanity when you’ve fallen head over heels for the Mediterranean lifestyle, all fresh food and delicious wines by the sea...

You don’t need to care about Aussie Rules to get a lot out of 37, a play that’ll take you right back to 2015, the year wildly successful AFL player Adam Goodes celebrated a goal with a cultural dance linked to his Indigenous identity. His miming of throwing a spear into the crowd sparked a horrific public campaign of vilification that ultimately led the star to quit the game, in silence and with two premierships and two Brownlows under his belt.  The ‘Goodes saga’, as the whole sorry tale has since become known, served as (yet another) reckoning on racism in so-called Australia, with Goodes going on to thrive as an activist far beyond the field. Named for the number on Goodes’s iconic Sydney Swans guernsey, 37 is set not on the national stage of the AFL, but instead follows the Cutting Cove boys. The local team of this small coastal town has been stuck at the bottom of the ladder for too long and this season, they’re determined to scramble their way to the top. The Marngrook cousins, named after the Indigenous game that inspired AFL, could be just what the team needs to get ahead, but how will the chips fall when Goodes’s war cry draws back the veil on tensions within the team and the nation at large? With direction from Isaac Drandic (The Birthday Party, ABC’s Cleverman) and writing from two-time Tasmanian Aboriginal Artist of the Year Nathan Maynard, 37 returns to Melbourne Theatre Company’s Southbank Theatre from January 24. The play runs for 90 minutes with no interval...