Guides for Musicals, Plays, Operas & Operettas
Read expert-written show guides with context, plot, characters and video examples.
Annie Get Your Gun
Rough-and-tumble Annie Oakley is the best shot around. A backwoods gal, Annie uses her skill to support her family by selling the game she hunts. When she’s discovered by Buffalo Bill and persuaded to join his Wild West Show, Annie is plucked from obscurity and becomes the toast of Europe. Anni... read more
Once On This Island
From the Tony Award winning songwriting team, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, comes a story inspired from the by Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. With a Caribbean tinged score, follow the story of Ti Moune as she goes on her quest to prove that love is stronger than death. Once on... read more
Tarzan
A shipwreck leaves an infant orphaned on the West African shore. The helpless baby is taken under the protection of a gorilla tribe and becomes part of their family. When he eventually encounters his first human – Jane Porter, a curious young explorer – both their worlds are transformed forever. read more
Urinetown
In the not-so-distant future, a terrible water shortage and 20-year drought has led to a government ban on private toilets and a proliferation of paid public toilets, owned and operated by a single megalomaniac company: the Urine Good Company. If the poor don’t obey the strict laws prohibiting fr... read more
Billy Elliot
Billy Elliot tells the story of a young boy from a coal mining village in northeast England who transcends class and circumstance to become a ballet star. The musical is set against the backdrop of the 1984-5 miners strike, which tragically affects the whole village. Billy is looked after by his... read more
Hello, Dolly!
Jerry Herman’s energetic Hello, Dolly is a musical filled with charisma and with heart. Matchmaker Dolly Levi is a widow, a matchmaker, and also a professional meddler --but everything changes when she decides that the next match she needs to make is to find someone for herself. Set in New York... read more
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hedwig and the Angry Inch tells the tale of how a “slip of a girlyboy” from communist East Berlin, Hanschel, becomes the “internationally ignored song stylist” known as Hedwig after a botched sex change operation. The show daringly breaks the fourth wall, as Hedwig directly tells the audience of... read more
Titanic
April 10, 1912: the RMS Titanic sets out from London on her maiden voyage, across the Atlantic. Billed as “The Largest Floating Object in The World,” the Titanic is already big news. April 15, 1912: Titanic, the “unsinkable” ship, sinks, killing over 1500 men, women and children. In a stunning c... read more
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most famous and haunting stories to emerge from the 20th Century. The memoirs of this young Jewish girl, forced to hide for nearly two years to escape Nazi persecution, are an essential part of how we remember one of the darkest periods of our human history.... read more
Much Ado About Nothing
The Bard’s famous comedic romp known for the brilliant war of words between the feisty Beatrice and the staunch bachelor Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing plays out amidst the brittle high spirits of a post-war house party. When Don Pedro Prince of Aragon visits Leonato, Duke of Messina, love ant... read more
