What to see at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this weekend
One week into the festival and comedians from Australia and abroad have hit the ground running, with more great acts still to come.
Stage
Ballard tackles political correctness and the far right in Problematic
When is it okay to laugh? asks comedian Tom Ballard.
Melbourne Comedy Festival 2017 review: Sammy J's Hero Complex is stranger than fiction
Sammy J has really hit his stride in the last few years, and this story about his awkward childhood hits the mark.
Theatre
Wilson delivers an unambiguously magnificent performance
Ruth Wilson gives a performance of riveting authority: jagged, rich and fiercely magnificent, this will stand comparison with the greatest Hedda Gablers.
Audience left on the edge of a whirlpool of ideas
Only occasionally does this Sydney premiere of Terry Johnson's West End hit spark into life.
Dance
Toned and terrific: Ballet gets a sporty makeover
''Faster'' is a modern ballet that plays out like an MGM musical with a Hitchcockian soundtrack.
Young dancers throw themselves into adaptation of dystopian tale
Movement is an ideal way to illustrate the development of these characters, whose moments of introspection are most effectively conveyed.
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.
Musicals
Free-Rain's Les Miserables at Q is powerful, moving
This powerful production of the classic musical is more intimate than usual but manages to combine spectacle and fine ensemble work with excellent solo performances.
Epic musical Les Miserables is on at the Q in an intimate production
The classic musical returns in a new production by Free-Rain that seeks to emphasise the emotions of the story based on Victor Hugo's novel.
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.
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
What to see at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this weekend
One week into the festival and comedians from Australia and abroad have hit the ground running, with more great acts still to come.
Ballard tackles political correctness and the far right in Problematic
When is it okay to laugh? asks comedian Tom Ballard.
Melbourne Comedy Festival 2017 review: Sammy J's Hero Complex is stranger than fiction
Sammy J has really hit his stride in the last few years, and this story about his awkward childhood hits the mark.