The daring, dazzling and at times dangerous Sydney Fringe Festival is back for another year of eccentricity, oddball mayhem, playfully slick performances, and alt-comedy. Sydney is the midst of great chance, investing heavily in its longstanding arts festivals and really leaning on creatives to help move this city into the next phase, beyond its beauty and beaches.
And so Sydney Fringe Festival 2025 is going to be one of the most interesting programs in its 11 year history, focusing more on escapism and whimsy this year. You’ll see everything from a celebration of Ghanaian traditions and wild one-performer shows to a new musical based on one of the most important Australian memes of all time. It’s going to be one hell of a month in September. You’ve got hundreds of events, and we’ve whittled it down to 10 decisive shows you need to see if you want to do the Fringe properly this year.
The Sydney Fringe Festival shows we can’t wait for this year
1. The Ghana Road Show
Circus, dance, music and visual fold onto each other with The Ghana Road Show, celebrating West African culture with multifaceted storytelling undercut with pure joy. Given the uplifting Soweto Gospel Choir was such a highlight at Sydney Fringe Festival last year, The Ghana Road Show should be a great time for festivalgoers who want that relentlessly positive, spiritual like experience heightened by striking projected visuals, audience engagement and a multi-sensory journey across Ghana and beyond.
The quickened pulse of African traditions is given a contemporary twist, pulled together by a high-energy variety show led by Ghanaian circus performers with African-Australian musicians, a trailblazing female DJ, a renowned Senegalese drummer and dancer Lucky Lartey. Expect West African rhythms and plenty of soul soundtracking a variety of traditional dance performances as the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst turns into nothing but pure love and a spiritual celebration of life.
Where: 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
When: September 2-6, 2025
Price: $45
Book online
2. The Understudies
One of the top Fringe picks for this year is this sharp and satirical Sydney premiere. This new production follows the lives of Zoe and Mack, the understudies for the prestigious Shakespeare festival, The Bard Unleashed. And while the start may be upbeat for these two theatre-hopefuls, a bout of food poisoning throws everything into chaos, even if they show must go on. Zoe, after all, has been waiting for this moment her entire acting life and is more than ready to shine. Mack just wants to know why they weren’t invited to cast-bonding night.
Can the entire cast find joy through speakable tragedy? You’ll have to head along to Erskineville Town Hall’s kitschy The Living Room to find out.
Where: 104 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville NSW 2043
When: September 2-6, 2025
Price: $25
Book online
3. Nun Slut
Winner of the Best Comedy Weekly Award at this year’s Adelaide Fringe, the blunt and well-reviewed Nun Slut is pitched as a hilarious solo comedy sketch show from Claire Robin, conceived as an absurd deep dive through religion, the body and Barnaby Joyce. The show has been selling tickets left, right and centre across the country, so the Sydney Fringe edition should be in huge demand.
Those half-serious, mostly-silly mashups of physical comedy, sketch and cabaret always sit at the top of to-do lists whenever Fringe rolls around so this is a top pick for those who want a good, provocative performance.
Where: 104 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville NSW 2043
When: September 2-6, 2025
Price: $22 – $28
Book online
4. A Succulent Chinese Musical?!
The most endearing meme in Australian history has finally been turned into a bonafide musical. We’ve already had that breakdancer and former premier Gladys Berejiklian both transmogrified into caricatures for independent musicals. Now it’s old mate Jack Karlson’s turn. The man, the myth, the runner: the late, great check-dodger may not longer be with us but his democratic legacy has manifested its way onto the stage.
A Succulent Chinese Musical?! follows Karlson’s endlessly quotable, r-rolling misdeeds following his theatrical 1991 arrest that made more rounds globally than Trent from Punchy, rabid dog man, Karl Stefanovic getting attacked by a chicken, and that Nek Minnit guy combined. The man’s famous monologue has been stretched into a one-hour musical that, according to the synopsis, is “100% historically accurate”. You may just learn a thing or two about one of the biggest heroes in Australian history.
Where: 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
When: September 3-13, 2025
Price: $42
Book online
5. Circus & Other Time Wasters!
We all love those variety shows when Sydney Fringe Festival does its dash, and so Circus & Other Time Wasters! is one of our highlights of this year’s program. The show pulls together juggling and musical comedy with circus stunts and cartoonish caricatures, framed by an atmosphere that ebbs and flows to add a bit of dynamism to pop-up venue The Bunker at The Entertainment Quarter.
Corey and musician Emma Price shoulder this show with a mastery of tricks and skills that, from reviews, seem to dabble in everything from giant unicycles to Mozart era opera.
Where: 122 Lang Rd, Moore Park NSW 2021
When: September 6-7, 2025
Price: $35
Book online
6. My Name Is Not Jason Derulo
You won’t see acclaimed pop singer Jason Derulo at this Sydney Fringe Festival show. But you will see a Jason. And he wants you to know exactly who he is, and who he isn’t. That seems to be the long-short of this mysterious Sydney Fringe Festival show, which will use observation and impersonation to ask many, many profound questions about life, identity and mental health.
Comedian Jason Daniels makes his Sydney Fringe debut with this interesting, self-deprecating comedy show, taking the stage of Factory Theatre so what should be one of the more unexpected comedy shows of this year’s program.
Where: 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204
When: September 6-7, 2025
Price: $22.50 – $27.50
Book online
7. George Glass’ Scientology the Musical
“See it before we get sued” is the tagline for George Class’ daring musical about one of the most controversial religions of all time. One of Adelaide’s most hilariously innovative teams scored high when this tongue-in-cheek musical did the rounds last year. It even managed to impress the notoriously hard-to-impress crowd at Edinburgh Fringe, with one review calling it “jaw dropping” and a “completely unbelievable hour of musical comedy.”
Where: 104 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville NSW 2043
When: September 16-20, 2025
Price: $27
Book online
8. Triptych
After acclaimed performances earlier this year in Walsh Bay, Triptych comes to the Sydney Fringe Festival as a cerebral collaboraiton between the rising star of Australia dane, Lewis Major, and the legendary Russell Maliphant OBE. The meeting of both old and new ideas in dance has birthed a three-part performance with pieces investigating various poetic possibilities, universal rhythms and cycles performed by Major’s company of dancers.
Taking place within a “twirling maelstrom of movement, sound and light”, this is bound to be one of the more sophisticated performance at Sydney Fringe Festival this year. And a great chance to catch it after such a short run in Sydney earlier this year.
Where: 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
When: September 2-6, 2025
Price: $50
Book online
9. Catstronaut
A live game of Mario Kart fuelled by big, brassy music isn’t something you’d expect from… well, anywhere. And yet Sydney Fringe Festival has managed to dial this one up for this year’s program, welcoming it into the fold after sold-out shows in some of the city’s favourite venues including Oxford Art Factory and The Chippo Hotel.
The conceit is simple. You’ve got a seven-piece band layering complex jazz into tight, highly technical pieces that invite the crowd to let loose and dance. You also have a live game of Mario Kart on stage, with a special prize for the winner. Mario Kart and jazz? Name a more iconic duo.
Where: 156 Enmore Road Enmore, Sydney 2042
When: September 27, 2025
Price: $30
Book online
10. Burlesque with Evana de Lune
Evana De Lune, the award-winning burlesque star behind Le Bar Supper Club, has always been a popular presence for Fringe festivals around the world. Now, she makes her Sydney debut with a dazzling, highly polished spectacle of striptease, wit and seduction with a just a tiny, tiny hint of filth.
The dazzling rhinestones will be on show, presenting a sinuous show curated by De Lune with several international superstars direct from the USA. Miss Exotic World 2025 winner Jessabelle Thunder will be climbing on board as well while Tito Bonito is on hosting duties for what should be a night of both classic and modern burlesque, celebrating femininity, fantasy and fierce performance.
Where: Entertainment Quarter 122 Lang Road, Moore Park 2021
When: September 16-21, 2025
Price: $45 – $55
Book online
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