Headed by Bridie Middleton, our team of reviewers aim to give you an inside look into the latest productions from across Australia! Want to be reviewed by Stage Door Podcast? Send us an email at ps.stagedoor.podcast@gmail.com

Shakespeare in Love

I love a bit of silly. This show had it in spades! I find myself leaning into whimsy more and more as a welcome escape from the serious issues our world faces...

Peter and The Starcatcher

Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, J.M. Barrie’s classic tale from 1904, has inspired numerous adaptations and retellings. As a result, most people are familiar with Peter Pan...

Us/Them

Us/Them is a tender and unique performance addressing the real-life events of the 2004 Beslan School Siege. Originally premiered in 2017 for Edinburgh Fringe...

Love

Love by Patricia Cornelius is a gritty take on love, addiction and survival. The emerging independent group, Salad Days Collective, has delivered a powerful interpretation of this raw and challenging script

Six The Musical

Forget everything you know about Henry VIII’s wives, because Six the Musical is rewriting history with sass, soul, and spectacle at the Theatre Royal Sydney. This isn’t your typical lesson in Tudor history...

McGuffin Park

Light-hearted politics squashed in a small regional town, McGuffin Park is a playful take  on small town quirks and regional government...

Flat Earthers

Enter the glowing world of emojis, Likes, cyber wars, armageddon, conspiracies and lesbian love. A co-production by The Hayes Theatre and Griffin Theatre- Flat Earthers: The Musical hurled the packed audience through a wormhole of digital delight and launched a spectacular show into season...

Ruins

Ruins أطلال is an intriguing and emotionally charged performance at The Downstairs Theatre at Belvoir St Theatre for 25A.  

The 40-minute piece is a fast-paced performance that closely explores the close-knit relationships with homelands...

Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence

What do Macbeth and a driven high school netball player have in common?

Nothing (you may think!).  However, the new Australian musical, "Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence," presented by Crash Theatre Company at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, hilariously proved that notion wrong...

Anomalies

Three young descendants of Earth’s billionaires stuck in the east wing of a space station – what could go wrong?...

Square

The one-woman play ‘Square’ is a hilarious exploration into the life of 22-year-old, Esme Square...

Cost of Living

Theatre serves as a platform for portraying life stories. However, many real-life stories are often considered too complex to be presented on stage. However, the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Cost of Living...

Iris

The Sydney Fringe welcomes IRIS, a theatrical and creative piece that explores the downward spirals of Iris’s inner most thoughts in this one-person show. Through
physical theatre, dance and monologue...

Karate Man

I went into Karate Man completely blind, and came out a shocked and changed person. What an utterly, utterly hilarious and original 50 minutes I had just spent...

Green Scenes

Green Scenes is a showcase with the aim of provoking discussion of climate change and current environmental issues through theatre and live performance works. The show had one performance only, free of charge...

Voices of Joan

The PATC invites an impactful retelling of Joan of Arc and her trial in the radical feminism show, ‘Voices of Joan’. From the second you walk into the theatre space, Janie Gibson is sitting already in performance...

Sunset Boulevard

The current production of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ at the Opera House delivers a theatrical experience that is as grand as it is unsettling. The story, a harrowing tale of faded stardom...

A Gay Escapade

Theatre at its core is about honesty, I mean, what’s more honest than belting out that tune, dressing up, taking those steps and diving into character two feet away from an audience...

Frankenstein

In 1816, at only 18 years old, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, now considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century and the birth of the science fiction...

207 years later, Shake and Stir Theatre Company presents Frankenstein

​

The Turn of the Screw

In a remarkable first for the Hayes Theatre, The Turn of the Screw has debuted as the venue's first full-fledged, bona-fide opera. 

This dark, gothic haunting story is at odds with itself at first glance

Murder For Two

Murder For Two is not your normal musical. But it is a hilarious one.

​

Two actors, 13 characters, one piano, and a murder....

Arlington

A rattling piece of theatre that brings into focus just how much connection a person needs to thrive vs. survive. Walking into the Reginald Theatre, a crackling version of Wichita Lineman plays as you walk past the boxed-up set...

The Woman in Black

The Woman in Black is a thrilling and suspenseful drama following the story of Arthur Kipps exorcising his past experiences. As someone who is not a huge fan of horror, I would see this show again...

Scenes with Girls

There's something so comforting about being reminded that trying to be "not like other girls" is, in itself, a common experience among women—it's the recognition that we are all, in fact, like other girls. This shared experience creates a deep sense of relatability and connectedness, which Salad Days Collective has evoked...

Little Murmur

The UK's award-winning Aakash Odedra Company has returned to Melbourne with their latest production.  Blending technology, stagecraft and traditional Indian dance styles to present Little Murmur. Over only 40 minutes, a solo performer...

Destructive Nature

Handlight Productions' “Destructive Nature” is an immersive retelling of the Greek myth of Narcissus, brought to life by a talented ensemble of storytellers. This contemporary performance art commits to activating space, effectively engaging with the core intent of Anywhere Theatre Festival...

Hymns From My 20's

Created by Ally Morgan and a part of the Bondi Fest, “Hymns from my 20s”, is an inventive and creative work filled to the rim with humour. Morgan takes the audience members on a quest through the stages of life from her 20s – musical style...

The Past is a Wild Party

To leave a theatre after a show with a smile is not uncommon. To leave a theatre with a passion to go to the nearest Library and look up as many queer and lesbian love stories as you can find is a different experience and I would say unique to an audience member...

Who's Afraid of

Virginia Woolf?

Going into Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? without any knowledge of the show, is not generally what most people do. However, if you want a captivating, hilarious, and suspenseful three and a bit hours at the theatre...

Famished Future Feeders

"Famished Future Feeders," a new eclectic work by Jules Broun and produced by the independent theatre collective, Robert the Cat. The piece offers a compelling and fragmented dystopian narrative and an interesting night at the theatre...

The Odd Couple

For a concept as direct and simplistic as “Two guys. One’s clean, one’s messy”, Kilmurray and co manage to create a delightfully deep, fleshed out show, dense and dynamic but never cluttered or getting ahead of itself...

Highway of Lost

Hearts

The Highway of Lost Hearts is matched in its strangeness only by its charm; its sad, engrossing story about a woman named Mot travelling far and wide to try and find her heart...

No Love Songs for Lady Basses

No Love Songs For Lady Basses, written and performed by the talented Sheanna Parker Russon, is a delightfully refreshing and deeply moving production that recently graced the stage of the Old Fitz.

INK

James Graham’s INK does a fantastic job taking its audience back to fast paced, high strung and high stakes world of late 60’s journalism. I walked into this show not knowing anything about Fleet Street, Rupert Murdoch’s rise to power as head media oligarch or the nature of British journalism, and INK wastes no time embroiling you...

Never Closer

Never Closer is a gripping, confronting and impressive play written by Grace Chapple. Initially developed for Belvoir’s 25A 2022 program, the play is back at Belvoir, now playing in the upstairs theatre. The show revives the same polished and experienced cast to the bigger stage

Ride the Cyclone

“Ride the Cyclone” at Hayes Theatre is a triumph of modern musical theatre, blending timeless themes with a campy, hilarious, and devastating narrative. The story follows six teenagers from a Canadian chamber choir who find themselves in limbo after a tragic roller coaster accident...

19: The Musical

 19: The Musical: An American Suffrage Story, a stage performance now reimagined into an audiobook, is a compelling narrative that uses music and humour to entertain and educate.  It chronicles the lesser-known journey of Alice Paul and other suffragettes...

Misery Loves Company

Meaningful. Heart-warming. Hilarious. Walking into the small theatre KXT on Broadway I did not know what to expect from Misery Loves Company, quite an unknown play. 

It certainly did not disappoint!

Fourteen 

Fourteen is the theatrical adaption of journalist Shannon Molloy’s groundbreaking autobiography, centred on growing up gay in a brutally mundane small town in Queensland. ...

The 13th Month

How much would you be willing to sacrifice for the greater good? Would you forsake your principles? Your mental health? For overworked, underpaid publicity managers Peta and Nick, desperately trying to keep their party member in power and eke out a tiny victory for the little guy, no cost is too great.

Working Class Clown 

‘Working Class Clown’ is a new performance art created by Tommy Misa, for a sold-out opening night for the 24th Sydney Biennale, Ten Thousand Sons at the White Bay Power Station. The White Bay Power Station has never been open to the public but has now been transformed into a public gallery and performance space...

Toy Symphony

Toy Symphony is a complex, wonderfully absurd, and incredibly moving examination of the creative process, its virtues, and its pitfalls. A show with so much to say about the act of artistic creation - in the world of theatre, no less - was without a doubt the best way to kick off the Loading Dock’s smash hit season...

For the Love of Paper

Directed by Kersherka Sivakumaran, "For The Love of Paper" presents a poignant narrative that delves into the complexities of immigration, friendship, and love. The play boasts a heartfelt story that resonates deeply with its audience, thanks in large part to the powerful performances...

The Rocky Horror Show

Familiar faces filled the foyer of The Theatre Royal Sydney with glasses of sparkling wine in their hands for the opening night of The Rocky Horror Show. The night was full of laughter, shock and gripping entertainment... 

Big Yikes!

Set in the whirlwind after high school ends and before uni offers are out, 'Big Yikes' navigates the awkward realities of adulthood, proving to be both treacherous and liberating...

Not Now, Not Ever

 Margaret Thanos’ hilarious, insane, provocative, insane rendition of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy The Assemblywoman is a glitzed out, genderbent marvel performed by, funnily enough, glitzed out, genderbent marvels...

The 39 Steps

 The 39 Steps is a suspenseful, sidesplitting, sustainably sourced wonder - a play that knows how to use its venue and stage in tandem to create a rollicking, hilariously good time. Director Dany Akbar has utilised just four actors in his articulation of Hitchcock’s filmic masterpiece...

The Wolves

Ad Astra’s production of The Wolves by Sarah Delappe opened last weekend and was bolstered by strong performances and thoughtful direction.  The play unfolds entirely through warm-up sessions, delving into the complexities of adolescence, friendship, identity, and competition...

The Strong Charmion

As you enter the small intimate Flight Path Theatre in Marrickville, the scent of hay surrounds you. The vivid set, with a canvas like curtain at the back, hay bales, a small vanity table and a chaise lounge. We enter a circus...

35mm: A Musical Exhibition

For people who have never seen a musical before, Little Triangle’s production of 35mm: A Musical Exhibition will be a significant departure from traditional means of storytelling...

Doggy Doo Doos and Don't Don'ts

Yes,Doggy Doo Doos and Don’t Don’ts is funny. Beyond funny! It’s hilarious in a quintessentially Australian way: a fatalistic, self-deprecating jab at the inner-west and all its iconic archetypes..

Everything is Sh*T

Everything is Sh*t is a fun, thrilling rock cabaret starring the delightful and powerful voice of Andy Freeborn. The cabaret is inspired by Andy’s own life experiences...

Party Ghost

 Eerie childish mischief set against a backdrop of dismembered body limbs and birthday decor with oh so many ghosts!

Kuramanunya

At the heart of contemporary theatre, where innovation and tradition converge, First Nations-led dance company Karul Projects present a solo dance-theatre piece as a homage to the lives of First Nations people lost during and after colonisation...

The Dismissal

The Dismissal: An Extremely Serious Musical Comedy lives up to its name as an engaging, compelling and hilarious retelling of one of Australia’s most (in)famous moments of the 20th Century - the Governer General’s dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975...

Unconditional

Following a fumbling, yet endearing dance behind a blurred wall, the two lead characters take their places to their respective chairs on each side of the stage. Audiences get to know He, a cisgender man, and She, a transgender woman...

Top Girls

Ad Astra's staging of Caryl Churchill's “Top Girls” grounds the painful journeys that accompany corporate success for women and the pursuit of personal and professional fulfilment in a male-dominated world...

Tough Titties

It’s a show that manages to pierce through the veneer of the patriarchy, expose the rot and the corrupting within, and never stop being hilarious, or provocative, while it’s at it...

Dumb Kids

“Dumb Kids” is nothing short of beautiful, enthralling and delightfully candid. It’s a supreme balancing act between all of the conflicting emotions and experiences that come with being on the cusp of adulthood...

Come Again

“Come Again” is a masterwork in raw, palpable tension. Playwright Alex Tutton has created a show that is equal parts confronting and engaging, showcasing the ineffable strain that guilt, trauma, or some twisted love child of the two...

Glass Menagerie

A poignant and thought provoking take on one of Tennessee Williams’ most enthralling works, the SUDS production of Glass Menagerie reframes the setting of the original, transporting the audience to...

Theory of Relativity 

Who knew science and physics could not only be incorporated into a musical but also be fun?

​

​