Musical Theatre Reviews Sydney

★★★☆☆ Bounding out of the time vault and onto the Hayes Theatre stage comes LPD Productions’ How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, directed and choreographed by Cameron Mitchell. Based on a 1952 satirical self-help book by Shepherd Mead,…

★★★★★ The thunderous applause that filled the theatre on opening night in Sydney was testament to just how eagerly Australian theatre lovers had been waiting for Heathers: The Musical to hit our shores. The national tour’s opening at the Roslyn…

Since its premiere in 2009, Ride The Cyclone has slowly garnered a cult following.  The show was written by Canadian playwright Jacob Richmond, with music by Brooke Maxwell. It’s now seen various versions pop up around Australia, but this production…

Into the Woods is a show that holds a concrete position in musical theatre history. The tale first debuted in 1986 and is a perfect example of the classic Stephen Sondheim theatrical style. Since then, many have retold this twisted…

★★★★☆ It’s back – again! Fiddler on the Roof, one of the great musicals of the 1960s, returns to Sydney on stage at the Theatre Royal. Created by Jerry Bock (music) Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) and Joseph Stein (book) based on stories by…

★★★★☆ The traditions of barbershop include well fitted pinstripe vests, little bow ties, camaraderie, four strong male voices that unite in harmony to create something beautiful. Hey, that sounds kinda camp… Purple Tape Productions in association with Belvoir St Theatre…

★★★★★ Wonderfully eccentric, The Addams Family, as first created by cartoonist Charles Addams, has been the inspiration for countless pieces of media since their introduction in 1938. In 2010, the first stage adaptation in the form of The Addams Family…

★★★★★ We open with a juxtaposition – a stage drawn in shades of pink, a live band that trots out a jazzy tune, an arch that’s ringed by light bulbs like a mirror in an actress’s dressing room. It feels…

Sydney Musical Theatre delivers a poignant and emotionally compelling production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal in a moving opening night performance. This is a story about grief, mental illness, and the lasting effects of trauma as families…

★★★★★ Bell Shakespeare’s Mackenzie is an exemplar of not only adaptation, but also theatre. The new play, created by Yve Blake, brings Macbeth to the early 2000s. This sees the titular role reimagined as a Hannah Montana-inspired child star. Logie award-winning…

★★★★☆ HAIR is no stranger to controversy. From its 1968 Broadway debut to its Australian premiere in 1969, the revolutionary rock musical attracted both conservative criticism and devoted admiration.  Recognised for pushing the boundaries of traditional theatre, HAIR is a vibrant celebration of freedom, peace, and human connection,…

★★★★★ How far are you willing to go in pursuit of a dream? Tootsie, the stage adaptation of the 1982 film, combines comedy and heart in its exploration of this question, set against the stunning backdrop of the New York…

★★★★★ Some villains are simply too charming not to love. But what kind of chaos unfolds when you put a few of them in the same small town? We find out in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a dazzling musical presented by…

★★★★★ Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is the best night out in Sydney right now. This is a five-star show for me because it does everything I want art to do. It woke up my inner child, and…

Ride the Cyclone is a genre-bending comedy musical, with highs and lows much like the ride itself. Written in 2009 by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, it’s the story of six members of a small-town choir who all die in a freak rollercoaster…

★★★★★ The Pirates of Penzance is one of those shows every musical theatre-lover is familiar with. Its songs have been performed thousands of times and reimagined in many ways, yet no one has done them quite like Hayes Theatre Co.…

★★★★★ As we go about our day, hundreds of people will pass us by, each with their own story. Most of the time, we will never learn it. But every so often, something happens that intertwines our story with theirs.…

★★★★★ Ten years after it last played in Australia, The Lion King has returned to the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, bringing with it a new generation of theatregoers. A global phenomenon seen by more than 124 million people worldwide, the Disney…

★★★★★ The ‘play within a play’ is a recurring concept throughout the history of theatre. How Gutenberg! The Musical! provides a delightfully fresh perspective on this mechanism is through the emphasis on the authors; their history, their dreams and the…

★★★★☆ Far off places, magic spells, a prince in disguise – all the hallmarks of the perfect fairy tale. Beauty and the Beast is one of my absolute favourite stories, blending heart and humour, wrapped up in the gorgeous aesthetics…

★★★★☆ In Anastasia, fairytale meets revolution. Political violence, loss and erased identity give way to sweeping melodies and glittering gowns. And yet, there are still moments where the cracks of history show through the sparkle. Anastasia premiered in 2017 on Broadway,…

★★★★★ My Brilliant Career, based on the 1901 Australian novel by Miles Franklin, has taken the stage of the Roslyn Packer Theatre in Sydney by storm with a dazzling display of Australian talent. This pop-rock musical perfectly captures the fire…

★★★★★ There’s something big happening at a little theatre in Sydney’s Inner West, and people are starting to take notice. Teatro at the Italian Forum is carving out a space as a bold new creative hub, launching its slate of…

★★★★★ A lingering storm nearly upstaged one of the year’s most anticipated theatrical events. Instead, it receded at the final hour, setting the scene for a spectacular opening night of Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s The Phantom of the Opera.…

★★★½ Bloody hell! It’s Evil Dead The Musical! Twenty-three years after premiering in a small Toronto club, Evil Dead the Musical has found its way to Australia and to the intimate, culty confines of the Seymour Centre’s Reginald Theatre. Mashing the…

Barbra Streisand is an icon of the performing arts world with a dazzling career that spans over six decades across music, theatre and screen. Hayes Theatre Co have opened their 2026 season with an immaculate homage to her extraordinary talent…

In 1926, two years after the death of renowned composer Giacomo Puccini, his final opera Turandot, made its stage debut. Now, a hundred years later, Opera Australia, in association with Sydney Festival, has brought this powerful story to the Opera…

The name Stephen Sondheim is famous among the world of musical theatre. An American composer and lyricist, he is the genius behind some of the most notable pieces of theatre, such as West Side Story, Sweeney Todd and Into the…

Sometimes, it takes a tragedy to realise ‘how goddamn wonderful everything is,’ as one of the characters from the show so eloquently puts it. Ride the Cyclone, written by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, premiered in Sydney with Hayes Theatre…

One of my favourite lines from The Lovers talks about how what we can’t say with words, we say in verse. It’s a great double entendre for both Shakespearean verse and lyrical verse. Much like musicals, Shakespearean language is already heightened, so…