Words by: Belinda Quick
Photos by: Sam Phillips
‘All the best performers bring to their role something more… That’s why it persists’ – Stephen Sondheim, American Songwriter: The Craft of Music
In regards to the performing arts, a form and medium reign supreme – the classics performed on a grand stage; Shakespearean tragedies brought to life at the Globe Theatre, Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim’s interpretation of Arthur Laurents’ West Side Story, an homage to the originator himself.
Celebrating the Australian opening act of their 40th anniversary world tour in the humble capital city of Adelaide, Bostonian patriarchs of progressive metal, DREAM THEATER, offer their voices to the chorus and join the honour roll of great thespian performances.
A fellow country and craftsman, Bernard Herrmann’s Prelude plays as spotlights begin to search the almighty monikered curtain. Dropping to reveal Johns Petrucci and Myung on their respective stringed instruments, the wizardry of Jordan Rudess in Oz commanding a rotating, gyrating synth station aside a Camelot fortress of drums, presided over by King Mike Portnoy, is nothing short of majestic.
Each instrumentalist enjoying solos in The Metropolis: The Miracle and The Sleeper, vocalist James LaBrie, arrives for Act I: Scene Two amongst a flurry of baby blue pinstriped lights, dissecting the adoring crowd. Waiting years for this pleasure, the night honorary enough, it also marks the return of founding member Portnoy to the fold, re-joining Dream Theater in 2023 in anticipation of the global Ruby celebration.
Scene II. Strange Deja Vu and Through My Words and the sprites of smoke, LaBrie stands illuminated in soliloquy, foretelling the Fatal Tragedy still yet to unfold this evening.
A film noir backdrop of Victorian cobbled streets, slayed damsels and detective case files from Sweeney Todd’s London are rear protected, The Enemy Inside a smaller screen at crowd level now psychedelic. The soaring and beauteous symbolism of Peruvian Skies follow, bathed in vast bluebottles of light and featuring Rudess’s continuum orchestra, Pink Floyd inflections leave the Queen’s audience in awe and, As I Am, enthralled at intermission for the second act of this unbelievable evening with…
Twin Peaks’ eerily ethereal Red Room Dance of the Dream Man interspersed between silver screen compositions, we collapse In the Arms of Morpheus and cascade amongst smoke signals, sparkling chimes and spinning drumsticks into the second act’s Night Terror.
LaBrie’s mic stands inanimate in theory, the many macabre faces of a multidimensional mask of the Midnight Messiah brings it threateningly to life. Portnoy lending his voice in haunting harmony and ventriloquy, Sleepy Hollows segued with shocking blood smears akin to another American Horror Story or Saw series, the original members enjoy an instrumental interlude. Are We Dreaming or is this ghost train real?
‘Playing a great deal‘ of 2025’s contemporary gothic opus, Parasomnia, the second act is dedicated to the new. Dream Theater Bend The Clock, modelling for the audience to raise their phone lights where once lighters illuminated; Lost Not Forgotten Archives holding as grand relevance in 2026 as they did in 1985.
The Shadow Man now revealed via giant puppetry, Pertucci, bathed in red and upon the dais, Portnoy intermittently batting his piñata strung microphone away, the centripetal motion of the Octavarium concludes Act II: Scene Eight and the major set.
The Spirit Carries On though, as every grand performance does. An encore awaits and rewards the captive audience. A ballerina dancing in a jewellery box, Portnoy conducts the ovation as Dream Theater, one more time, Pull Me Under and into a classic.
Something more than I was expecting, a timeless performance; this is why Dream Theater exists, persists, and produces again one of the very most exclusive nights on the stage.
