Bullying, teenage angst, toxic relationships and murder hardly seem material conducive to a cult following, but if you think that, you don’t know Heathers. First came the original 1988 film starring Winona Ryder and then the musical that debuted in 2009, hitting off Broadway in 2014 and the West End in 2018. It has developed…
What does it feel like to be in chemically induced love? And what does it feel like to be depressed? British playwright Lucy Prebble, a writer on the acclaimed TV drama Succession, interrogates that in a study of love and neuroscience. The play premiered at the National Theatre in London in 2012 and won the…
If you want to see something extra special before it leaves Australian shores, I suggest you head straight to the Art Gallery of NSW. That is where, until only next Sunday (12th April, 2026), you can view the remarkable work of renowned Melbourne-born sculptor Ron Mueck. His is an art form known as hyperrealism, which…
The Stranger is a mesmerising portrait of young man different to any other. We are in French controlled Algiers in 1938. It is where Meursault (Benjamin Voisin), who is in his early 30s, works as a clerk. He is quiet, unassuming, has little to say and lacks drive. One day he receives a telegram indicating…
During the Golden Age of Hollywood, which generally refers to the period from the late 1920s to the early ‘60s, with the peak in the ‘30s and ‘40s, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were regarded as royalty. Both were nothing if not colourful characters. Davis, whose maxim was “no guts, no glory” was wed four…
The idea for this Broadway musical emerged from an ugly truth. Inclusion is the theme. Comedy is the vehicle. The Prom has its Australian debut at a new home for musical theatre in Sydney’s west, Teatro at the Italian Forum. A high profile, Tony Award-winning actress, Dee Dee Allen (Caroline O’Connor) and leading man Barry…
Superlatives can’t do justice to a magnificent Handa Opera production of The Phantom of the Opera on its 40th anniversary. With the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge as a spectacular backdrop, the leads are glorious, the chorus captivating and the production values mesmerising. As far as the staging goes, only outdoors could you achieve…
Add a series of compelling, up-tempo songs to the darkly comedic gore that has spawned a cult following, stir liberally and you have the makings of a hit musical. As unlikely as that might sound, that – in a nutshell – is Evil Dead: The Musical. We are savage trees, dismemberment and chainsaws, so “yes”,…
A pathological hatred and disdain for women is brought into sharp focus in a searing production from Vixen Theatre Company. Frankly, what is depicted on screen behind the actors disgusted me. And what makes it more appalling is that every word of it is true. Welcome to the domain of incels (involuntary celibates) and “manosphere”…
First up, an admission. My job in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre on 28th April, 1996, in which 35 people were murdered and 20 wounded, was to try to come up with strategies to restore tourism to the area. I had visited the UNESCO world heritage listed site – Australia’s largest and most…
