Melbourne Comedy Festival 2017: Wax helps you relax
It's the most relaxing show you'll see at the festival and the cheapest therapy session in town.
Stage
Melbourne Comedy Festival 2017: Andy Zaltzman puts the funny in politics
The English comedian and one-time co-presenter with John Oliver was relieved when he realised he didn't have to do "observational humour".
Beers and tears flow in pub poignant portrait of pub life
Offstage partners Brian Meegan and Kate Raison play an unhappy couple running a singles bar in this late 1980s slice-of-life by Jim Cartwright.
Theatre
1920s mosaic revealed under Forum Theatre carpet
Artisan Fabian Scaunich says the once broken and dirty floor of 200,000 pieces will be ready for the Comedy Festival launch on March 28.
Arthur Wing Pinero's Trelawny of the 'Wells' is a knowing comedy
Tony Turner has wanted to direct this Victorian comedy – by the leading playwright of his day – for nearly 40 years because of his interest in the rise of realism in theatre.
Dance
Lord of the Flies offers boys a baptism of savagery
A ensemble of Australian boys get a taste of dance through a staging of William Golding's dark, raw work.
Four Winds Latin Spirit brings different rhythms to Bermagui
The incoming Four Winds musical director is making his debut with tango, flamenco and other Latin sounds.
Divercity review: Following different paths through time and space
Choreographer Mariaa Randall explores the story of women and leaving a country for new places.
Musicals
Eddie Perfect heading to Broadway with Beetlejuice musical
After the success of Tim Minchin's hit musicals Matilda and Groundhog Day, another Australian is heading to Broadway.
Ladies in Black puts 1950s Sydney to music
Much of the appeal of this new Australian musical about the women who work in a department store lies in the exploration of the social history of the times.
Well, Hello, Dollys!: How a classic musical survived and thrived
Jerry Herman's Broadway hit has seen a wide range of performers play the title role as well as some tantalising might-have-beens.
Opera
The Princess and the Pea review: Fast, furious, farcical and musically rewarding
Austrian-born Ernst Toch's 1927 opera, in the hands of Victorian Opera, updates Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale to the digital age.
Shipshape rendition of Gilbert & Sullivan classic
Melbourne Opera delivers a fine production of HMS Pinafore but it's almost too energetic for its own good.
Sex, jealousy, murder: Opera's feistiest females
As Opera Australia bumps in its spectacular restaging of Carmen outdoors on Sydney Harbour, we look at the feistiest women in the repertoire.
Comedy
Melbourne Comedy Festival 2017: Wax helps you relax
It's the most relaxing show you'll see at the festival and the cheapest therapy session in town.
Melbourne Comedy Festival 2017: Andy Zaltzman puts the funny in politics
The English comedian and one-time co-presenter with John Oliver was relieved when he realised he didn't have to do "observational humour".
Irish comedian David O'Doherty's 'worst gig' still haunts him
A decade ago journalist Stephanie Bunbury witnessed Irish comedian David O'Doherty's self-confessed worst gig ever. But as she tells it, it wasn't so bad.