Based on the incredible true story of writer Tony Briggs’ mother, The Sapphires follows four Yorta Yorta women who blaze a trail from regional Victoria to the frontlines of Vietnam — entertaining American soldiers, breaking barriers and discovering love along the way.

Featuring ’60s soul classics performed live including Respect, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss), this joyous production transforms the intimate Bille Brown Theatre into an electrifying concert-style celebration — up close, personal and impossible to resist.

For more than 25 years, the multi-award-winning play — and the hit film it inspired — have captivated audiences around the world. At its heart, The Sapphires is a proud story of First Nations women whose talent, humour and resilience lit up a remarkable moment in Australian history — a story that, for many years, remained largely untold.

Now the beloved musical returns in a sparkling new production, with the next generation of First Nations performers stepping into the legacy of the women who inspired the story, led by original director and theatre legend Wesley Enoch.

Big-hearted, infectious and full of soul, this celebration of sisterhood, culture and unforgettable music builds to a roof-raising finale — and promises the feel-good musical night out you’ll love from the very first note.

The Sapphires
28 April – 24 May 2026
Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane
www,ueenslandtheatre.com.au

Author, editor and proud Kaurareg, Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man Thomas Mayo invited 12 Indigenous men to write a letter to their son, father or nephew in a gentle and honest compendium of love and reflection.

The celebration of First Nations manhood featured letters from Stan Grant, Troy Cassar-Daley, Johnny Liddle, Charlie King, Joe Williams, Yessie Mosby, Joel Bayliss, Daniel James, Jack Latimore, Daniel Morrison, Tim Sculthorpe and Blak Douglas.

In 2025, renowned First Nations theatre makers Isaac Drandic (37, Dear Brother) and John Harvey (Spear, Black Ties) adapt these deeply personal letters into a powerful world premiere, alongside leading First Nations actors Jimi Bani (Othello, My Name Is Jimi) and Trevor Jamieson (The Secret River, Storm Boy).

Through story and music, Dear Son honours the rich traditions and wisdoms of fathers passed down through generations, interrogating the challenges faced by First Nations men and honouring the importance of family, the power of culture and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

Dear Son
28 June – 19 July 2025
Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane
www.queenslandtheatre.com.au

Odd couples don’t come much odder than Gary and Monica in this comedic gem from national treasure David Williamson, where double Gold Logie-winner Georgie Parker (Home and Away) and Glenn Hazeldine (Colin From Accounts) reprise their performances 15 years after its debut.

When a cultured inner-city aesthete hires a knockabout true-blue tradie to renovate her kitchen, she gets more than she bargained for. The pair argue about everything, including the kitchen sink, but when the witty banter turns to music, things heat up faster than Monica’s new six-burner cooktop!

She’s an embittered former classical violinist who loves Mahler more than life itself. He’s a glib former Country and Western singer now spinning tracks as DJ Rhinestone Rex. They have nothing in common except that they’re both middle-aged and single. But as the arrows fly and the digs land, will this duo discover they’re accidentally harmonising on their own sweet duet?

David Williamson (Don’s Party, Emerald City, Family Values) returns to Queensland Theatre with this up-close and highly flammable two-hander that sparks with the spitfire comedy we’ve come to love from this legend of Australian theatre.

Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica
28 May – 21 June 2025
Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane
www.queenslandtheatre.com.au

Welcome to the rough-and-tumble town of Deadwood, where swaggering sharpshooter Calamity Jane is mocked and admired in equal measure. Deadly with a whip or a quip, her bluster and bravado mask a longing for something deeper.

Cabaret daredevil Naomi Price (Drizzle Boy, Ladies in Black) slips into Jane’s trail-worn boots for this rootin’ tootin’ unruly and unpredictable ride.

Join Calamity’s piano-fuelled posse and pull up a stool at one of the on-stage saloon tables to be part of the action!

This revival has all your favourite numbers, including “Secret Love” and “The Black Hills of Dakota” but this ain’t Doris Day’s Calamity Jane, no siree. This stripped-back reimagining shucks off the buckskin and brings a barrelful of dirt and grit to the classic musical.

Hailed as “outstandingly clever… gut-bustlingly funny [and with] an extraordinarily generous heart” (The Australian), saddle up and ride before dawn ‘cause these here tickets will fly out the door faster than you can crack a whip!

Calamity Jane
Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane
22 March – 17 April 2025
www.queenslandtheatre.com.au

The story: Hedda Gabler is railing against her life. She didn’t marry drug slinger George Tesman so she could play housewife in a monstrous Gold Coast mansion with white leather couches, blingy chandeliers and endless rounds of Aperol Spritz. She wants something much more and now her old flame, Ejlert Løvborg, is out of prison and off the junk. Is he about to slice off a piece of George’s empire? Maybe Hedda can pull some strings to work this to her advantage.

The story is brought to life by a collective of Australia’s great stage and screen talent – Danielle Cormack needs little introduction after owning powerful female characters in Wentworth and Rake; Jimi Bani returns to Queensland Theatre fresh from the critically acclaimed My Life is Jimi national tour; the Helpmann-nominated stage powerhouse Jason Klarwein was last applauded in Twelfth Night; Joss McWilliam brings over 30 years of experience in standout roles; NIDA graduate and leading actor Bridie Carter (McLeod’s Daughters) makes her debut with Queensland Theatre, while multi-award nominated Helen O’Leary (Packed to the Rafters, The Strip) also debuts with Queensland Theatre. Completing the casting coup is nationally celebrated actor-director, and Queensland Theatre audience favourite, Andrea Moor.

London-based playwright Melissa Bubnic is returning to Australia for the opening and said her adaption ofHedda had been two years in development with Queensland Theatre. She explains the reason for making the George Tesman character a drug slinger, “I didn’t feel that academics arguing over the meaning of life and losing a manuscript felt inherently dramatic to me for today’s audience. Drugs, violence, death – all of that felt immediately higher stakes. This is a world where if you make a dud move, the consequences can be catastrophic. And Hedda is completely unapologetically self-serving. She’s after what she wants and everyone else is collateral. She doesn’t have the ennui, restlessness, longing for beauty of the original Hedda. My Hedda is a woman on a mission,” said Bubnic.

Director Paige Rattray has directed two of Queensland Theatre’s most powerful stage productions in Black is the New White and Scenes from a Marriage, and said Ibsen was a radical thinker in his time and Melissa Bubnic’s reimagining equally as radical for now. “We were interested in taking one of the ‘great’ female roles and tipping the idea of the tragic female lead on its head. Our Hedda isn’t a bored housewife. She’s a woman with a huge amount of agency who wants to rebuild the family name and be autonomous, and she will do anything to make that happen. She’s bold and brutal and takes no prisoners. It’s set on the modern-day Gold Coast; the family business is drugs and property development. It’s a very high stakes world,” she said.

HEDDA – a re-imagining of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler by Melissa Bubnic, directed by Paige Rattray
10 November to 8 December
Bille Brown Theatre, Queensland Theatre
www.queenslandtheatre.com.au