Singapore theatre in 2025: 25 must-watch musicals, history plays, kids shows and more
SINGAPORE – A musical tribute to the legendary film icon P. Ramlee. Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth played out on the lawn at Fort Canning Park. The return of a sold-out parenthood drama that clinched the top prize at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards in 2023.
Plan your calendar with ST’s curated guide to Singapore theatre in 2025, a selection of the 25 most anticipated plays by 10 major home-grown theatre companies. Whether you are a musical theatre lover or a serious history junkie, there is a play for every theatregoer in the guide.
Wild Rice, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025, is bringing a season of its greatest hits – all of which tell Singapore stories. Founding artistic director Ivan Heng, who will direct three of the company’s six shows, says: “It’s a mark of confidence in our own cultural capital.”
As Singapore gears up to celebrate its 60th year of independence, expect provocative plays that will mine untold stories in the nation’s history and question familiar narratives. Teater Ekamatra artistic director Shaza Ishak says its season “delves into different facets of Singaporean identity and its intersection with memory”.
The Theatre Practice celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2025 too. Artistic director Kuo Jian Hong says: “It’ll be a celebration of Practice’s past, present and future: honouring our history, cherishing the gifts we’ve inherited and reimagining them for the next generation.”
Make sure to book tickets early, as seats for some of the hottest shows often sell out fast – some even falling into the hands of scalpers. Here are 2025’s must-watch shows.
Epic blockbusters – for every theatre lover
Do not miss these three landmark productions, which will thrill with their operatic spectacle and ambition.
From May 7, Shakespeare’s tragedy around a paranoid tyrant will aptly be staged where the region’s ancient kings are believed to be buried. Shakespeare In The Park by the Singapore Repertory Theatre returns to Fort Canning Park with Macbeth, except Scotland is now transformed into a parallel world.
It is helmed by the same creative team that conjured the dazzling comedic splendour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2023, and audiences can look forward to what set designer Richard Kent will bring to the outdoor spectacle. Director Guy Unsworth says: “Expect a cinematic epic involving music, puppetry and the ultimate quest for power.”
Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Shakespeare In The Park returns with Macbeth and brings back set designer Richard Kent, who designed the set for 2023’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (above).PHOTO: SINGAPORE REPERTORY THEATRE
Those who want a sweeping panorama of Singapore’s history will want to steel themselves for Wild Rice’s multi-generational epic Hotel, hailed as an “instant classic” by ST and crowned Production of the Year in 2016. The play, which covers 100 years of Singapore history in nine languages, has 66 characters including mutineers, nannies, sex workers, chambermaids and soldiers.
Heng, who is co-directing the show, regards the production as the company’s magnum opus – and it is easy to see why. Despite its five-hour marathon length, the two-part play written by Alfian Sa’at and Marcia Vanderstraaten has kept audiences rapt since its premiere in 2015 and returns for the fourth time from Aug 14.
Singer-songwriter Dick Lee’s Fried Rice Paradise will be made into a mad-cap four-course dinner theatre show. PHOTO: COURTESY OF DICK LEE
Singer-songwriter Dick Lee’s Fried Rice Paradise has been upsized and remade into a 2019 television series. But, in August, theatregoers will see the beloved 1991 musical transformed for the first time into a mad-cap four-course dinner theatre show tentatively titled Fried Rice Paradise – The Makan Party. It is written by Thomas Lim, who is known for shows such as Grandmother Tongue and Straight Acting, and presented by SRT.
Blast to the past – for history junkies
Will SG60 herald some of the most iconic contemporary Singapore history plays?
After all, Teater Ekamatra’s Malay-language production Yusof – a play about Singapore’s first president Yusof Ishak written by playwright Zizi Azah Abdul Majid – was first staged in 2015 during SG50. Director Mohd Fared Jainal says the SG60 return of this play in October will have revisions to the script and a new creative team.
Sani Hussin and Siti Khalijah Zainal played out a sweet and realistic relationship between Singapore’s first president Yusof Ishak and his wife in Yusof (2015). PHOTO: JACK YAM
The Necessary Stage will mark SG60 with a cheekily titled triple-bill of plays titled SG Insecure. The plays are written by the company’s associate artists – A Yagnya, Deonn Yang and Sindhura Kalidas – and deal with historical themes, such as colonial plantation labour, the clean-up of the Singapore River and the Fajar Trial of May 1954. It plays from Oct 29 to Nov 8.
Head writer and director Haresh Sharma says: “One connecting point I’m exploring is that of surveillance and technology. Singapore is seen as a ‘smart nation’ and a ‘city of sensors’. The play will incorporate these elements in dramatic and humorous ways.”
Tamil theatre company Agam Theatre Lab is staging a new devised play about the Japanese Occupation titled Mission Malligapoo, written by playwrights Syed Ashratulla and Karthikeyan Somasundaram, in November. Agam founder Subramanian Ganesh says the play will deploy dark humour. “History is often taught with a solemn tone, but humour – especially in difficult times – can be a powerful tool for survival,” he adds.
In June, Teater Ekamatra is bringing back playwright Johnny Jon Jon’s script National Memory Project – an artificial intelligence-themed play that follows a Memory Corps agent tasked with extracting memory from a man. Jon Jon poses the question: “Who curates our memories and who decides which ones endure?”
Hot new local works – for the trailblazers
Veteran and emerging playwrights are staging original works, and here are five new scripts to look forward to.
Escape To Batam (Aug 21 to 24), written by Checkpoint Theatre’s co-artistic directors Huzir Sulaiman and Claire Wong, tells the story of Wong’s father – who escaped to Batam from Singapore during the Japanese Occupation. The duo, who have been working creatively together in different roles for decades, add: “This is the first time we are co-writing a play about people whom and experiences that both of us know very well and care about very much.”
Checkpoint Theatre founders Claire Wong and Huzir Sulaiman are co-writing a play titled Escape To Batam. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
In The Serangoon Gardens Techno Party Of 1993 (Oct 17 to Nov 1), written by Joel Tan and presented by Wild Rice, a privileged teenager snaps and embarks on a journey to the darker side of Singapore’s 1990s. Tan, who won for Best Original Script and had his play crowned Production of the Year at the 2024 ST Life Theatre Awards, says the script will be more “rabak” (out of control) than his award-winning complaint culture play G*d Is A Woman.
Statement Piece (April 3 to 13), the second professional play by rising playwright Myle Yan Tay, involves a young gallerist preparing for her first exhibition in the wake of a national tragedy. Through the play, staged by Checkpoint, Tay – who came to attention with his male friendship drama Brown Boys Don’t Tell Jokes – says he “wanted to unpack what free speech looks like for artists in Singapore”.
Checkpoint Theatre’s associate artist Myle Yan Tay returns with his second play, Statement Piece. PHOTO: JOEL LIM
Singapore, Michigan (June 26 to July 11), the debut play by Chong An Ong presented by Pangdemonium, is a comedy drama about two Singaporeans and one American – all Gen Zs – on a road trip to the ghost town in Michigan called Singapore. Ong, who had spent four years studying in Chicago, calls this a love letter to his American friends and first presented it as a work-in-progress at Sifa 2024.
No Man’s Land (June 12 to 15), an interdisciplinary work by The Necessary Stage, co-conceptualised and co-directed by Alvin Tan and Sim Yan Ting, will tackle themes of masculinity through movement, text and sound. Playwright Danial Matin says: “As much as the culture of toxic masculinity forces men into tight boxes, it became apparent to me that there was neither a singular nor perfect definition of ‘man’.”
From Broadway to P. Ramlee – for musical nerds
Fans of P. Ramlee will want to catch Tunggu Sekejap: The P. Ramlee Suite by Julian Wong, presented by Wild Rice from May 15 to 31. Wong, who wrote the beloved musical show on composer Zubir Said titled Don’t Call Him Mr Mari Kita, says of P. Ramlee’s story: “His prodigious talent, swift rise to fame and tragic end to his short life say much about how we value our artists.”
Young Artist Award recipient Julian Wong (on piano) returns to the stage with a musical tribute to the film legend P. Ramlee.PHOTO: WILD RICE
Mandopop lovers craving songs from the likes of JJ Lin and Stefanie Sun will have The Theatre Practice’s new original musical Partial Eclipse Of The Heart to look forward to. Featuring Mandopop hits, it is written by playwright Jonathan Lim, who died in January. The Theatre Practice artistic director Kuo says the show will go on as planned from Aug 21 to Sept 7.
Broadway lovers will not want to miss Pangdemonium’s staging of the Tony Award-winning musical Kimberly Akimbo (Oct 17 to Nov 2) with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. In it, heroine Kimberly has a rare genetic disorder that accelerates her ageing process, her unique biological clock ticking away exponentially.
Familiar favourites – for those who missed out
Playwright Faith Ng’s millennial parenthood drama The Fourth Trimester by Checkpoint Theatre returns from Nov 20 to 30.PHOTO: CRISPIAN CHAN
Playwright Faith Ng’s millennial parenthood drama The Fourth Trimester, which won Production of the Year at the 2023 ST Life Theatre Awards, is returning from Nov 20 to 30. Checkpoint Theatre’s 2022 show, which follows three couples and one single woman in their turbulent 30s, was dubbed a “must-watch play” in an ST review.
Actress Janice Koh (left) returns to the stage with Wild Rice’s Supervision after her diagnosis with tongue cancer. PHOTO: WILD RICE
Playwright Thomas Lim’s Supervision (March 27 to April 12), nominated for Production of the Year in 2019, will see actress Janice Koh return to the stage after being diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2022. The Wild Rice play follows a grumpy retiree who, after suffering a stroke, has to reckon with his right to privacy and pleasure. Koh plays the daughter to Julius Foo’s retiree, while Amirah Yahya plays Indonesian domestic worker Yanti.
Playwright Alfian Sa’at’s queer fantasia Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 was last staged by Wild Rice in 2013. PHOTO: WILD RICE
Playwright Alfian’s riotous Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 (June 20 to July 21) – a gay romp through Singapore history with a goddess – was last staged by Wild Rice in 2013. Alfian says: “The humour surrounding the central character – a homophobic goddess who dresses and acts like a drag queen – never gets old. In this run, she’s played by Singapore’s No. 1 fag hag, Pam Oei, so expect some gleeful psychological damage there.”
Nelson Chia (right) and Mia Chee, co-founders of Nine Years Theatre, play long-time lovers celebrating their anniversary in See You, Anniversary.PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Nine Years Theatre’s See You Anniversary (Feb 14 to 23), which debuted in 2022, sees husband-and-wife duo Nelson Chia and Mia Chee play long-time lovers celebrating their anniversary and many firsts. To round off this perfect Valentine’s show, check out the show’s specifically crafted six-course menu at restaurant The Masses that comes with wine pairing.
The Finger Players’ annual Puppet Origin Stories @ One-Two-Six returns from Oct 29 to Nov 2.PHOTO: THE FINGER PLAYERS
The annual site-specific suite of shows by The Finger Players known as Puppet Origin Stories @ One-Two-Six will return from Oct 29 to Nov 2. The artists for the 2025 edition have not been announced, but previous editions have brought together an eclectic mix of theatremakers, sound designers, dancers, drag queens and other artistes to tell the story of the storied One-Two-Six Cairnhill Arts Centre.
Multilingual children’s shows – for discerning parents
Agam Theatre’s Charlie (May 24), a Tamil-English adaptation of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, will retell Roald Dahl’s original story. It is performed by the actors of the company’s children’s theatre programme who are aged five to 10, and focuses on themes of kindness, integrity and imagination.
Those looking for Chinese-language fare will have The Theatre Practice’s Berries Chinese Theatre Festival: Family Edition to look forward to, which features an array of theatrical productions and participatory experiences from April 6 to May 4. Do not miss Day I Met The Prince, inspired by the classic The Little Prince and reimagined by theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun.
Two English-language shows will retell the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes. Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Threads: The Emperor’s New Clothes Musical (from March 8) will see the titular emperor run a fashion magazine in this modern-day pop-style musical. Meanwhile, Wild Rice’s annual pantomime The Emperor’s New Clothes (from Nov 13) will present a Singaporean spin that will tickle adults too.
Playwright Joel Tan is doing a rewrite of the 2015 script of Wild Rice’s pantomime The Emperor’s New Clothes.PHOTO: WILD RICE
The Finger Players’ English-language children’s show will feature a life-size puppetry performance in Samsui Women: A Brick At A Time (July 23 to Aug 1). Set in 1960s Singapore, it follows the lives of samsui women after a destructive fire destroys the settlement of Bukit Ho Swee and leaves thousands homeless.
For more details about the shows, go to the websites of the respective theatre companies:
Agam Theatre Lab: agam.com.sg
Checkpoint Theatre: checkpoint-theatre.org/whats-on
Nine Years Theatre: nineyearstheatre.com
Pangdemonium: pangdemonium.com/season-ticket
Singapore Repertory Theatre: srt.com.sg
Teater Ekamatra: ekamatra.org.sg
The Finger Players: fingerplayers.com
The Necessary Stage: necessary.org
The Theatre Practice: practice.org.sg
Wild Rice: wildrice.com.sg/whats-on
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