Review: Adelaide Things at The Little Theatre

Homegrown Musicals Australia’s Adelaide Things feels less like a showcase and more like a love letter to new Australian writing, to artists backing artists, and to the messy, funny, heartfelt act of making musical theatre right here, right now. It’s warm, generous, and bursting with creative intent, offering audiences a rare glimpse into works in development alongside songs already finding their feet in the wider world.

Guiding us through the evening are Phoebe Rodger and Ryan Murphy, who strike a welcoming, playful balance as hosts. There’s an ease to their banter that sets the tone, relaxed, inclusive, and deeply invested in the stories being shared. They open the night with “Miss C”, a warmly observed and affectionate song about one of Rodger’s teachers, setting the spirit of the evening with humour, gratitude, and personal storytelling. Rodger returns in Act 2 with “Phoebs, You’re A Lesbian”, a sharp, self-aware number from her upcoming cabaret debuting at the Adelaide Fringe. It’s funny, honest, unapologetically specific, and emblematic of the voices Homegrown exists to amplify.

The writing talent on display throughout the night is formidable. Millicent Sarre and Joseph Simons present development material from Primetime, a work built around a gameshow-style model that cleverly interrogates performance, pressure, and the masks we wear in public life. The concept is sharp and theatrically savvy, using the familiar tropes of entertainment to explore something far more human. It’s playful, pointed, and full of promise, offering an exciting glimpse into a work that knows exactly what it wants to say. Producers, this is a show you should be investing in!

Jennifer Trijo shares three songs from her new musical development, Dragonfly, each rich with emotional clarity and narrative intent. The work feels lyrical and reflective, with a strong sense of atmosphere and storytelling that invites the audience in rather than demanding attention.

A quieter but beautifully resonant moment arrives with “Again”, with music and lyrics by Akari Komoto and Natalie Soares, performed by Natalie Soares. There’s an intimacy to this piece that lingers, carried by gentle musicality and an honest emotional throughline that allows stillness to do the heavy lifting.

One of the evening’s most tender offerings comes with Matt Hawke’s “Fine Lie” from Beautiful Lies, also premiering at the Adelaide Fringe. Framed as an ode to mental health, the song walks a careful line between sincerity and levity, addressing difficult emotional truths while allowing moments of comic relief to soften the edges. It’s thoughtful, disarming, and deeply relatable; a reminder that honesty and humour can coexist when telling stories about vulnerability.

The emotional temperature lifts with “I Choose You”, a powerful number performed by Jaxon Joy, written and composed by Homegrown co-founders and co-directors Nick Hedger and Ben Nicholson. Their writing feels confident and contemporary, driven by emotional clarity rather than spectacle. This continues with “Searching for a Sign”, sung with intention by Melanie Cowmeadow, and “Worth the Breath”, performed by Bella Thomas, Erica Jones, and Sally Harrop, whose harmonies and connection elevate the material and highlight the strength of ensemble storytelling.

Act 2 brings a delightful shift in tone with Josh Belperio, who presents two songs from his work Mozart’s Sister, a creation that reclaims history with wit and intelligence. Yes, Mozart did have a very talented sister, and these songs balance humour, insight, and musical complexity with a hint of Hamilton × Six.

Comedy lands squarely with “My Ball, My Rules”, written by Ryan Murphy and performed by Issy Coomber. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, sharply observed, and expertly delivered, offering a moment of joyful release without losing its bite.

Millicent Sarre returns with “Existential Crisis in B Major” from her upcoming Fringe show Too Tired to Smash [Patriarchy]. It’s clever, cutting, and musically inventive, marrying intellectual humour with emotional fatigue in a way that feels both timely and deeply relatable.

The latter part of the evening belongs to Amity Dry, who presents three songs from her upcoming work The Perfect Life. The show, a reinvention of her earlier success Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life, explores what it means to be a woman, and all that entails, unpacking expectation, identity, ambition, and contradiction with warmth and honesty. These songs blend humour with emotional insight, capturing small, specific moments that collectively speak to a shared experience many will recognise, leaving audiences excited to see this work fully realised at the Fringe.

The night closes on a particularly special note with “All That I’ll Be” from The Book Thief, written and composed by Reo Gerhardy when he was just 15 years old, and sung superbly by Chloe Dowd.

It’s a beautiful reminder of the depth of talent within this community, past, present, and future, and a quietly moving way to end the evening.

Adelaide Things isn’t about finished products or flashy polish, it’s about process, possibility, and people. Homegrown Musicals Australia continues to do vital work in championing Australian stories and voices, and this showcase stands as a testament to the richness, diversity, and sheer promise of musical theatre being created on our own soil.

I bloody love Adelaide.

4.5 Frog-cakes

Lia Loves.