Culture
Theatre
Musical set in a pub offers pints with the stars and a message of love
Jukebox musical The Choir of Man offers up hit songs and good times – but as fun as the show is, there’s more to it than boisterous bloke culture.
- by Stephen A Russell
Latest
The year ahead on stage: the best shows coming to Victoria in 2024
In another big year on Melbourne stages, here are 10 shows we’re looking forward to seeing in 2024
- by John Bailey
No, you can’t remove politics from theatre – that’s what makes it so good
A critic maps the intersection between theatre and politics by looking back over the shows that hit Melbourne’s stages in 2023.
- by Cameron Woodhead
Nellie Small: The queer black icon Sydney didn’t know it had
A long forgotten star of the Sydney stage, Nellie Small, will be honoured in a tribute show at the 2024 Sydney Festival.
- by Helen Pitt
How a classic set in the Edwardian era became a modern gay epic
Playwright Matthew Lopez’s sweeping seven-hour play The Inheritance transposes E.M. Forster’s classic Howard’s End into a tale of modern-day gay New York.
- by Richard Jinman
★★★★
Review
Frock up, Sydney: Jay Gatsby is throwing a party
This sexy, exuberant cabaret sizzles with physical energy.
- by Joyce Morgan
Now everyone knows their secrets, how do magicians survive?
Las Vegas illusionist Rick Thomas still fills theatres with his spectacular show.
- by Daniel Herborn
This is The Great Gatsby as you’ve never seen it before
Having the protagonist played by an aerialist is a new take on Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel.
- by John Shand
Exclusive
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
‘As powerful as a scarf in a curtain call’: Third resignation in STC fallout
Writer Ruth Ritchie has become the third member of the Sydney Theatre Company’s foundation board to resign following a pro-Palestinian protest by three actors.
- by Helen Pitt
‘The Seagull 3’: The backstage drama engulfing the STC
When three young actors stepped forward to take their curtain calls for The Seagull last month, not even Russian playwright Anton Chekhov could have dreamt up the drama that would follow.
- by Nick Galvin and Helen Pitt
Exclusive
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
STC performer dons Palestinian keffiyeh for her family at curtain call
Australian-born actor Violette Ayad, who has Lebanese and Palestinian parents, has lost family members in the Gaza conflict.
- by Helen Pitt