The best of Melbourne theatre and musicals this month

Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre has gained its fair share of international acclaim over the years, culminating in an illustrious Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement in theatre at this year’s Venice Biennale. For 30-plus years, the company has been exploring the personal and political through its works, driven by an ensemble who identify with having an intellectual disability or as neurodivergent. 

This May and June, Back to Back Theatre is partnering with Malthouse Theatre to present its first new production since the Biennale, and its first major work by new directors in 17 years. Multiple Bad Things takes a deep dive into the big questions of inclusion and identity in the workplace with direction from Back to Back artistic associates Tamara Searle and Ingrid Voorendt. Three employees played by Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring and Scott Price struggle to work together. What happens when civility slips and the witching hour approaches? 

Known for its provocative works, Back to Back Theatre describes the setting of Multiple Bad Things as “the workplace at the end of the world”. Bad behaviour will escalate and they’ll say what you’ve already been thinking. So, who will be the scapegoat when things fall apart?

Multiple Bad Things is playing at Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre from May 29 until June 9. Tickets are on sale now at the Malthouse website.

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Hungry for more theatre? Here are the best shows happening this month.

My first encounter with the viridescent power of Wicked was through the sliding door of a suburban dance studio. Face pressed against the glass, I strained to hear the optimistic refrains of ‘One Short Day’, eyes bulging and dopamine levels skyrocketing. So widespread is the pop-cultural impact of this fan favourite musical, that half of Melbourne likely has a similar memory of discovering Wicked. 

This faithful revival of the bewitching blockbuster sees the show fly into Melbourne for the third time in 15 years with an abundance of pine-hued pizazz, after celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Broadway premiere at the Sydney Lyric Theatre. It’s also worth noting that the Gregory Maguire novel that forms the basis of the plot was published back in 1995. After all this time, it’s only fair to check in and ask: does Wicked remain evergreen?

The costumes, choreography and sets are as slick as they come, which is exactly what’s expected from a show that’s had this many chances to get it ‘right’. This version of Wicked is not reinventing the wheel – instead it’s the cast who keep the cogs turning in a fresh way.  

There’s no mistaking that these performers are magical. While Melbourne always loves to get a show before Sydney, our advantage here is that the cast has had time to fully take command of their characters – and they’re flourishing. 

Courtney Monsma’s G(a)linda is slap-your-knees, let-out-a-squeal funny. She re-shapes the virtue-signalling mean girl role and makes Glinda that much easier to redeem with her masterful timing, quirkiness and propensity for revealing the good witch’s vulnerable side. From soaring operatic highs from within her perfect bubble to a delightfully unexpected grunt or two, Monsma is a delight.

The role of Elphaba is right up there with music theatre’s biggest shoes to fill, and the boots fit Melbourne local Sheridan Adams just right. Her beautiful voice carried her through two demanding acts and her emotional chemistry with Monsma helped us invest in the reconciliation arc between two complex female friends who are often at odds. As for the Big Moment, Adams’ commanding ‘Defying Gravity’ delivered goosebumps galore.

Simon Bourke has joined as The Wizard for Wicked’s Melbourne season, spending only a few days away from the Regent Theatre after finishing up Moulin Rouge! The Musical on the same stage. The legendary performer brings a cheeky swagger to the role, alongside fellow icon Robyn Nevin who is convincingly conniving as Madame Morrible. Liam Head’s Fiyero has far from an empty head, regardless of his initial proselytising on the unexamined life. After making her stage debut in the Melbourne season of Hamilton, Shewit Belay gives a layered performance as Nessarose, the soon-to-be Wicked Witch of the East.  

At first glance Wicked might read as a fairytale-adjacent flight of fancy, but this sparkling musical is rich with sociological themes and political allusions. A woman shunned because of her uncompromising activism and the colour of her skin; a literal scapegoat silenced because of his species (a heart-wrenching Adam Murphy); a government figurehead relying on smoke and mirrors. The parallels are easy to draw, and this is the most pressing reason Wicked remains a narrative Australian audiences should be apt to learn from. However, from a musical that laments that “Oz is becoming less and less colourful”, it would have been wonderful to see further diversity reflected in the casting.

More than a simple family musical, this principled tale asking why wickedness happens (or is perceived to happen) will likely always remain relevant. While there’s perhaps some room to consider how this stellar story could be reimagined in the future, diehard fans and newcomers alike will be blown all the way to Oz by these stunning performances. 

Wicked is playing at the Regent Theatre until July 28. Tickets for the general public are on sale now via the website. 

Love the ol'razzle dazzle? Check out what other new and upcoming musicals are coming to Melbourne. 

There comes a time in every mother and daughter’s life when the mother must learn to let go a little as the daughter begins her journey toward adulthood. No matter how close the connection is, this stage of life is almost always emotionally fraught. Add in mental illness as a complicating factor and things are sure to become even more complex.

This is precisely the territory explored in The Almighty Sometimes, the latest play presented by Melbourne Theatre Company. The multi-award-winning play by Kendall Feaver paints a portrait of the close connection between a mother, Renee (played by Nadine Garner of ABC’s Savage River), and a daughter, Anna (Max McKenna, who previously starred as the lead in Muriel’s Wedding The Musical). Alongside Louisa Mignone and Karl Richmond, they’ll explore a narrative that’s said to echo dinner table conversations around mental health happening all around Australia. 

The new production of the acclaimed play, directed by Hannah Goodwin, promises to bring nuance to the sensitive issues of mental illness, medication and growing into adulthood. Melbourne Theatre Company artistic director and co-CEO Anne-Louise Sarks says The Almighty Sometimes will “provoke conversations and challenge perceptions”.

“Kendall Feaver has created four deeply nuanced characters with razor-sharp wit,” she says. 

Catch The Almighty Sometimes at the Sumner at Southbank Theatre from April 15 until May 18. Tickets are available here.

Hungry for more theatre? Here are the best shows happening this month.

With the ‘debate’ over a proposed religious discrimination bill before the federal parliament again, the arguments put forward by religious leaders once more appear less focused on enshrining the right to practice faith freely (fair) and more on the freedom to persecute LGBTQIA+ people and other groups also deemed ‘sinners’. 

For those of the Pentecostal faith, including Hillsong-attending former Prime Minister Scott Morrison – singled out by audience members in the sassy call and response opening sequence of Homo Pentecostus (the latest from Considerable Sexual License creator Joel Bray) that’s a very long sinners list. 

This list is mined for comedy gold in a hilarious sight gag corralled by equally charismatic co-star Peter Paltos. Wheeling out the sort of overhead projector that would be very familiar to anyone who went to high school in the ’80s or ’90s, he flicks out a comically long acetate sheet of tick boxes, proceeding to check off the various levels of mortal sins with a red sharpie. Perplexingly, if you enjoy yoga or Star Wars, you’re damned and should turn away from the downward dog Dark Side. 

All the while, Paltos’ voice, narrating these increasingly ludicrous no-nos, begins to distort demonically. As does his hand, straying from absent-minded dick doodles towards violent scratches in which Bray, caught in the projector’s hellfire glare on the vertical blinds lining the rear of the stage, gesticulates as if possessed, then baptised in a very suggestive eruption of hand sanitiser.

Wearing his heart on his tight T-shirt sleeves, Bray asked Paltos to work with him on this intensely personal show (alongside co-director Emma Valente), apparently unaware that his co-star temporarily joined the Pentecostal church, despite being brought up in an Orthodox home with Armenian, Egyptian and Greek heritage. Paltos assumed he was chosen for this lived experience, but Bray says it’s just because he’s a great actor and a bit cute, as the pair revel in the show’s relaxed, fourth-wall-breaking banter. A coincidence? Bray thinks so, but Paltos, more open to the possibility of divine inspiration, isn’t so sure. He suspects the birds that memorably erupted into song once and once only during rehearsals knew more than they were letting on.

Homo Pentecostus is a deliciously rich fusion of confessional theatre and ecstatic dance, where choreographer and dancer Bray reckons with religion thrusting more shame onto young queer minds already struggling with their identity. It’s one very much condemned by his mother’s Pentecostal church, growing up in the regional NSW city of Orange. His Wiradjuri father’s family were Seventh Day Baptists, leaving him caught between a rock and a hard place. This spurs a powerful exploration about how colonial Christianity actively erased First Nations spirituality, their connection to Country and language. Bray feels that disconnection robbed him of something profound, something he’s had to rebuild bit by bit. 

Brimming with abundantly energetic empathy, Homo Pentecostus is no crucifixion. The pair push backwards and forwards on the limits of their belief, thanking their families for their love no matter how complicated things got, with the spectre of faith healing – aka conversion therapy – exorcised. 

Bray’s work regularly unpicks patriarchal structures of control in surprisingly joyous ways, for all the heaviness in which they deal. Homo Pentecostus is a profound and profoundly funny experience, where the stackable plastic chairs of Kate Davis’ pared-back set, standing in for church pews minus Hillsong’s built-in card readers, transmogrify into a funeral pyre lit by disco’s dry ice as unholy smoke. Sunbeams pierce deep waters, thanks to lighting designer Katie Sfetkidis’ delicate yet dynamic work, with blasts of Marco Cher-Gibard’s pulsing electro score propelling us from beats discovered at the first blush of emerging sexuality to ancient ceremonial grounds.

It all makes sense by dint of Bray’s guiding hand, bearing his soul and more. His sinewy moves transport us from damnation to rapture with the aid of Paltos’ shared generosity. Ignore the obnoxiously loud binaries of political argy-bargy, and what do we hear? Is it love? Forgiveness? Faith?? Perhaps only the birds know.

Homo Pentecostus is at the Malthouse's Beckett Theatre until May 25 and tickets are available here.

Hungry for more theatre? Here are the best shows happening this month.

Music theatre fans, hold onto your hats. A new production of a beloved classic is coming our way and it's bringing a revered star soprano, who originated one of the most famous musical roles of all time, to Melbourne. 

Sunset Boulevard will shine with the glitz of old Hollywood in a brand new lavish production on the Princess Theatre stage for a strictly limited season this May through August, starring the one-and-only Sarah Brightman.

If her name is familiar, it's because she was the original Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera on both the West End and Broadway. The international superstar has since gained global acclaim as a beloved soprano and recording artist, and is now returning to the stage to play her first role in a musical in more than three decades – right here in Melbourne. 

The British songstress will play the lead role of Norma Desmond, a character made famous by Glenn Close, in the Tony award-winning musical. Based on the 1950s film noir by Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard features music by prolific composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (known for a vast array of treasured musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Evita and more) and a book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.

The full cast for this exciting production has just been announced, with Tim Draxl playing the co-starring role of Joe Gillis. Renowned Australian Soprano Silvie Paladino will also join the cast for select performances in the role of Norma Desmond. Emerging leading lady Ashleigh Rubenach will play Betty Schaefer and stage veteran Robert Grubb will portray Max Von Mayerling. Music theatre performer Jarrod Draper will play Artie Green and established theatre actors Paul Hanlon and Troy Sussman will play Cecil B DeMille and Sheldrake, respectively, supported by an ensemble cast.

The original 1994 Broadway production won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book, and had the highest ever ticket pre-sales in Broadway history at the time. The new Australian production will be the first time the musical has graced our shores in almost 20 years, where it played to sold out theatres. 

Sunset Boulevard follows the journey of forgotten silent movie star Norma Desmond, whose Hollywood career takes a turn for the worst with the advent of "talkies" movies. It regales her story of faded glory and unfufilled ambition, and how a chance encounter with struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis and their subsequent passionate but volatile relationship leads to an unforseen and tragic ending. 

Presented by GWB Entertainment and Opera Australia, the upcoming production will see the classic musical refreshed with new staging, directed by Paul Warwick Griffin, featuring extravagant sets and costumes to evoke the glamorous Golden Age of Hollywood. Audiences will be treated to the hits from the score like ‘With One Look’, ‘The Perfect Year’, and the anthemic ‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’. This production is undoubtedly set to be the unmissable theatrical event of the year. 

Sunset Boulevard will open at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne for a strictly limited season in May 2024. Tickets are now on sale here for shows until August 11. The production will also play at the Sydney Opera House in August 2024. 

Love a night at the theatre? Here are the best musicals on this month. 

Spotlighting the archetypally ‘odd couple’ relationship between Shane Jacobson and Todd McKenney, Neil Simon’s classic comedy The Odd Couple is taking to the stage at the Melbourne's Comedy Theatre this year – with the entertaining pair bringing to life the delightfully dysfunctional journey of the two main characters.

Having met on the Channel 7 TV series The Real Full Monty back in 2018, the pair have become something of a double act: working together on Mates on a Mission and The All New Monty, and on stage in The Rocky Horror Show and the Broadway production of Hairspray (where they played a very convincing husband and wife). The casting of the pair in Neil Simon’s Tony Award-winning comedy further solidifies them as a duo – with the characters of Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison having previously been reprised by famous duos including Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, Martin Short and Eugene Levy, Jamie Farr and William Christopher and British comedians Bill Bailey and Alan Davies.

The comedic play – which was first staged on Broadway in 1965 – documents the changing friendship between two recently single writers who find themselves living together while both processing relationship breakdowns, professional challenges and personal revelations. The main throughline focuses on the wildly different characters and how their unique traits inform their relationships – with other people, themselves and (crucially) with one another. 

With prolific producer John Frost at the helm, Sydney-based theatrical entertainment agency Crossroads Live will bring the production to life at the Comedy Theatre from May 18 until June 23. 

“I’ve long been a fan of Neil Simon’s work and have been waiting for the right pair of actors to play Oscar and Felix in The Odd Couple,” said Frost. “When I witnessed the great friendship between Shane Jacobson and Todd McKenney, and how wonderfully they work together on stage, I knew I’d found my perfect Oscar and Felix. I know audiences are going to love The Odd Couple and getting to know these mismatched flatmates all over again.”

Learn more and secure your tickets over here.

Looking for more theatre suggestions? Here’s the best theatre to see in Melbourne this month

There has been a disappointing run of big name shows underserved by low-key production design of late, with both the revivals of Rocky Horror and Grease seriously lacking in the razzle-dazzle department. So why does a similarly stripped-back staging of musical maestro Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb’s Chicago pull it off, like so many of the cast’s silken mesh costume changes?

Perhaps something in the bare bones of this deceptively dark comedy, set in the Windy City in the fast and loose 1920s, lends itself to simplicity?

Delivered via a sassy brawl between warring molls Velma Kelly (Zoë Ventoura) and Roxie Hart (Lucy Maunder), it’s a broken bottle-sharp commentary on an America that values celebrity crime most malignant over justice and the good of heart, that cuts even deeper now we’re staring down the barrel of a possible second Trump term. That swirling, prophetic darkness lends itself well to scenic designer John Lee Beatty’s darkened stage flanked by cabaret chairs and dominated by a bandstand atop which gamely charismatic musical director James Simpson leads a brass-heavy band through John Kander’s razzmatazz music. 

“Give ‘em an act with lots of flash in it, and the reaction will be passionate … What if your hinges all are rusting? What if, in fact, you’re just disgusting?”

The contradiction is inherent in the work. And so when Roxie opens the show by shooting dead the beefy but not bright Fred Casely (Devon Braithwaite, a stand-out in a spectacular ensemble) because he had the gall to walk out on her, we watch her rapidly pivot to greasepainted victimhood and then on to fanning the flames of tabloid infamy. It’s a trick she learns after coming face-to-two-faced with villainously vaudeville Velma in lock-up, here minus the usual cage bars, though a pair of swinging ladders at either wing work well. 

In jail, Roxie learns fast that ‘When You’re Good to Mama’ Morton, the matriarchal prison warden magnificently embodied by glinting-eyed Hairspray star Asabi Goodman, doors open for you. Perhaps quite literally, if she gets enough money and loving to put in a call to pinstriped and prowling defence lawyer extraordinaire (and extraordinarily corrupt) Billy Flynn. 

Debonaire musical theatre mainstay Anthony Warlow, a lyrical baritone who has played the demons of both The Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd, laps up a roguish game that allows him to deliver the line, “I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let’s just say things would have turned out differently,” with devilish glee.

Roxie’s lovesick dope of husband Amos is an easy mark for Flynn’s shark, with his big but easily trodden-on heart. Deep down, Amos knows that Roxie doesn’t really want him, but he’ll stand by her anyway. Playing the fool’s not as easy as it looks, which is why Kath and Kim star and stand-up comedian Peter Rowsthorn secures the most rousing ovation come curtain call. His remarkable rendition of ‘Mister Cellophane’ is a show-stopper, layering in the required depth to the line, “Cause you can look right through me, walk right by me and never know I’m there”.

Maunder is ravenously marvellous in the ever-low-reaching role of Roxie, a true scrapper who will claw her way up out of any manhole. And if Ventoura isn’t always able to match her vocally, with the punch dropping out of a few of her big numbers despite being mic-ed, then she’s definitely on a par, performance-wise, with the crooked twist of her lips ever-askance in this wicked dance, dramatically recreated with ample sass by local choreographer Gary Chryst.

Director Karen Johnson Mortimer has her finger on the racing pulse, with leg-showing bodies doused in blood red pops on purple by lighting designer Ken Billington, and William Ivey Long’s sleek and sultry costumes all ensuring that the smoking gun is set for a show that still thrills. “Come on babe, why don’t we paint the town?”

Chicago is playing at Her Majesty's Theatre until May 26 and tickets are available here.

Need a theatre hit now? These are the best musicals in Melbourne this month.

How many details do you remember from your childhood? What about your adolescence? In Emma Mary Hall’s World Problems, Carly Sheppard plays a woman who seemingly remembers almost everything. Sheppard crawls forth from a large funnelled tube reminiscent of a black hole and begins to recount details of a childhood spent in suburban Adelaide, switching between the mundane and monumental. The vast majority of the sentences that make up what turns out to be an hour-long monologue begin with “I remember…”, with the exception of rare moments where she points out the gaps in her memory.

Landmark historical events like September 11 and the fall of the Berlin Wall intertwine with day-to-day details like moments at school or the best fish and chip shop in the entire world. At first, we can trace the narrative to a specific time period – she remembers dial-up internet and her first Nokia, but not her first smartphone. Gradually though, hints of a dystopian future characterised by social disintegration and ecological disaster emerge. Where does memory stop and speculation begin? It’s difficult to tell. 

Dann Barber’s greyed-out set and costumes mirror the warped timeline, as tight sci-fi-style garments are layered over with casual garb that could fit within many parts of the 20th or 21st centuries. An analogue TV and a timeless teddy bear (soon ripped apart to great effect) add to the thought-provoking jumble of it all.

As the production continues, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore, but rather an unsettling future marked with unimaginably high floods, skulls scanned at passport gates and people marrying their microwaves. Sheppard gives a compelling performance, alternatively impassive and impassioned, as she literally wears the world on her shoulders, then takes it right off again.

However, the repetitive formula of the book causes the work to sometimes lose its momentum, with few points of action to sustain the hour. A bigger bang to tie things up could perhaps have also delivered a more satisfying conclusion. Nonetheless, World Problems is an intellectually stimulating hour, rich with smart commentary on the future of our planet.

World Problems is playing at Southbank Theatre's the Lawler until May 22 and tickets are available here.

Hungry for more theatre? Here are the best shows happening this month.

After acclaimed performances in Sydney last year, Melbourne Theatre Company is bringing Julia to the Southbank Theatre stage from May 31 until July 6. This production from Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre documents one of the most pivotal moments in Australian political history: former Prime Minister Julia Gillard's famous 2012 'misogyny speech'. Demand for this play looks to be robust, so we recommend heading to the Melbourne Theatre Comany website to secure your tickets sooner rather than later.

Time Out Sydney reviewed Julia when it played at the Opera House in 2023. Read on for that four-star review:

 When Julia Gillard’s distinctive ocker voice first emerged from Justine Clarke’s mouth on Opening Night of Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Julia, the audience literally gasp-screamed. It was, without mincing words, pretty freaky. 

STC’s production of Julia is a long-awaited response to one of the most iconic (and spicy) speeches made in Australian history. Written by Joanna Murray Smith, directed by Sarah Goodes, and starring national treasure Justine Clarke as Julia Gillard herself, this deeply Australian story is an amorphous re-imagining of all the forces that led up to that moment in 2012 when Julia Gillard so perfectly and viscously roasted Tony Abbott in the House of Representatives. 

Julia is an intoxicating and fascinating experience that hits something deep and resounding within us

We all know *that speech* (and if you don’t, watch it right now). It was a moment that stopped the internet and hearts all over the world. Gillard’s masterful use of rage gave voice to the invisible fury of millions of women who have spent a millennia not being taken seriously. The power of ‘the speech’ has made it a thing of legend, setting the stakes high for anyone trying to recreate it. However, now, in Julia, the creators have managed (mostly) to pull it off. 

This play tries to start at the very beginning. We are taken deep into Gillard’s childhood as the child of Welsh parents. Her coalmining father plays a big role, with Clarke seamlessly rolling out a melodic Welsh drawl while repeating her father’s advice: “Any fight for justice is our fight, Julia”. 

It should be noted that for a story built on the female experience, Gillard’s father looms large  as the sole source of her moral fortitude. Meanwhile, her mother is generally nonexistent – other than telling an eight-year-old Julia why she ought to have children (“it’s just what people do”), and then later, reassuring the vilified politician that “we know who you are”. This decision could be due to the sad passing of Gillard’s father during her prime ministership, compounded with the horrific comments from Alan Jones that followed (“he died of shame”) – however, it’s an interesting omission. 

Set designer Renee Mulder has come through with a sparse set that pulls Justine Clarke’s performance into magical focus. Framing the stage are two mirrored screen walls that come alive throughout the show with footage that gives form to the invisible forces that propelled Julia Gillard towards her destiny. We are taken through a Welsh wasteland of grief and coal, thrown upwards on the wings of jubilant ‘80s pop as Julia came into herself as a “hot young redhead”, flying on the cusp of her adult life. And then, as she enters the inner echelons of power, we see only the back of her gleaming red bob and brilliant blue jacket – the suggestions of what’s to come moving slowly into focus.

Gillard’s experience exposes the great Australian lie: that we are a society that treats women well

Clarke’s performance is purely magnificent. Her ability to seamlessly slip on the skin and voices of so many different people is mind blowing, leaving the audience vocally breathless at pretty much everything she does. When she imitated Tony Abbott’s laconic half-smile on opening night, it was so excruciatingly smug and so bizarrely accurate that several people actually screeched. She manages to perfectly balance a distinctly Aussie brand of humour with profound emotional gravity. 

Plus, she is just really, really funny. Even if you’re not a fan of politics, you’ll probably enjoy Clarke squeakily gasping: “I’m the first female deputy prime minister of Australia. Fuck yes”. 

Clarke’s performance is shadowed on stage by a mostly mute Jessica Bentley, representing a young woman who seemingly exists to reflect the ‘voiceless Australian girl’, with her only speaking to the audience once *that speech* is done. This trope feels a little cheesy, and brings to mind the dangers of overly mythologising politicians – and to their credit, the creators do try to note this. Gillard’s decision to re-open offshore processing for asylum seekers is brought up, as is her ‘no’ to marriage equality – a moment that generated a sad, breathy sigh from an audience that was desperate to blindly support her. This being said – no man, woman or politician is perfect, and Gillard’s courage and efficiency in so many other areas of policy were reiterated multiple times, with us reminded that she passed more bills in the senate than any other leader in Australian history. 

The show is rich with relatable Aussie political and cultural references, liberally using the word ‘fuck’, and generally showcasing the insanity of the sexism that Gillard was forced to endure while in office. We are taken through the infamously disgusting moments of the “small breasts, huge thighs and a big red box”; how she was dubbed “deliberately barren”; and how, despite calling for an election to be legally voted prime minister, nobody called her that – instead preferring to refer to the leader of Australia as, simply, “Julia”. 

As a young Australian woman in 2023, it is concerning for me to see how much harder women have to fight to be noticed in houses of power. Gillard’s experience exposes the great Australian lie: that we are a society that treats women well. 

The story told on this stage is obviously a very specific one, however there lies a slight missed opportunity to reflect the reality of the modern Australian female experience. This lens is overwhelmingly white, and talks about Australian misogyny solely through the eyes of the white, educated, second-wave Australian feminists who came into being in the 1980s. This brand of feminism (although obviously valuable) leaves little room for nuance. In Julia, there is little mention of the many socially and economically disadvantaged and non-white women that exist in this country – and for whom, sexism is a lifelong prison from which no (admittedly brilliant) speech will free them. 

This isn’t to cast blame on Gillard, who did what she had to do to get by in a world built and maintained by men, but I do feel this production discusses sexism in a way that  placates men, declaring it as “boring to talk about”. This may be so, but I know for a fact that many women don’t find discussing their own oppression that banal – but maybe, that’s just me. 

This all being said, the final speech, as delivered by Clarke, is, for all intents and purposes, perfect.  On the night I bore witness, time, space and history all fell away for a moment on the Drama Theatre stage at the Opera House – and .we all felt like we were sitting on the benches in Canberra on a nondescript October day in 2012, watching something very important being born. 

Julia is an intoxicating and fascinating experience that hits something deep and resounding within us. It shows us that at the end of it all, power comes and goes, reputations rise and fall, but if there is one thing that endures – it’s the truth. 

And, at the heart of it, truth is exactly what Julia is all about. 

Feeling dramatic? Check out the best theatre to see in Melbourne this month.

Critics largely loved The Grinning Man when it debuted on London’s West End back in 2017. The tragicomic musical is an adaptation of the 1869 novel The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo, aka the bloke who wrote Les Miserables. We’ve been thinking it’s about time Aussie audiences got to see this story for themselves, and thankfully you’ve currently got the chance at St Kilda’s Alex Theatre. That’s right, we’re getting the Australian premiere of The Grinning Man from April 25 until May 19 2024. 

This heart wrenching yet hilarious musical follows the story of Grinpayne, the newest act at Trafalgar Fair’s freakshow. He has a ‘hideous’ smile and a dark past, but who actually is he? With the help of an old puppeteer, his pet wolf and a charming girl he meets along the way, Grinpayne brings audiences along on his journey to discover his past in order to be seen for who he really is. 

Maxwell Simon takes on the leading role of Grinpayne, fresh from two years as the standby for Christian in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. He’s joined by Helpmann Award-nominated Luisa Scrofani as Dea, the woman with the key to Grinpayne’s heart. Young Dea is played by Lilly Cascun, a seventeen-year-old blind musician making her professional theatre debut. They’re all joined by a talented local ensemble cast.

Director Miranda Middleton saw The Grinning Man on the West End and immediately vowed to direct it one day. “The Grinning Man is a big, beautiful beast of a musical. It features puppets and swordfights, pleasure-seeking royals, and a nefarious clown”, she says. “There’s just as much hilarity as there is heartache, darkness as there is magic.” 

Tickets for The Grinning Man are available via the Alex Theatre website. Prices range from $65-85 and the show runs for 2.5 hours including an intermission.

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Hungry for more theatre? Here are the best shows happening this month.