Top Ten Theatre Productions (and Worst) of 2025

1.    MJ: The Musical (Lyric Theatre) – The tense lead up to superstar Michael Jackson’s Dangerous world tour and his relationship with his abusive, controlling father.

2.    The 39 Steps (Comedy Theatre) – Slick and oh so cleverly acted and staged, this enticing parody of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock British spy thriller is riotously funny.

Photo by Cameron Grant (photo on the front page by Daniel Boud)

3.    The Talented Mr Ripley (Arts Centre Melbourne) – Sydney Theatre Company’s adaptation of the manipulative and murderous life of a small-time conman who seizes his chance to live a life of luxury.

4.    Ordinary Days (fortyfivedownstairs) – The work of American composer and lyricist Adam Gwon, this is a stunning song cycle concerning two fraught relationships involving four young people in New York City.

Photo by Ben Fon

5.    Song of First Desire (Belvoir Street Theatre) – The heartache, pain and repression of Franco-era fascist Spain continues to resonate, as the action shuttles back and forth between the present day and 1968.

6.    1984 (Comedy Theatre) – Shake & Stir’s brilliant adaptation of George Orwell’s prescient and dystopian novel 1984 appears chillingly real.

Photo by Joel Devereux

7.    RED (fortyfivedownstairs) – Intense. Visceral. Passionate. Angry. Confronting. My instant reaction to a remarkable two-man show about art and what it means.

8.    In the Heights (Comedy Theatre) – Featuring a blend of hip-hop and Latin rhythms – salsa, merengue and samba – it is an energetic and colourful cultural celebration of the neighbourhood where its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, grew up, namely Washington Heights.

9.    Annie (Princess Theatre) – Set during the Great Depression, Annie is a joyous, wholesome and uplifting production about an 11-year-old redhead, abandoned at birth, whose luck finally changes when she meets a billionaire businessman.

10. The Birds (Malthouse Theatre) – A blindingly creative experience, it is a chilling adaptation of British writer Daphne du Maurier short horror story about a rural community under lethal attack from flocks of birds.

The Dud of the Year

Photo by Skye Gellman

The Anarchy (1138-53) (Theatre Works) – I can’t think of a play I have seen that I have detested more than the 40 minutes of garbled nonsense I sat through before walking out of this one (something I have very rarely done). It has a running time of 2 hours 15 without interval and is the first part of a 15-hour trilogy that takes inspiration from the darkest of the dark ages. Incidentally, the title refers to a civil war in England and Normandy, which resulted in a widespread breakdown of law and order.