Observer

OBSERVER: Australian Music Prize

Sunday, November 16, 2025

The winner has been announced for the 21st SoundMerch Australian Music Prize, described as ‘Australia’s most prestigious award recognising and honouring the creative accomplishments of Australian musicians’.This year’s winner is Ninajirachi with ‘I Love My Computer’.Ninajirachi has been awarded $50,000 prize money and joins previous winners including Kankawa Nagarra (2024), RVG (2023), King Stingray (2022),…

OBSERVER: Love Actually, The Musical Parody

Love Actually, the Musical Parody returns to Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre from December 5.The show is promoted as: ‘”This festive season, everyone’s favourite christmas movie will be gloriously sent up in the off-Broadway smash hit, Love Actually: The Musical Parody.“From the comedic minds behind Friends! The Musical Parody, this new musical brings the classic Christmas rom-com…

OBSERVER: The Fifth Step

The Fifth Step will screen in select Australian cinemas from November 28.Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk) is joined by Emmy and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, The Responder) in this critically acclaimed and subversively funny new play written by David Ireland and directed by Finn den Hertog.The story tells of James having spent…

OBSERVER: The Haunting Of Spook Mansion (By Ghosts)

Parody done well can be hilarious. However, doing it well is not as simple as it looks. The play The Haunting Of Spook Mansion (By Ghosts), as the title suggests, was a send-up of the classic haunted house horror story.Hilarious at times it unfortunately failed to maintain its early momentum and faded in the second…

OBSERVER: Cricket The Musical

Singer, songwriter and satirist Denis Carnahan returns to the stage this summer with his one-man cult hit musical comedy show, Cricket the Musical.Cricket The Musical will follow the English Cricket Team’s tour of Australia and plays in Melbourne on December 27, 28 in The Show Room, Arts Centre Melbourne.“The 2025-26 cricket season is destined to…

OBSERVER: Titus Andronicus

The gratuitous violence and callousness of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus has often seen the work sidelined, but in this interpretation by directors Kevin Hopkins and Claire Nicholls, the moral ambiguities of exacting revenge, the political schemes perpetrated, and personal grievances manifested are all made relevant.Josh Morrison makes for a powerful Titus caught between duty to the…

OBSERVER: Opera Up Late

Saturday, November 8, 2025

Opera, often seen as a conservative elitist art form, was given a hilarious bawdy extreme makeover when Opera Australia’s show Opera Up Late had its Melbourne debut at the Regent Theatre.Originally created for the World Pride event held in Sydney in 2023, the show was a cabaret-style evening of songs and entertainment made up of…

OBSERVER: MPAC 2026

Monash University Performing Arts Centres has unveiled its 2026 program delivering performing arts experiences across music, dance, and cultural programming.The diverse season features contemporary and classical performances, iconic tributes, immersive festivals, and community-focused events.Audiences can look forward to fresh versions of MPAC favourites including Family Fiesta, Big Jazz Day Out, and Live at the Counts,…

OBSERVER: As You Like It

Following the sold-out success of Othello at fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne Shakespeare Company presents a reimagining of Shakes-peare’s comedy, As You Like It.This will be a new musical adaptation with pop hits, slapstick shenanigans and ‘more decadence than a Versailles tea party.When Rosalind gets kicked out of her uncle’s court, she escapes to the Forest of Arden…

OBSERVER: The Choral

The opening selection of this year’s British Film Festival is The Choral written by Alan Bennett and directed by Nicholas Hytner. Set in 1916 as the impact of World War I starts to erode English communities, a local Yorkshire choral society appoints maestro Dr Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes), who has reluctantly returned from Germany, to conduct…