It’s a great time of year for theatre lovers in Adelaide.

First, an entirely South Australian cast will take to the stage in a fast and furious Oscar Wilde play. Then there’s State Theatre Company South Australia’s first mainstage production by a Kaurna playwright, inspired by the Adelaide Mosque. 

We’ll also welcome new friends and old in the world’s biggest cabaret festival, returning for its 26th year. 

Plus, there are touring shows from the inimitably talented Heather Mitchell as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Noni Hazlehurst as a publican who’s seen it all. Not to mention fun, high-energy musicals adapted from some of our favourite films. 

Here’s our edit of the best stage shows coming up in Adelaide, in chronological order.

RBG: Of Many, One

Heather Mitchell is a powerhouse in any role, but as Ruth Bader Ginsburg she’s the walking, talking trailblazing “notorious RBG”. Mitchell embodies the US Supreme Court justice with a grace and quietness that makes you feel like the jurist is right there on stage. Written by Olivier Award-winning playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie), the one-woman play is an entertaining and emotional whizz through RBG’s pivotal moments, from her teen years to her death in 2020. 

RBG: Of Many, One runs from April 10 to May 2 at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre. Buy tickets here. 

Cinderella (La Cenerentola)

The glass slipper fairytale gets a 1970s makeover thanks to theatre and opera director Neil Armfield, who’s reimagined Italian composer Gioachino Rossini’s opera La Cenerentola with flares and feathered hair styles. While there are no glass slippers in Rossini’s version, nor fairy godmothers, there’s still plenty of magic in the attraction of strangers and the power of kindness. The new State Opera South Australian production promises vivid sets and retro costumes, joyful fast-paced music and plenty of romance. 

Cinderella (La Cenerentola) runs from May 7 to 16 at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

The Importance of Being Earnest 

Promising a fast and furious production, with an entirely South Australian cast, State Theatre Company’s artistic director Petra Kalive brings Oscar Wilde’s story of two young men who adopt elaborate alter egos to Dunstan Playhouse in May. This version of The Importance of Being Earnest promises Wilde’s signature wit and chaos, radically reimagined for 2026. 

The Importance of Being Earnest runs from May 8 to 30 at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre. Tickets are on sale here.

Art

Richard Roxburgh (Rake), Damon Herriman (Better Man) and Toby Schmitz (Boy Swallows Universe) collide in a funny and chaotic comedy by French playwright Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton. Decades-long friendship is at stake when one of the men buys a ridiculously expensive painting. It’s not just a question of taste, it’s a matter of whether or not we truly know our oldest pals. 

Art runs from May 20 to 24 at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Pretty Woman: The Musical

Relive the innocence of the 1990s in a musical adaptation of one of the most unlikely rom-coms to be turned into a musical. Yes, a wealthy client still falls for the charms of a living-for-the-moment sex worker and promises to rescue her with the trappings of capitalism, but this time there are belting songs, such as I Can’t Go Back and Anywhere but Here. Samantha Jade and Ben Hall play Vivian and Edward, and you can guarantee the audience will chime in on “Big mistake. Big. Huge”.

Pretty Woman: The Musical runs from May 31 to June 28 at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival

The biggest cabaret festival in the world is back with a truly mixed bag of treats. Icons from theatre, burlesque, music, circus and, of course, cabaret are on the program, including Reuben Kaye, Em Rusciano, Lime Cordiale and Sarah McLeod. Ursula Yovich will perform Nina Simone songs, and Jonny Hawkins (Aunty Jonny) will pull apart public speeches. Then there’s Bettie Bombshell’s dazzling burlesque, an in-development musical by Vidya Makan (The Lucky Country) and the Australian premiere of Is That a Cock in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Here To Kill Me? by Jordan Gray.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival runs from June 4 to 21 at Festival Theatre. Tickets are on sale now. 

The Lark

Seventy-five-year-old publican Rose (Noni Hazlehurst) was born at longstanding boozer, The Lark. The Melbourne pub was once her dad’s and now it’s slated for demolition. As the teary but tough old lady says her goodbyes, she remembers how this place has shaped her. The Lark is a remarkable new one-woman play by the same team behind Hazlehurst’s other solo masterpiece, Mother. Playwright Daniel Keene and director Matt Scholten created the show just for her. It’s a moving and meditative look at Australia’s changing relationship with the “third place” that’s welcomed so many lost souls. This is its first staging in South Australia.

The Lark runs from June 24 to July 5 at Space Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Uncle Vanya – but There’s ASMR Soap Cutting Videos Playing in the Bottom Right Corner

Award-winning storyteller, and Adelaide Fringe regular, Yoz Mensch (My Grandpa Doesn’t Follow Me on Instagram: A Guide to Trans-generational Road-Tripping) joins the cast of this potentially chaotic take on Chekhov’s play about despair and unfulfilled lives. It’ll be genre-bending and gender-bending with thoroughly modern additions, such as Tiktok references and puppet shows. There’s opt-in audience participation too, and ASMR whispering. You have been warned. 

Uncle Vanya runs from July 9 to 18 at Adelaide College of the Arts. Tickets are on sale now.

Heathers the Musical

Heathers walked so that Clueless and Mean Girls could run. If you haven’t seen the 1988 film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, the dark comedy satirises teen movies of the time. The off-Broadway version, which debuted in 2014, has been touring for over a decade with minor tweaks to the songs and characters. It has a pop-rock score by Laurence O’Keefe, behind the music of Legally Blonde: The Musical, and by screenwriter Kevin Murphy. Veronica Sawyer is played by newcomer Emma Caporaso. New Zealand-born Calista Nelmes, who was a finalist on The Voice, is queen bee Heather Chandler. 

Heathers the Musical runs from July 16 to 26 at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Logan St

Conceived by award-winning theatre-maker Jacob Boehme, Logan St is set to be State Theatre Company South Australia’s first mainstage production by a Kaurna playwright. It’s inspired by the history behind Adelaide Mosque, built by migrant cameleers in the 1800s, and it follows an unlikely union forged between an Afghan caretaker, Goolie, and an Aboriginal woman called Dulcie. As their friendship grows, the story of another young Kaurna girl, who lived in 1836, surfaces. Boehme’s tale of resilience and quiet revolution features Aunty Lynette Crocker, Uncle Lewis O’Brien, Alexis West and Elyas Alavi. 

Logan St runs from July 24 to August 8 at Space Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Anastasia The Broadway Musical

Faithful to the 1997 animated film, Anastasia The Broadway Musical is touring Australia for the first time with Georgina Hopson (Titanique) in the lead role. Hopson honours the magic of the movie, especially in her renditions of Journey to the Past and Once Upon a December. Joining her on stage is Robert Tripolino as Dmitry. There’s romance, adventure and sparkle, and just a sprinkle of deception, rebellion and defiance.

Anastasia The Broadway Musical runs from August 1 to August 23 at Festival Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Aida

The late Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Verdi’s Aida was originally scheduled for this year’s Adelaide Festival, but the show’s extravagant costumes, which are coming from Verona, were delayed by shipping problems. The two Adelaide Oval shows are now taking place in February 2027. Set in opulent ancient Egypt, Aida has almost 600 performers, including more than 100 musicians from the Fondazione Arena di Verona Orchestra and 50 chorus members from State Opera South Australia.

Aida takes place on February 26 & 27 at Adelaide Oval in 2027. Tickets are on sale here.

Past Events

The Cherry Orchard 

Anton Chekhov’s 1904 play, about an aristocratic family on the brink of losing its estate and beloved cherry orchard, has been reimagined by director Simon Stone, who sets the fast-paced drama within a powerful Korean family in Seoul. Park Hae-soo, who played Cho Sang-woo in the first season of Squid Game, stars in the Adelaide Festival show. 

The Cherry Orchard runs from February 27 to March 1 at Festival Theatre. Find tickets here.

Mama Does Derby

Adelaide Roller Derby League skaters circle a track-like stage in this action-packed show created by Clare Watson and Virginia Gay (Cyrano, Calamity Jane). It follows teenage Billie (Elvy-Lee Quici) and her mum (Amber McMahon) as they move house and try to make friends in quiet regional Australia. It’s about failing and getting back on your feet, being alive and free, and finding your community.

Mama Does Derby runs from February 27 to March 8 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

POV

There’s no dress rehearsal for becoming a parent, and this widely praised 70-minute show uses that anxiety-inducing premise to put two unrehearsed actors through their paces with one camera-wielding pre-teen. In this Adelaide Festival iteration, 11-year-old Bub is played by alternating actors. Her parents are played by two of a roster of adults, whose only task is to react in real time. It might be funny, it might be sad, but as the grown-ups are unprepared, no two shows could possibly be the same. 

POV runs from March 4 to 7 at Space Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Mary Said What She Said

Legendary actor Isabelle Huppert transports us to 1587 in a one-woman production – performed in French, with English surtitles – about the final moments in the life of Mary Queen of Scots. The 90-minute show, directed and designed by the late American playwright Robert Wilson, who died last year, is an Adelaide Festival exclusive. It garnered rave reviews in London and New York for its fragmented and avant-garde style, and for composer Ludovico Einaudi’s original score. Though some critics have said “it’s not for everyone”.

Mary Said What She Said is on March 6 to 8 at Festival Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

Whitefella Yella Tree

Ty and Neddy – teenage boys from different mobs – meet for the first time under the branches of a lemon tree to talk about the recently arrived whitefellas. The adolescents slowly become friends, then lovers, and over various meetings they respond to the sudden and violent changes brought on by colonisation. This Griffin Theatre Company production features Pertame and Tiwi actor Joseph Althouse as Ty; and Barrd, Yamatji, Noongar, Bunuba and Ngadju actor Danny Howard as Neddy.  

Whitefella Yella Tree runs from March 12 to 15 at Space Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.

The Chronicles

Choreographer Stephanie Lake is known for her distinctive and explosive ensemble dances, pulsing with vitality. In The Chronicles, 12 contemporary dancers move through the cycle of life, from an opening sequence representing birth to the closing dance of death. It’s sensual, dynamic and, at times, tender and quiet. Collaborator Robin Fox blends an electro-acoustic score with the songs of the Young Adelaide Voices youth choir and baritone Oliver Mann. 

The Chronicles runs from March 12 to 15 at Dunstan Playhouse. Tickets are on sale now.

Trophy Boys

An all-boys debating team is set to smash its sister school in the grand finale of a debating tournament. They’re locked in a classroom for their prep window, arguing “feminism has failed women”. Sounds simple, right? In Trophy Boys, the scenario is a funny and frightening look at adolescent boys and their place in the world. It’s performed by a female and non-binary cast in drag, and when the show ran in Sydney it took home the Sydney Theatre Awards prize for Best New Work (2024).

Trophy Boys runs from March 17 to April 2 at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. Tickets are on sale now.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 27, 2026 but was substantially updated on April 22 to include new plays and musicals coming to Adelaide.