It’s been a few years since I’ve done a year’s-best list. Everyone loves a list, including me, and it’s fun to see what others found memorable. But while I’m always happy to share my opinions about live performance it’s a bit of a mug’s game to say this thing was “better” than that thing when we’re talking about the best of the best. 

And don’t opinions vary on that subject?

As I wrote in The Australian the other day – I was asked to talk about the good stuff seen on stage in 2024, a wide-ranging request that encompassed theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre and classical music – ranking is an imprecise business open to much interpretation: “When someone demands to know if a critic saw the same show they did, the answer is no,” I opined. “We all take our individual interests and emotions into the auditorium. We have each accumulated a wide variety of experiences and number of bum-on-seat hours. We may have seen a show on a different evening and two are never exactly the same.”

Also remember that I was present at only a fraction of offerings around the country in all these art forms. I can speak only about what I saw.

It couldn’t be said 2024 was a vintage year for the performing arts. It’s been a tough slog since the pandemic pretty much smashed all the certainties and the slog isn’t over yet. Nevertheless, our arts organisations, subsidised and commercial producers alike, gallantly press on. 

Here, in chronological order, are 2024 performances that made their mark for me. I also saw some wonderful concerts but have restricted myself here to the areas in which I review.

Opera Queensland and Circa’s Orpheus & Eurydice premiered in Brisbane in 2019 and went the national rounds in 2024. It’s off to the Edinburgh Festival this year. Gorgeous music and airborne bodies – what’s not to like?

Are we not drawn onward to new erA, a palindromic piece of theatre from Belgium’s Ontroerend Goed at the Sydney Festival, was technically dazzling, a knotty mind-bender and ultimately a powerful – and touching – call to arms on the matter of climate change.

Black Swan State Theatre Company and Perth Festival’s The Pool, by Steve Rodgers, brought together a swimming pool, an audience with individual headsets, a bunch of actors discussing personal matters and a “chorus” of swimmers who glided up and down. Heaven.

The fascinating story of the rise and fall of the Lehman banking family was told in epic fashion with just three actors in The Lehman Trilogy. Thank god Sydney’s Theatre Royal is back in play to be able to host serious works of this kind.

Barrie Kosky’s Berliner Ensemble production of The Threepenny Opera at the Adelaide Festival was well worth the return Sydney-Adelaide day trip I made. Please don’t hate me: I always, always pay for the carbon offset.

Laura Murphy’s Zombie! The Musical, in which the undead clashed with community theatre nerds, was hugely entertaining. It premiered at Sydney’s invaluable Hayes Theatre Co. We must hope we haven’t seen the last of it. 

The Australian Ballet’s Carmen wasn’t your usual Carmen, nor was the later Oscar your run-of-the-mill classical ballet. Artistic director David Hallberg has his company diving into dark, difficult, exciting material and the dancers are looking spectacular in it. This is the 21^st century folks and we are now a quarter of the way through it, give or take. Get on board. Up next: the return of Nijinsky.

Opera Australia finally got its hands on Brett Dean’s extraordinary Hamlet, for Sydney only. Will Melbourne or any other city ever see it? Probably not.

 I had too much fun at Titanique, the beyond bonkers revision of James Cameron’s Titanic, with added Celine Dion. 

Jesus Christ Superstar, which opened in Sydney ahead of a national tour, was a bit of a nostalgia trip for the likes of me, who saw the original Sydney production at the very same theatre, The Capitol, in 1972. But there’s nothing fusty about this production. It’s a scorcher.

I could give a list of things that disappointed me most but that would be mean. There were quite a lot in 2024 unfortunately. 

But it’s a new day, a new year, and hope springs eternal. My reviewing year starts tomorrow, January 2, at Opera Australia with the family-friendly adaptation of Massenet’s Cendrillon – or Cinderella as she is known in English. I won’t get into the tumult and turmoil at OA here. The company wasn’t alone in having organisational issues as well as struggling with the matter of just what to do to bring audiences back into theatres in sufficient numbers, and with what repertoire, to make the organisation viable.

Everything crossed for 2025.  And thanks for reading.