From Australian classics to Broadway hits: 10 new shows coming in 2026
SOURCE:Sydney Morning Herald|BY:Cameron Woodhead
Theatre critic Cameron Woodhead narrows down the best 10 shows coming to Melbourne stages in 2026.
The breadth and vitality of Melbourne’s theatre city always make formulating a list of stage highlights a tricky business. I’ve been The Age theatre critic for two decades, and the more you know, the harder it gets. With apologies to all the exciting events left out, here are 10 theatre shows to watch out for in the year ahead.
THE DOLL TRILOGY
Ray Lawler’s complete Doll Trilogy will be performed in its entirety for the first time since 1985.Credit:
Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll changed what was possible in Australian theatre forever when it premiered in 1955. It was one of the first plays to capture authentically how Australians of its time spoke and behaved, and although revivals are regular enough, the complete Doll Trilogy (which includes the prequels Kid Stakes and Other Times) hasn’t been performed in its entirety since 1985. Red Stitch changes that in February, celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary by resurrecting all three plays. Taken together, the quintessentially Melbourne story follows the characters in the Doll from Depression-era Carlton, through World War II, to the tragic climax of Lawler’s masterpiece in the early 1950s. You can experience the works individually, or as a marathon over one day, and the intimacy, immediacy and quality of performance at Red Stitch should make this a red-letter event on every serious theatregoer’s calendar.
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Feb 21-April 11
BRIGHT STAR
Emmanuelle Mattana and 45 Downstairs artistic director Cameron Lukey will stage Bright Star this year.Credit: Simon Schluter
It doesn’t get more cap-R Romantic than the doomed love between poet John Keats and neighbour Fanny Brawne. Initially spiky encounters turned to courtship over a shared passion for poetry and books, and the two were secretly engaged, with any prospect of marriage defeated by Keats’ death from tuberculosis, aged 25. Brawne preserved Keats’ love letters, though hers to him were lost, and her reputation was unfairly maligned until her tender correspondence with Keats’ sister emerged many years later. Jane Campion’s 2009 film Bright Star gave us a dashing portrayal of the famous literary love affair, with Ben Whishaw and Abby Cornish as the romantic leads. Rising star Emmanuelle Mattana () will adapt Campion’s screenplay in a world premiere that promises a sublime fusion of poetry and period romance, in what should be a major indie highlight this year.
Damon Herriman (left), Richard Roxburgh and Ryan Corr will make rare stage appearances in Yasmin Reva’s Art.Credit: Lunar Studios
In Yazmina Reza’s modern classic Art, three friends fall out over a sharp difference of artistic opinion. The comic three-hander spirals into savage wit when one of them buys an all-white painting for an eye-watering sum. His mate despises the purchase price – and loathes the painting too – and doesn’t hold back in saying so. Their mutual friend tries to appease them both, a move that only inflames the situation, as the warring parties turn on the fence-sitter. Richard Roxburgh, Damon Herriman and Ryan Corr will go head-to-head, directed by Lee Lewis (Prima Facie, Mother Play) in a sly, sophisticated comedy that probes friendship and art, and seems to pre-empt the age of social media, where small provocations may cascade into a vortex of grievance. It’s a rare chance to see a trio of well-known stage and screen actors live.
Comedy Theatre, from April 24
MY BRILLIANT CAREER
Kala Gare stars as Sybylla Melvyn in the original run of MTC’s inspired musical adaptation of My Brilliant Career.Credit: Pia Johnson
I described the musical of My Brilliant Career as “the holy grail of Australian musical theatre” when it premiered in 2024. The return season is something every Australian should see. Yes, it’s a stellar introduction to a milestone work in Oz lit – and there are a lot of Australians who haven’t read Stella Miles Franklin – but it’s also terrific fun. Feisty heroine Sybylla Melvin (Kala Gare) is stuck in the bush, dreaming of becoming a writer but too poor to escape. Forced to tutor children of a family she dislikes, the irrepressible Sybylla learns to see her own prejudices, and to avoid the choices expected of her, in a feminist classic roused to inspiring life by Gare’s powerhouse performance, a dynamic duet of musical comedy and drama from Dean Bryant and Matthew Frank, and Anne-Louise Sarks’ swift and propulsive direction. If you only see one musical in 2026, make it this one if you haven’t seen it already. I can’t wait to go again.
MTC Sumner Theatre, January 23-February 28
WAITRESS
The musical Waitress (the Canadian production pictured) made Broadway history in 2016 as the first musical with music and lyrics, choreography and direction all by women.Credit: Marie-Andree Lumire
For Australian premieres of big Broadway musicals, Waitress stands out. Adapted from Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film, it made Broadway history in 2016 as the first musical with music and lyrics (Sara Bereilles), book (Jessie Nelson), choreography (Lorin Latarro) and direction (Dianne Paulus) all by women. The story follows a small-town waitress trapped in an abusive marriage who falls pregnant unexpectedly, develops romantic feelings for her gynaecologist, and hopes to solve her troubles by entering a pie contest. Celebrating the unsung resilience of an ordinary woman finding agency in an oddball way, US critics praised the lead performances and appealing songs. Casting is yet to be announced, but the show ran for nearly four years on Broadway, andmusical theatre mavens won’t want to miss this vibrant Australian premiere.
Her Majesty’s Theatre, from May
THE BOOK OF MORMON
One of most outrageously funny musicals of all time, The Book of Mormon returns in 2026.Credit: Daniel Boud
Musical theatre revivals abound in 2026, including a return season of the splendidly sassy Six the Musical (Comedy Theatre from July), which reinvents the wives of Henry VIII as pop stars. If you want to laugh ′til it hurts, though, you can’t go past The Book of Mormon. From the creators of South Park and Team America: World Police, the satire of Mormon missionaries coming to grief in a small Ugandan village quickly turns into a satire of just about everything. Cultural relativism. Cultural appropriation. Colonialism. Racism. Romance. Religion. And the foibles and failings of big-budget musical theatre, naturally. It’s almost guaranteed to offend anyone who thinks they have a monopoly on virtue, taking swipes at extremity and irrationality on all sides of various culture wars, and is among the contenders – alongside Mel Brooks’ The Producers – for the most outrageously funny musical of all time.
Princess Theatre, from February
WEST GATE
West Gate will tell the story of one of Melbourne’s worst industrial disasters.Credit:
The collapse of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne in 1970 killed 35 men in one of the city’s worst industrial disasters. Dennis McIntosh’s West Gate will dramatise the human toll in a bold new play starring Lachy Hulme, Steve Bastoni, Daniela Farinacci and Darcy Kent, directed by Iain Sinclair. Sinclair has previously directed Bastoni and Farinacci in a searing production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, at the MTC in 2019, and there’s every chance that this quintessentially Melburnian working-class tragedy will be just as powerful.
MTC Sumner Theatre, March 10-April 18
RETROGRADE
Retrograde goes behind the scenes of the golden age of Hollywood.Credit:
Behind the scenes of the Golden Age of Hollywood, a young Sidney Poitier faces a meeting at a television studio, with a breakout leading role up for grabs. The shadow of pre-Civil Rights-era racism lurks. So does Cold War paranoia about communism. Both darken the dream factory as a sharklike studio lawyer grills the ambitious young actor and lays down unwritten rules of the game. Ryan Calais Cameron’s Retrograde won rave reviews on London’s West End, and the Australian premiere will star newcomer Donné Ngabo opposite Alan Dale (The OC, Neighbours). Bert LaBonté will direct, and if it’s half as strong as his 2024 production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog, it should be arresting theatre.
MTC Arts Centre Melbourne, May 16-June 27
THE JUNGLE AND THE SEA
The Jungle and the Sea is the awaited follow-up to is S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack’s Counting and Cracking.Credit:
From the team behind the Sri Lankan/Australian epic Counting and Cracking, playwright S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack reunite for The Jungle and the Sea. This one straddles the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka and centres on Gowrie, a woman who blindfolds herself following a tragedy, vowing to see the world again only when her family has reconciled. Interweaving a Carnatic score with text from the Mahabharata and Greek drama, alongside testimonial accounts from the war, it should be a grand and moving companion piece to the award-winning intergenerational epic that captivated audiences around the country and proved a game-changer for both ambition and cultural diversity on mainstream Australian stages.
MTC Sumner Theatre, August 14-September 12
ALL ABOUT EVE
Christie Whelan Browne will play both the Bette Davis and Anne Baxter roles in All About Eve.Credit: Nicole Reed
The new artistic director at Malthouse Theatre, Dean Bryant, is set to direct Ivo van Hove’s stage adaptation of All About Eve. Where the iconic Hollywood film pitted Bette Davis and Anne Baxter against each other as ageing star and ambitious starlet-on-the-rise, this production features Christie Whelan Browne in both roles. It’s an inspired choice. A fine comedienne and dramatic actor, as well as a musical theatre star, anyone who’s seen Whelan Browne in Britney Spears: The Cabaret, or her autobiographical Life in Plastic, will know how poignant and double-edged she can be on the humanity underneath celebrity. With Christina O’Neill and Evelyn Krape rounding out the cast, I suspect it’ll be a standout in this year’s Malthouse Theatre season.
