Broadway Comes Bayside(ish)

Local Community

With April full of Easter holidays and long weekends, you might now be due for a little dose of culture. Today, C&G looks into some upcoming arts and performance events heading our way this May.

For the big shows, many will be thrilled at the return of Wicked to Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on 5th May for a four-month season. Telling the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good long before Dorothy dropped in – Wicked has become a much-beloved and awarded production. Be prepared to walk away humming a tune or two! Tickets and more information here.  

Melbourne Theatre Company’s next Mainstage production, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, takes to Southbank Theatre from 17th May – 21st June. Originally staged in 1882, Ghosts looks into the world of Mrs. Alving and her late husband’s legacy – which becomes increasingly shocking as local Pastor Mandors delves deeper and deeper. MTCs Ghosts is adapted by Australian director Gale Edwards and stars Linda Cropper (Offspring) and Philip Quast (Les Miserables). Tickets and more information here

MTC will also host NEON Festival of Independent Theatre from 29th May through to 3rd August. An annual event, this opportunity is taken to curate five of Melbourne’s best and emerging independent theatre companies. Little Ones Theatre, angus cerini / doubletap, Antechamber Productions & Daniel Keene, Arthur and Sans Hotel will each present a ten-day season at Southbank Theatre. Tickets and more information here.

Sydney Dance Company will make its way to Melbourne from 30th April to 10th May with Interplay, a collaboration between choreographers Rafael Bonachela, Jacapo Godani and Gideon Obarzanek. Southbank Theatre will host this contemporary fusion of three very different pieces – from the classic to the spiritual to the sexy – and celebrate the things that both divide and unite us. Tickets and more information here.

Certainly consider checking out the emerging talent at your local theatre company. Brighton Theatre Company will stage 1950s New York drama Red from 22 May – 7 June, and St. Kilda’s Theatreworks is hosting both political spy thriller and love story Wael Zuaiter: Unknown, and gothic memoir Memorandum. An excellent way to support local talent - and who knows? You may just spy the green beginnings of the next Geoffrey Rush or Cate Blanchett.