2025 My Melbourne Arts Awards

For twelve years now, I’ve been publishing my favourite theatre of the year. It started as a simple best-of list and slowly became my ritual, part celebration, part love letter to the Melbourne theatre scene. But for 2025, I’m shaking it up! :)

Instead of crowning just one “best show”, this year I’m recognising the people behind the work. The directors, performers, writers, designers, and creative forces who made this year what it was. Fourteen categories, because the performing arts is never just one thing, and neither is excellence.
(In retrospect, there's other categories I should have considered - namely Best Clown, Best Cabaret Artist, Best Dancer and Best Experimental - and will consider these for inclusion in the 2026 MMA Awards.)

I say some version of this every year, because it never stops being true. The shows that stay with you longest are not always the big, glossy productions with a marketing budget and recognisable names. Sometimes it’s the little show that ran for four nights and played to ten peopl that absolutely wrecks you. Support independent theatre makers and venues. Some tickets cost less than $30 and can deliver the most original, daring, and affecting work you’ll see all year.

There’s already plenty to be excited about in 2026. Take a risk. See something you’ve never heard of. Walk into a space you’ve never been to. Melbourne theatre thrives on curiosity, and these awards exist to celebrate exactly that.

And with that, here are the nominees and winners in the 2025 My Melbourne Arts Awards:

Best Stand-up:

Freddie Arthur (Dysfunctional Family Jukebox) - Review
Kate Dolan (The Critic) - Review
WINNER: Bronwyn Kuss (I’ll Allow It) - Review
Nicolette Minster (Rising Damp) - Review
Jo Prendergast (Cancer and Cartwheels) - Review

Best Circus Artist:

Bridie Callahan (Now You See Me)
Jarred Dewey (DECADENCE: 10 YEARS OF YUMMY) - Review
Josh Frazer (Limbo: sonata for acrobatic violin) - Review
WINNER: Sonja Schebeck (Limbo: sonata for acrobatic violin) - Review
Immy Turecek (Proteus) - Review

Best Choreography:

WINNER: Amy Campbell (In The Heights) - Review
Ashley Dougan (Labyrinth) - Review
Yaron Lifschitz (Humans 2.0) - Review
Maggie Lynch (Legally Blonde The Musical) - Review
Harrison Ritchie-Jones (Requiem for a Cuddle) - Review

Best Tech Innovation:

a2 Company (Motion Sickness) - Review
Con Coutis (Escape From Heck Island) - Review
Aviva Endean and Tahl Swieca (Tactile Piece for Human Ears) - Review
WINNER: The Last Great Hunt (Night Night) - Review
Sam Mcgilp, Henry Lai Pyne, Ruby Quail, and Quinn Franks (Crisis Actor) - Review

Best Lighting Design:

Kris Chainey (Betrayal) - Review
WINNER: Kelsey Lee and Katie Sfetkidis (Whitefella Yella Tree) - Review
Kenneth Posner (Beetlejuice) - Review
Thomas Roach (Our Monster's Name Is Jerry) - Review
Richard Vabre (Goldfish) - Review


Best Sound Design:

WINNER: Claudio (Night Night) - Review
Aviva Endean (Tactile Piece for Human Ears) - Review
Olivia Fisher (The Shore Remembers)
Toby Leman (Motion Sickness) - Review
Steve Toulmin (Whitefella Yella Tree) - Review


Best Costume Design:

Oliver Hall (Fat Pig: The Opera) - Review
WINNER: Handful of Bugs (Jester’s Privilege) - Review
Christina Smith (Mother Play) - Review
Andrew Treloar (TANTRUM for 6) - Review
Tristan Seebohm, Jarred Dewey, Jandruze, Bendy Ben, and artist’s own (DECADENCE: 10 YEARS OF YUMMY) - Review


Best Set Design:

Penelope Bartlau and Jason Lehane (The Collector) - Review
Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, and Thomas Richards (One Of These Things First) - Review
Alex Donnelly (Bigfoot: In Plain Sight) - Review
WINNER: Bethany J Fellows (Djuna) - Review
Savanna Wegman (Our Monster’s Name Is Jerry) - Review

Best Musical Director: 

Josh Connell (Checked Out: The Musical) - Review
WINNER: Emerson Hurley (The Forgotten Songbook) - Review
Vicky Jacobs (Ordinary Days) - Review
Evan J Lawson (Fat Pig: The Opera) - Review
Zara Stanton (In The Heights) - Review

Best Writing:

Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, and Thomas Richards (One Of These Things First) - Review
Christopher Samuel Carroll (Smokescreen) - Review
Nicola Pohl, Tessa Luminati, and Stephanie Beza (Feminist Trash) - Review
WINNER: Eva Rees (Djuna) - Review
S. Shakthidharan (The Wrong Gods) - Review

Best Ensemble:

WINNER: Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, and Thomas Richards for One of These Things First (Hot Lunch) - Review
Katie Burson, Georgie Llewellyn, and Bronwyn Ensor for How to Art (RatBags Theatre) - Review
Christopher Samuel Carroll and Damon Baudin for Smokescreen (Bare Witness Theatre Company) - Review
Nicola Pohl, Tessa Luminati, and Stephanie Beza for Feminist Trash (Sugar Bits) - Review
Sonja Schebeck and Josh Frazer for Limbo: sonata for acrobatic violin - Review

Best Director:

Olivia Charalambous (The Understudy) - Review
Lachlan Gough (Bigfoot: In Plain Sight) - Review
Kouhei Narumi and Sam Routledge (Goldfish) - Review
WINNER: Kitan Petkovski (Djuna) - Review
Gideon Wilonja (garçon) - Review


Best Performance:

Ben Ashby (Motion Sickness) - Review

WINNER: Damon Baudin (Smokescreen) - Review
Jane Clifton (Are You There?) - Review
Alex Donnelly (Bigfoot: In Plain Sight and Jester's Privilege) - Review and Review
Arielle Gray (Night Night) - Review

WINNER: Nadie Kammallaweera (The Wrong Gods)
 - Review
Dion Mills (Djuna) - Review
Eva Seymour (The Understudy) - Review

Ngali Shaw (In The Heights)
 - Review
Veronica Thomas (Ripening) - Review

Best Production:

Auto-Tune (re:group)
Djuna (Darwin Arts Speakeasy and Bullet Heart Club) - Review
Feminist Trash (Sugar Bits) - Review
In The Heights (Marriner Group, HOTA Home of the Arts and Joshua Robson Productions) - Review
Limbo: sonata for acrobatic violin (Nightingale Performing Arts Australia) - Review
Motion Sickness (a2 Company) - Review
WINNER: One of These Things First (Hot Lunch) - Review
Smokescreen (Bare Witness Theatre) - Review
The Understudy (Eva Seymour) - Review
The Wrong Gods (Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir) - Review