Three actors portraying Hermione, Harry and Ron on stage for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Photograph: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
Photograph: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Melbourne theatre, musical and dance reviews

Wondering which Melbourne shows to see? Check out the latest theatre, musical, opera and dance reviews from our critics

Adena Maier
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There's a lot happening across Melbourne's stages, so how do you know where to start? Thankfully our critics are always on hand to help with a recommendation. Be sure to also keep an eye on our round-up of the best of Melbourne theatre and musicals each month, and if funds are a bit tight lately, check out our explainer on how to nab cheap theatre tickets in Melbourne

Looking for something less dramatic? Check out the best art exhibitions in Melbourne this month.

5 stars: top notch, unmissable

  • Musicals
  • Melbourne
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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...

3 stars: recommended with reservations

  • Comedy
  • Southbank
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
It’s hard to make good political satire on the Left, though it is easy to make fun of us. There’s no lack of good material, or good satirists. But we’re a constantly moving target with an ever-evolving set of terms, concerns and ideas. And we’re also a bit of a sensitive bunch with a tendency toward self-importance. This is the knife Deborah Frances-White gleefully twists in her satirical dramedy Never Have I Ever. In the program notes for this Australian premiere at the Fairfax Studio you’ll read the show described as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf for the modern age”. But it’s more Edward Albee via the Netflix Original: an entertaining mix of bawdy wit and fine-tuned political takes with splashes of soap opera-style melodrama. Elevated by a high-energy cast and an evocative set, it promises plenty of light-hearted laughs in between clear-eyed insights into the paradoxes of being a modern progressive. The Fairfax Studio has been transformed into Masada, a Turkish restaurant somewhere in London run by Jacq (Katie Robertson), a white bisexual woman who grew up poor and might be one-sixteenth Turkish. These facts are important to the play and the world of identity politics it wades so confidently into. It’s a familiar realm for Frances-White, the Brisbane-born expat whose The Guilty Feminist podcast built a huge following with its brand of wry self-awareness and nuanced encounters with Leftist hypocrisy since it started in 2015. That was ten years ago, when the language of...

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