Melbourne has snagged the highly anticipated Australian premiere of David Adjmi’s 70s rock drama Stereophonic, which broke records in 2024 as the most nominated play in Tony awards history. It joins the Broadway and West End-acclaimed #MeToo play John Proctor is the Villain as the buzzy international hits crowning Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2027 season.
Stereophonic, which takes place inside the recording studio of a fictional British-American rock band teetering between breakthrough and breakdown, will land in Australia with all the hype of 13 Tony nominations and five wins, hit Broadway and West End seasons and five-star reviews.
But the Melbourne Theatre Company artistic director, Anne-Louise Sarks, fell in love with it before the buzz. “In 2023 I met with the company who was creating it and I was like ‘that sounds very cool, I want that show [for MTC]’. And then I watched it become this runaway hit. For me, what’s really exciting about this show is how the audience feel like they’re in the room with these artists as they’re making the album and going through all the drama, heartbreak and struggle of creating.”
Many commentators have drawn comparisons between Adjmi’s play, with its powder keg of big egos, complicated romantic relationships, drugs and booze, and the story behind seminal 1977 album Rumours – including Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo, who called it “redolent of Fleetwood Mac”. The band’s former sound engineer Ken Caillat thought Stereophonic was similar enough to his memoir about the making of Rumours that he sued the show’s makers in 2024. Adjmi has staunchly resisted the comparisons, citing a range of inspirations; the lawsuit was settled in 2024.
Sarks won’t be drawn into the debate, miming zipped lips before smiling and saying: “I love Fleetwood Mac.”
Music is integral to Stereophonic, with original songs by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler not only interwoven but pivotal to the drama. One of the biggest hurdles was “finding actor-musicians who can play to the level of skill required, but also bring this very truthful, ultra real performance to the stage”, Sarks said. Geraldine Hakewill (Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries) and Alex Malone (The Killings at Parrish Station) will lead the cast of seven, with the rest still to be announced. Taking the helm is Daniel Evans, artistic director of Queensland Theatre, where the show will transfer following a season at Sydney’s Belvoir.
Sarks will direct the other international hit of the season: Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain, about a group of teenage girls in rural Georgia grappling with Arthur Miller’s Salem witch trials drama in the wake of #MeToo.
Nominated for seven Tony awards, the play was a runaway hit on Broadway, where it starred Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink and featured an electrifying dance break finale to Lorde’s Green Light. Its London season sold out two months before it was due to open. A movie adaptation, produced by Tina Fey, is in the works.
“It’s nearly a decade since #MeToo [went viral], but it has never been more important to have a conversation around power and the stories and experiences we inherit and are expected to accept,” Sarks said, “and this play does that in such a fun, fierce way.”
The Australian production, starring Masego Pitso (Is God Is), will open in July and transfer to Sydney Theatre Company in September.
There are other international gems, too. Winsome Pinnock’s comic drama The Authenticator, about two Black academics tasked with combing through diaries written by an 18th-century slave owner, will make its Australian premiere at MTC, directed by Zindzi Okenyo.
And there are classics: Edward Albee’s Pulitzer prize-winning dark drawing-room comedy A Delicate Balance, starring Sigrid Thornton, Nadine Garner and Erik Thomson; and a one-woman reimagining of Richard III, starring Kate Mulvany.
But the focus is firmly on Australian writing and stories, including new plays about unsung art-hero Clarice Beckett, starring Rachel Griffiths; a legendary 1985 meeting between Kerry Packer, West Indies cricket captain George Floyd and Bob Hawke that shaped Australia’s stance on South Africa’s apartheid; and a First Nations spin on HG Wells’ War of the Worlds – itself inspired by Tasmania’s brutal Black War – written by award winning Noongar author Claire G Coleman (Terra Nullius).
The artistic director’s ongoing commitment to backing Australian stories seems to be paying off, with roughly 40% of single ticket purchases for new Australian works West Gate, My Brilliant Career and The Jungle and the Sea made by first-time MTC-goers.
Amid cost of living pressures and shuttered musicals, MTC is “growing our community and our culture,” Sarks said. “There’s good reason to be optimistic.”
