Yesterday
- Opinion
- Review
Here are 11 of the best albums of 2023
This year’s best music features songs to make you think, laugh and dance, plus something special from one of our own.
- James Thomson and Alex Gow
This Month
‘May our gladioli bloom in celebration’: Barry Humphries farewelled
King Charles, Rupert Murdoch, Elton John and Andrew Lloyd Webber led tributes at a state memorial at Sydney’s Opera House for the man who ‘invented a language’ for Australia and took it to the world.
- Samantha Hutchinson
How the Y2K bug reset Opera House CEO Louise Herron’s career
When the anticipated global computing meltdown did not happen on January 1, 2000, the former lawyer couldn’t help thinking her career was “really stupid”
- Sally Patten
The Jewish band losing friends as arts world divides
Chutney, a klezmer band from Sydney, has faced a backlash after pivoting from its previous pop direction after October 7.
- Michael Bailey
Escape Mariah and Wham with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
Review: The Brandenburg’s Noël! Noël! concert, featuring traditional Christmas music on period instruments, is a welcome reminder that the season wasn’t always Santa and schmaltz.
- Michael Bailey
Harry Connick Jr is not just a pretty face
The New Orleans native is probably best known in Australia as a crooner and reality TV show judge, but you should have seen the guy playing piano last night.
- Michael Bailey
Only Kraftwerk can perform without actually performing
Review: The German electronic music pioneers stood and delivered - literally - a show where they were but cogs in the visually and aurally spectacular machine.
- Michael Bailey
STC director Minchin slams ‘leftie bubbles’
The performer, who’s also an STC director, reportedly told a Canberra audience that the actors’ onstage pro-Palestinian protest was misguided, and thanked Jews for their outsize support for the arts.
- Michael Bailey and Ronald Mizen
This is what happens when the ACO does Pussy Riot
ACO Underground, the electrified offshoot of Australia’s premier chamber orchestra, loosened the shackles in a Sydney basement on Sunday night.
- Michael Bailey
STC loses subscribers after scarf display
A former STC patron whose open letter to the company went viral estimates that hundreds of people are cancelling or holding off on their 2024 subscriptions.
- Michael Bailey
November
STC issues apology amid fury over pro-Palestine protest
Sydney Theatre Company has officially apologised for a pro-Palestine protest at a curtain call, four days after the incident.
- Michael Bailey
Desperate for staff, Moulin Rouge lures talent with a free show
The musical is struggling to replace any technical crew that leave, so it is putting out the call in the hope of luring fresh talent.
- Michael Bailey
The ex-Goldman partner who’s singing and dancing about her retirement
Stacy Polley was a star of its fixed-income sales for almost 25 years. Now she’s the attraction in a Manhattan cabaret about life after the investment bank.
- Amanda Gordon
Bryan Brown celebrates two career firsts at the age of 76
The veteran actor is playing a prime minister and relishing his first novel being published.
- Lauren Sams
How ‘Friends’ changed the way we laugh
The show shaped a global sense of humour with the late Matthew Perry’s Chandler, who turned sarcasm into the default mode of speech.
- Andrew Harrison
Taylor Swift’s powerful ‘Eras’ film will make you want to see her live
In the movie, the billionaire pop star wields total control – and has the time of her life doing it.
- Lauren Sams
October
Friends star Matthew Perry found dead at 54
Perry, once one of the biggest television stars in the world, was discovered after apparently drowning in a hot tub at his home in the Los Angeles area.
- Updated
- Tony Diver
McCartney’s joy was obvious at his first Sydney show
The former Beatle was not content to let it be, mixing new songs with the classics at an emotionally charged show at Allianz Stadium.
- Michael Bailey
Sarah Brightman’s first musical in 30 years an Opera Australia coup
Phantom of the Opera legend stars in world premiere of a new production of Sunset Boulevard, highlighting OA season that leans heavily into female and local talent.
- Michael Bailey
These sound therapists made a stress-relieving orchestra
Review: Perth’s En Coda Symphony Orchestra used droning instruments, and strings tuned below concert pitch, for a ‘therapeutic’ listening experience in Sydney on Sunday night.
- Michael Bailey
