There is no shortage of great things to do in Perth. Visiting breathtaking restaurants and cosy wine bars to amazing exhibitions and beaches, sometimes you find yourself hankering for a culture hit.

Luckily for us, there’s plenty of theatre in Perth in 2024. From toe-tapping musicals to gripping plays, here – in chronological order – are our picks of the best live theatre shows gracing WA stages in 2024.

Rent

One of Broadway’s longest-running musicals is touring Australia this year. Jonathan Larson’s Rent earnt serious acclaim – including multiple Tony awards – during its 12-year Broadway run, with critics and audiences praising its candid portrayal of young artists in New York living with HIV/AIDS. The show has toured globally and been adapted into a film starring Idina Menzel (or, as John Travolta would call her, Adele Dazeem). The 2024 Australian tour will bring the show’s iconic soundtrack, featuring songs like Seasons of Love, to Perth throughout May.

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Rent runs May 11 to 25 at His Majesty’s Theatre. Tickets are available online.

The Woman in Black

Susan Hill’s 1983 gothic horror novel is no stranger to adaptations. The Woman in Black has been translated for the screen twice (including in a 2012 film starring a post-Potter Daniel Radcliffe) and interpreted for the stage by playwright Stephen Mallatratt. Mallatratt’s spooky adaptation went on to become the second-longest-running West End play in history after The Mousetrap. The story opens with solicitor Arthur Kipps sharing ghost stories about the spectre that haunts the eerie, secluded Eel Marsh House. The production stars Australian industry veterans John Waters (Rush, Offspring, Rake) and Daniel MacPherson (Neighbours, The Bill, Godspell). Waters reprises his role as Arthur Kipps, who he last brought to life in 2006.

The Woman in Black runs from May 29 to June 9 at His Majesty’s Theatre. Tickets are available online.

RBG: Of Many, One

After a sell-out first season, Sydney Theatre Company’s one-woman ode to the notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg is heading on a national tour. With a script from Olivier Award-winning Australian playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie, Jailbaby), confident direction from Priscilla Jackman, and a virtuosic performance from renowned actor and toast artist Heather Mitchell, RBG: Of Many, One recounts the life of the woman who changed the face of the American legal system: from her childhood in Brooklyn and her courtship with husband Marty Ginsburg, to becoming only the second woman to be appointed to the US Supreme Court. Mitchell is captivating as she chronicles Ginsburg’s wins, losses and infamous dissents – as well as her late-in-life fame as an unlikely fitness icon.

RBG: Of Many, One runs from June 13 to 23 at Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA. Tickets are available online.

A Doll’s House Part 2

It’s a bold move to write a sequel to one of theatre’s most celebrated plays more than a century after the original was published, but American playwright Lucas Hnath has received critical acclaim for his follow-up to the Ibsen classic A Doll’s House. The original caused controversy after its 19th-century release for its depiction of gender inequality in marriages and domestic life, and the play’s emphatic ending: Nora leaving her wedding ring and walking out on an unhappy marriage. Hnath’s sequel picks up the story 15 years later, with Nora knocking at the very door she’d firmly closed in Ibsen’s original. Bringing a modern lens to the gender issues Ibsen’s original raised all those years ago, Nora is back to compound her legacy as one of literature’s most iconic women.

A Doll’s House Part 2 runs June 13 to 29 at The Blue Room Theatre. Tickets are available online.

Grease

The leather jackets are on and the engines are roaring – time to escape the Perth winter with Danny and Sandy’s tales of summer loving. Young Australian stars Joseph Spanti (Danny) and Annelise Hall (Sandy) bring the lovestruck highschoolers to life in the local production of this iconic musical. The romp through ’50s culture and American high school life features some of the most memorable songs in musical theatre history: Summer Nights, Hopelessly Devoted to You and, of course, Greased Lightnin’.

Grease runs June 30 to July 28 at Crown Perth. Tickets are available online.

Prima Facie

Australian lawyer-turned-playwright Suzie Miller shook up the theatre world with her one-woman legal drama. Winning the 2023 Olivier Award for Best New Play, selling out a West End season with Jodie Comer, dazzling critics on Broadway and even adapted into a novel, the story of Prima Facie cut through the noise with its exploration of the law and our understanding of sexual abuse. Drawing on her unique experience as both a lawyer and a playwright, Miller penned a 100-minute monologue on a driven defence lawyer’s confrontation with moral boundaries in the law. Australian actress Sophia Forrest stars in this production as a lawyer who must confront the law in a new way when she finds herself testifying in a case rather than cross-examining. Dealing with sexual assault and the inherently flawed court system, the play is an incisive dissection of urgent current issues.

Prima Facie runs July 1 to 21 at Heath Ledger Theatre. Tickets are available online.

The Children

What sort of a world are we leaving for our children? Heralded by critics worldwide as a provocative examination of that very question, the play tells the story of Hazel and Robin, retired nuclear scientists, who are spending their post-retirement golden years on the British coast. When a nearby nuclear plant crumbles, they don their hazmat suits to garden and practice yoga with Geiger counter in hand. When an old colleague knocks at the door, they are forced to confront their past and together the trio must confront their future.

The Children runs August 24 to September 15 at Heath Ledger Theatre. Tickets are available online from May 29.

The Seed

Celebrated Australian actress and playwright Kate Mulvany dives into family history and war in this semi-biographical play inspired by Mulvany’s father. The play centres on young writer Rose’s conversations with her father, a Vietnam vet, and grandfather, an old IRA soldier. Drama and black comedy both abound as Rose’s questions draw out stories of war trauma and family secrets in equal measure.

The Seed runs November 2 to 17 at the Subiaco Arts Centre. Tickets are available online from August 7.

Additional reporting by Lucy Bell Bird.