Get out of the cold this winter and enjoy one of these thrilling theatre shows.
Melbourne’s theatre and dance scene absolutely thrives in June, offering the perfect cosy escape as the winter chill sets in. With major companies like Melbourne Theatre Company, Chunky Move, and Australian Ballet presenting fresh seasons, you’ll find everything from bold new Australian works to high-calibre international productions.
June is also peak time for intimate fringe shows and independent dance pieces in smaller venues across the city, giving audiences a more raw and exciting experience. Whether you’re after emotional storytelling, cutting-edge movement, or spectacular production values, catching a show in Melbourne this winter is one of the best ways to soak up the city’s world-class arts culture.
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
The Glass Menagerie
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- Until 5 Jun
- Southbank Theatre
The final performances of Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Tennessee Williams’ haunting memory play are happening this June.
Alison Whyte plays Amanda Wingfield, the heartbreakingly hopeful mother clinging to the past while trying to control the future, with Tim Draxl as her son Tom, teetering between obligation and escape. MTC’s first staging of the work in two decades, this is an intimate portrait of a family held together by illusion and slowly falling apart under its weight.
Waitress
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- Until 19 July
- Her Majesty’s Theatre
The Australian premiere of Broadway’s smash-hit musical continues its Melbourne season with Natalie Bassingthwaighte as Jenna, a small-town waitress and expert pie maker longing to escape her rocky marriage.
Featuring an uplifting score by Grammy winner Sara Bareilles and direction by Tony winner Diane Paulus, this feel-good story of resilience, friendship and second chances is brought to life by a trailblazing female-led creative team. Gabriyel Thomas, Mackenzie Dunn, Rob Mills and John Waters round out the cast in a production that has been packing the house since May.
House of Rot: Grey Gardens
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- 18-20 Jun
- Malthouse
Paul Capsis and Adam Noviello bring a cabaret invocation of Big and Little Edie to the Merlyn for three nights only. Created by Dino Dimitriadis and Victoria Falconer for Green Door Theatre Company, this is part unholy communion, part elegy in heels, centred on two eccentric recluses living in a house slowly falling in on itself.
Capsis (Cabaret) and Noviello (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) are two of Australia’s most magnetic actors – together they promise something between devotion and derangement. Beauty fades, madness sings.
Pride and Prejudice (*sort of)
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- From 18 June
- Athenaeum Theatre
The Olivier Award-winning musical comedy sensation makes its Australian premiere. Five women take on every role in Isobel McArthur’s irreverent but affectionate retelling of Austen’s most iconic love story, set to pop classics including Young Hearts Run Free, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You’re So Vain.
Amy Lehpamer, Zoe Ioannou, Kaori Maeda-Judge, Ruby Shannon and Teo Vergara star in a production that has been described as a joy-bomb of heart, humour and unstoppable energy. Melbourne gets it first before it heads to the Sydney Opera House.
Bangarra Dance Theatre: Sheltering
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- 18-27 June
- Arts Centre Melbourne
Bangarra’s 2026 national tour arrives in Melbourne with Sheltering, a triple bill of works that honour the company’s past while looking to the future. Keeping Grounded explores our energetic connection to ancestral land, Brown Boys is a moving meditation on First Nations masculinity, and Sheoak draws on the resilience and deep cultural meaning of its namesake tree.
Led by artistic director Frances Rings, the company arrives at Arts Centre Melbourne fresh off being awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance at the Venice Biennale – the first Australian and first First Nations company to receive the honour.
Australian Ballet: Romeo and Juliette
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- 6-16 June
- Regent Theatre
John Cranko’s beloved adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy returns in all its sweeping, heartbreaking beauty. Prokofiev’s dramatic score powers the fierce family clashes and the luminous flare of young love, while Jürgen Rose’s opulent medieval Verona contrasts the heavy splendour of the older generation with the billowing fabrics of doomed teenage romance.
Performed with Orchestra Victoria, this is one of the great narrative ballets of the 20th century and among the Australian Ballet’s most defining works.
Australian Ballet: Copland Dance Episodes
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- 23 June – 2 July
- Regent Theatre
See the Australian premiere of New York City Ballet resident choreographer Justin Peck’s first full-length ballet – and the first time the work has been performed outside New York. 30 dancers perform across 22 episodes set to Aaron Copland’s vivid music, with set designs by Choctaw-Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson and costumes by former NYC Ballet dancer Ellen Warren.
A joyful explosion of colour, athleticism and contemporary energy performed with Orchestra Victoria, this marks one of the Australian Ballet’s final productions at the Regent Theatre before its return to the refurbished Ian Potter State Theatre.
