On stage: Upcoming performances at Christchurch's top theatre venues

It’s an all-singing, all-dancing, all-laughing, all-drama extravaganza here in Christchurch over winter and into spring, and we’re parking ourselves in front row seats for it all.

Christchurch has literally unlimited performance offerings. Every time we think we’ve seen it all, we discover a new venue, a new crew, a new show or even a whole new genre. From underground theatre to professional productions to national touring performances and international acts, from original writing to Shakespeare to improv, you can find everything in our fair city. Ōtautahi has undoubtedly become one of New Zealand’s hottest hubs of on-stage skill, so get out there and explore what’s coming up this season.

Comedy

In July, A Big Figging Comedy Show will tickle you raw at Good Times Comedy Club with some of the South Island’s biggest comedy acts banging out Kiwi humour.

Nestled in the riverside district with a great view over The Terrace, Little Andromeda is the perfect theatre for a post-dinner show, and the cosy bar will keep you comfy well after the curtain falls. It’s one of the city’s hot spots for professional theatre, featuring locally produced shows as well as welcoming out-of-towners like award-winning Aussie Jim Fishwick for The Museum of This Morning in July.

It’s easy to make an entire evening of it at The Court Theatre, where the all-encompassing theatre experience includes BASE Woodfired Pizza and a fully-stocked bar. In September and October, the theatre is putting on Potted Potter, a parody for Potter lovers complete with an on-stage Quidditch game.

Classical

If you’re hankering for an evening out that gives you an excuse to don your glad rags, point your toes, and rest your opera glasses ever so delicately upon your nose, Christchurch has some international-quality performances coming up for that ever-so-cultured feeling.

NZ Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro, on in July, promises to be an emotional and passionate performance of Mozart’s famous opera that will have get you in a rather revolutionary mood, led by an extraordinary creative team of women.

In the closing days of August, Royal New Zealand Ballet’s The Firebird with Paquita will bring a sensory spectacular to the city. Stravinsky’s spine-tingling score sets the scene for an exotic fairy tale in The Firebird – brought into a modern world threatened with mass extinction. The dancers’ technical skills, dizzying spins and dazzling costumes will be the focus of Paquita.

Musical

Kick up your heels and twirl your canes, because there is no shortage of musicals hitting the Christchurch stages over the next few months. In June and July, get a good tug on the ol’ heart strings with Once, the Tony Award-winning story about two people falling in love over music and broken vacuum cleaners.

Rush headlong into the jumpin’, jivin’ rock ‘n’ roll hall of fame with Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story in September, which will take the audience on a hand-clapping journey through 1950s rock.

No one told you life was gonna be this way, but whether you need to pivot or just use some unagi, Friends! A Musical Parody will get you laughing more than Chandler’s jokes with this hilarious homage to the 1990s television phenomenon.

Drama

Good theatre doesn’t have to be experienced as a stationary audience watching a stage. It can unfold all around you, as is the case with The Last Martini, a murder mystery set at Riccarton House and created by Play Space Productions, which will have you to-ing and fro-ing in your mind between a colourful cast of suspects. Talk about drama! And if seeing interesting characters navigate complicated situations is more your speed, check out The Bicycle and the Butcher’s Daughter at Little Andromeda in June, following Olivia, who owns a meat exporting company, her daughter, a vegan, and her father, who thinks everything should stay as it’s always been.

If you’ve ever felt like your decision making and plan execution is poor, Frankenstein will make you feel a lot better about yourself as you watch the scientist struggle with the creature he’s brought to life by sewing body parts together. And Top Dog Theatre is moving indoors this August after many a successful run at Mona Vale, with Shakespeare’s classic tale of mistaken identity, cross dressing and romance, Twelfth Night.

Local

To experience an interactive improvisation sensation in June and July, hit up Perfuct Storm at Little Andromeda, in which the performers ask the audience one question and use it to build an entire show of comedy gold.

Over in the port in June, LAF (Lyttelton Arts Factory) is putting on a Dickensian-style tale of love, liquor and the pox with Olive Copperbottom, featuring orphaned hero Olive alongside 15 other gin-soaked characters in this romantic musical journey.

Kids

Kick back and watch your kids be enthralled with some of the excellent family-friendly shows set to grace our stages. They’re guaranteed to be all about Disney’s Moana Jr. in July, even if they somehow haven’t seen the film – The Court Theatre’s production is brought to life by young, local performers with a pile of talent.

Another beloved animation is coming to the stage with Madagascar the Musical in August, where you’ll experience the tale of a motley band of zoo animals as they find themselves smack bang in the madcap, tail-shakin’ world of King Julien’s Madagascar. And the Wonderland Glow Show will have both you and the kids mesmerised as giant-scale (we’re talking an 8-metre caterpillar here!) glow-in-the-dark puppets tell a Kiwi version of Alice in Wonderland.