Opera’s wildest late-night party is returning to Melbourne, with Opera Up Late set to take over the Regent Theatre for one mischievous night on 15 November. Following its hugely successful Melbourne debut last year, the operatic cabaret will once again bring together powerhouse voices, outrageous humour and plenty of camp for a night that throws the rulebook out of the opera house. Hosted by Reuben Kaye, the one-night event will put a playful spin on some of opera’s best-known arias, while mixing in musical theatre favourites and a few pop hits. Joining Kaye will be some of Opera Australia’s finest…
Author: Melbourning
Canadian pop provocateur Peaches is returning to Australia in January 2027, with the genre-bending musician set to bring her new album No Lube So Rude to Melbourne’s Forum on Friday 15 January. The upcoming tour will be Peaches’ first visit to Australia and New Zealand since 2023, with dates also scheduled for Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. The multi-talented musician, producer, director and performance artist will perform tracks from No Lube So Rude, her first album in more than a decade, alongside fan favourites including Fuck the Pain Away and Boys Wanna Be Her. The tour begins at Auckland’s Powerstation…
Award-winning musical Operation Mincemeat is coming to Melbourne, with the hit show set to premiere at the Comedy Theatre in September 2027 before continuing its Australian tour. The Melbourne season will mark the Australian debut of the musical, which has become an international theatre hit since beginning life as a 2019 fringe production at London’s 77-seat New Diorama Theatre. The Australian cast will be announced following a search beginning early next year. Based on the extraordinary true story of a 1943 World War II mission, Operation Mincemeat follows a team of British intelligence officers attempting to deceive the Nazis with…
A new $126 million visitor centre at the Twelve Apostles will open to the public on 16 October, giving visitors a new way to experience one of Victoria’s biggest tourist attractions ahead of the busy summer season. The Keerray Woorroong Visitor Centre has been designed to cater for the millions of people who visit the Great Ocean Road each year, with the region attracting around 7 million visitors annually. The new precinct includes a 230-seat cafe, kiosk, gallery and visitor information spaces, as well as a rooftop lookout offering views across the coastline. Outside, visitors will find native gardens, gathering…
Melbourne-formed electronic favourites The Avalanches are heading back on tour in 2027, with six Australian shows announced alongside special guest HAAi. The national run will take the band to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney in February and March, including a Melbourne performance at Live At The Gardens in the Royal Botanic Gardens. The tour will begin with two shows at Perth Festival’s East Perth Power Station on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 February, with the Sunday performance already sold out. A second show was added on Saturday following demand. The Avalanches will then head to Adelaide’s Hindley St Music…
The Strokes are heading back to Melbourne in 2027, with the New York indie rock icons set to play two headline shows at Rod Laver Arena next February. The band will bring its Reality Awaits tour to Melbourne on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 February, with Australian indie favourite Courtney Barnett and high-energy project Promiseland joining the line-up for both shows. The Melbourne dates form part of a four-date Australian tour, beginning at Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday 13 February before heading south. The tour will finish at Sydney Summertime on Saturday 20 February, where Beck will join the support…
Avenue Q is returning to Melbourne in 2027, bringing its rude puppets, outrageous songs and very adult take on growing up to the Athenaeum Theatre from 10 June to 4 July. The Tony Award-winning musical follows Princeton, a fresh graduate with a useless degree and big ambitions, as he lands on New York’s Avenue Q and meets a collection of lovable misfits trying to survive adulthood. Created by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, Avenue Q turns the innocent nostalgia of childhood puppets into something considerably more chaotic, tackling unemployment, relationships, rent, racism, sex and the internet along the way. The…
Melbourne independent opera company BK Opera is marking its 10th anniversary with its biggest production yet, taking on Richard Wagner’s notoriously demanding Tristan und Isolde at Northcote Town Hall this October. Founded by Kate Millett in 2016, BK Opera has spent a decade pushing opera into darker, more intimate territory, with more than 20 productions built around bold interpretations and a distinctly Melbourne independent arts spirit. Now, the company is tackling what Millett calls the “Mount Everest of opera”. Tristan und Isolde brings together dual Helpmann Award-winning tenor James Egglestone, acclaimed Wagnerian soprano Lee Abrahmsen and Heldenbaritone Warwick Fyfe as…
Victoria’s central west has gained three new national parks, protecting more than 64,000 hectares of bushland while keeping the landscapes open for recreation and nature-based tourism. The newly proclaimed parks bring together existing reserves, state parks and forest areas, creating some of Victoria’s newest protected landscapes. The largest is Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, spanning 44,000 hectares between Daylesford and Bacchus Marsh. It incorporates Lerderderg State Park and parts of Wombat State Forest. Near Beaufort, Mount Buangor National Park covers more than 5,300 hectares, bringing together Mount Buangor State Park and sections of Mount Cole State Forest. Further north-west, Pyrenees National Park…
Australian rock fans can look forward to a huge day of live music when the Red Hot Summer Tour rolls into Warrnambool, the Yarra Valley and Wodonga in 2027 with a stacked line-up led by Jimmy Barnes. The iconic singer will headline a bill featuring Jon Stevens, Birds Of Tokyo, Eskimo Joe, Baby Animals, Chocolate Starfish and Sarah McLeod, bringing decades of Australian rock history to Warrnambool Racecourse on Saturday 16 January. Barnes remains one of the country’s most enduring rock performers, with more than 40 years of music behind him as a solo artist and frontman of Cold Chisel.…
Riverboats Music Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2027 with a stellar line-up of Australian and New Zealand artists set to soundtrack another riverside weekend in Echuca-Moama. Returning to the banks of the Murray River on Yorta Yorta country, the multi-award-winning festival will run across three days with one stage, no timetable clashes and plenty of live music beneath the river red gums. Opening night on Friday will feature Naarm-based rockers Floodlights and ethereal singer Milly Strange before Australian rock legends Spiderbait close out the evening. Saturday brings country star Fanny Lumsden, Kaitlin Keegan, Melbourne soul favourite Ella Thompson,…
More than 60 performers aged between 19 and 77 will take over Footscray this November as Women’s Circus celebrates its 35th anniversary with its biggest production yet. Murmuration brings together an intergenerational ensemble for a 90-minute circus and physical theatre work at The Drill Hall, drawing on three and a half decades of memories, movement and community. Directed by award-winning performance maker Christy Flaws, the production takes inspiration from the movement of thousands of starlings flying as one. Flaws developed the concept after seeing the ensemble’s natural connections during early workshops. “A movement felt by one rippled across the entire…