The best things to do in Sydney this weekend

The genre-defying, multi-award-winning, smash-hit Broadway sensation, Hadestown has finally made its way down to Sydneytown – and it’s unlike any musical you’ve ever seen or heard. With industrial steampunk aesthetics, a soulful jazz-folk fusion, and even a comment on our dying world, this is a brave new world for musical theatre. The Down Under debut of Hadestown opened at the Theatre Royal Sydney to a ready-made fanbase. There’s a lot of hype surrounding this show – the Broadway production picked up eight Tony Awards (including Best Musical for 2019) and still plays to packed houses today, and there’s also the highly successful West End production and the North American tour.  An incisive adaptation of the age-old myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Hadestown is the brainchild of indie-folk musician Anaïs Mitchell (with very clear influences from Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver, who appeared on the 2010 studio album). It started its life as a song cycle, and then a studio album, and now it’s a fully-formed stage musical with a dedicated international following. Hadestown is a spectacular challenge to what we think a musical is and can be Like many fans, I discovered Hadestown via the studio album and the Broadway recording. With such a strong, atmospheric tone, the music doesn’t even need visuals to shine – featuring everything from chugging vocal sounds, deep growling singing, floating falsettos, muted trombones, a train whistle, and heavy acoustic guitars. Hadestown is the...

Keep Friday, April 4 and Saturday 5 free in your diary, as Stickybeak Festival – a two-day food, booze and music shindig spearheaded by the legends behind Archie Rose and P&V Wine – is once again returning for its fourth year of delicious fun. This year, the fest will be coming to life at The Goods Line in Ultimo, a five-minute walk from Central, from 5-10pm each night. Bring your pocket money and comfy pants, ’cos the line-up is bloody beaut, with food stalls by Firepop, Bessie’s, Flora, Kiln, Lankan Filling Station, Attenzione Food & Wine, TBC by Grape Garden, Takam, Gelato Messina and more. Drinks-wise, expect fun, fruity and refreshing tipples from Archie Rose, as well as PS40, Baptist Street Rec Club, The Waratah, Double Deuce Lounge, Little Cooler, Maybe Sammy and more, plus vino from P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants and cold beers from Grifter Brewing Co. Time Out Sydney’s lifestyle writer Winnie Stubbs popped her Stickybeak Festival cherry last year – and loved it, saying: “If your dream Sydney dinner features a Martini from an Inner City cocktail bar, starters from a wine den in Newtown, mains from a Redfern pasta palace and dessert from a Darlinghurst bakehouse, Stickybeak is a dream come true. It would be a logistical impossibility to hop between 20 venues in one night, but this glorious fest brings them together all in one place,” she added. Ain’t that the truth. Throughout the event, there’ll be DJs and live performances curated by FBi Radio for you to bop along...

These days, it seems the best thing that a musical can be is non-traditional. Countless new productions have landed on our stages in recent years, proclaiming that their show is “like nothing we’ve ever seen before”. And while it is exciting to see new works that push the form into genre-defying territory (the brilliant Hadestown is testament to this) as well as productions that put a new twist on well-trodden territory (like The Hayes’ reinvention of The Pirates of Penzance), it’s a refreshing change to see the complete opposite: a proper classic musical theatre spectacle, that remains authentic to the source material. Opera Australia’s fresh production of Guys & Dolls – the latest outdoor spectacle in the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour series – gives us just that, with the picturesque backdrop of the Sydney skyline, to boot.  Recommended: get ready with our guide to going to Guys & Dolls on Sydney Harbour The New York imagined by Damon Runyon, whose short stories served as inspiration for Guys & Dolls, is a place of heightened realism, populated by comical gangsters with absurd names like Harry the Horse and a thirst for illegal gambling. Director Shaun Rennie (Jesus Christ Superstar) stays true to this world, while also injecting some fresh touches. Brian Thomson’s heightened stage design perfectly compliments this – oversized set pieces, such as a giant yellow taxi, make the most of the unique outdoor setting and the enormous floating stage.  The production’s stars...

Summer might be over, but Sydney’s event schedule isn’t slowing down – with Great Southern Nights bringing more than 300 gigs to venues across the city and beyond. Keen to get amongst it? The annual autumn gig series is reaching its peak in one of our very favourite corners of the city; with the Hollywood Quarter (the Surry Hills intersection where some of Sydney’s coolest streets collide) playing host to a crazy-good gig trail on Saturday, April 5 (and deep into the morning of Sunday, April 6).After launching during Great Southern Nights 2024 edition, the Hollywood Quarter Gig Trail is back in a big way for 2025 – with live gigs from established and emerging Aussie artists at venues around the precinct. Running from 12pm on Saturday, April 5 until 4am on Sunday morning, the urban trail will take music lovers from intimate bars to high-end restaurants, with a super-strong line-up of artists (headliners include Babitha, Jono Ma and The Pro-Teens) playing free-to-attend gigs.  Participating venues in this year’s event include Ace Hotel Sydney, the Soda Factory, Alberto’s Lounge, the Burdekin, Golden Age, Hollywood Hotel, Harry’s, Butter, Surry Hills Hotel and Paramount House Hotel. We can also expect pavement gigs and pop-up stages, with Music Curator Trevor Brown encouraging Sydneysiders to “get ready to explore the back alleys, nooks and crannies of the Hollywood Precinct.” Keen? You can learn more about the participating venues and check out the line-up over here. Stay in...

Sydney is abuzz with Lion King-mania. In addition to the announcement of the hit-musical returning to the Capitol Theatre, the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra is giving Sydneysiders the opportunity to experience the film like never before.  While Simba prances through all of the catchiest tunes on the big screen at The Concourse in Chatswood, the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra will congregate down below. The live music will have you feeling like you're among the pridelands – get ready for goosebumps.  From Pumbaa and Timon’s infectiously uplifting ‘Hakuna Matata’ to the rousing ‘Circle of Life’, the movie’s soundtrack was put together by a collection of Oscar- and Grammy-winning musicians like Elton John and composer Hans Zimmer. With all that talent, it’s one of the best scores you could catch live.  There are two daytime performances you can catch – Saturday, April 5 and Sunday, April 6. You can snag tickets, starting from $45 to $275 for a family ticket, here.

Calling all Inner City art fans. For three inspiring weeks this autumn, Neon Playground – Sydney’s largest Asian-Australian cultural arts festival – will transform Haymarket into a luminous wonderland of neon light installations, comedy shows, art exhibitions, incredible live performances and excellent food.  After a hugely popular first year, Neon Playground is back for round two, kicking off this Saturday (Saturday, March 15) with the epic Chinatown Block Party (taking over Dixon Street in the centre of Haymarket). The opening-night event will be headlined by Korean-Australian rap group 1300, with a super-strong line-up (featuring Hong Kong-Australian rapper Tommy Gunn, Taiwanese-Australian pop artist tiffi, CRIMSON dance crew and more) soundtracking the streets from 5pm until 10pm.  Throughout the duration of the festival, a carefully curated program of Asian-Australian artists will perform at a range of free-to-attend and ticketed shows, and the streets will be buzzing with vibrant art exhibitions and light installations. Showcasing a rotating roster of established and emerging Asian-Australian artists including Chris Yee, Kentaro Yoshida, Pei Kwang, Andrew Yee, and Samuel Kim, a magnificent sculpture formed of 14 luminous towers will act as Neon Playground's visual centerpiece. The 4-5 metre towers of light will feature 80 lightbox illustrations; use 1km of neon; and integrate more than 100,000 individual LEDs. Produced in collaboration with world-renowned creative...

Henry V (stylized as Henry 5 in this production) is inarguably one of William Shakespeare’s most martial works. First performed somewhere between 1599 and 1605, there’s debate over whether the play is a deliberate act of nationalistic propaganda – certainly, its initial staging came at a time of English military adventurism, particularly in Ireland and against the Spanish. And Shakespeare, who benefited from royal approval from both Elizabeth I and James I, knew which side of the bread his butter was on. It’s always been popular in times of war – Sir Laurence Olivier’s 1944 film adaptation came mere months after the Allied invasion of Normandy, and leans into the stirring patriotism, the blood and the thunder. The text itself is deliciously ambiguous – occasionally frustratingly so in a time when, culturally, audiences demand straight lines and clear demarcations of morality. Kicking off Bell Shakespeare’s 2025 season, this latest production bucks that trend. Former Associate Artistic Director Marion Potts returns to the company after a 15-year absence to direct this carefully concentrated version. It excises many characters and subplots (farewell, Pistol and the lads from the Boar’s Head) and, of course, keeps the sinew-stiffening and blood-summoning speeches, but leans into the cost of war, taking pains to underscore the horrors. It's 1415 or thereabouts, and newly crowned King Henry (newcomer JK Kazzi), having been convinced in a very funny scene of his claim to certain...

In the mood for a street party? We’ve got good news. City of Sydney’s street party series – aptly named Sydney Streets – is back for 2025, with festival-style street parties popping up across the city for six Saturdays this summer and autumn. Designed to celebrate the local community, Sydney Streets is taking over high streets across the city over the next few months, with the first one transforming Potts Point’s Macleay Street on Saturday, February 15. Kicking off at 11am and running into the night, the events will see the host streets closed to traffic – making space for outdoor dining, roving entertainment and live performance. Following a smoking ceremony and Welcome to Country facilitated by traditional custodians of the land, activities at the various events will range from origami workshops to dog agility, with each event specific to its suburb. Local businesses will be hosting pop-up stalls, with the neighbouring restaurants and shops included in the action. Although the specific businesses and events will vary, Sydneysiders can expect family-friendly fun and music into the night across the board. After the Macleay Street event on Saturday, February 15, Sydney Streets will take over Darlinghurst’s bustling Stanley Street on Saturday, February 22, Harris Street in Pyrmont on March 8, Glebe Point Road on Saturday, March 15, Redfern Street on Saturday, March 29 and Crown Street in Surry Hills on Saturday, April 5. Keen? You can learn more over here.  Stay in the loop:...

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...

Let’s just start by saying I’m not a D&D player. I’ve played a couple of times with my family, led by my teenage son as Dungeon Master, but that was just to show interest in something he loves. So I do understand the basics – that said, you don’t need any prior knowledge of D&D to get swept up in the magic that is Dungeons and Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern. If anything, this show is probably the best way I’ve found so far to get a better grasp on the complex game that is D&D. This is an interactive show that began in New York as an Off-Broadway production – the same director, Michael Fell, also rehearsed with the Australian cast. In what ways is it interactive? The story lies in the audience’s hands, as well as with the roll of the 20-sided dice.  As you enter The Studio at the Sydney Opera House, you pick a coloured sticker from a basket. Depending on what colour you choose, you get aligned with one of the three classes: Warrior, Mage (Wizard) or Assassin/Entertainer. Throughout the show, you make decisions for the character in your assigned class, mostly by choosing options via your mobile phone (after scanning a QR code) – and sometimes just by yelling out. (Top tip:Make sure you turn up with a fully-charged phone.) You answer polls and take part in little games to choose what character the actors play, then make decisions or see the outcomes of characters’ actions. Dice rolls are directed by the Dungeon Master, played by the charismatic Cody Simpson-lookalike William...