Arts editor HELEN MUSA leads this week’s Arts in the City column previewing ‘a celebration of culture, the Lunar New Year and Asian-identifying artists’.

The Charlie Wan production, Monkey King Cabaret: Beneath the Dragon Moon, which is billed as “a celebration of culture, the Lunar New Year and Asian-identifying artists”, promises a night of drag, burlesque, classical Chinese dance, Lion Dance, song, “boylesque”, dance, poetry, storytelling and visual art. The Courtyard Studio, February 16-17.

Queanbeyan Players’ next boutique show is the gently sympathetic Pulitzer Prizewinning musical, Next to Normal, in which a family’s lives are anything but normal because mum has been battling bipolar disorder for 16 years. Belconnen Community Theatre, February 15-24. 

John Schumann and The Vagabond Crew return with their Back Tracks concert, which includes the classics but also looks at Schumann’s 40-year back catalogue, proving, he quips, that I Was Only 19 is far from the only song he’s ever written. The Street Theatre, February 16.

Anarchic comedian Garry Starr will attempt to perform all of Greek mythology on stage at The Q, February 16. “Never before has Medusa been looser,” he says. Audiences can expect full-frontal nudity. Recommended for ages 18+ 

Armed with a grant from Blumers Lawyers, the CAT (Combined Area Theatre Awards) covering performances in 2023 will be presented in an afternoon event at The Q, Queanbeyan, on February 18. Book at theq.net.au 

Good to see local region poet Judith Nangala Crispin in the top five for the 2024 Peter Porter Poetry Prize, with her work, Poem of the Dead Women for Marvin Bell. The $6000 first prize was eventually won by Sydney poet, Dan Hogan, chosen out of 1066 poems received from 21 countries. 

Salut! Baroque turns the spotlight on composer CPE Bach, who once described his father Johann Sebastian’s house as “like a pigeonry, and just as full of life”. An impressive line-up of 10 performers will perform no fewer than 11 works by Bach, Telemann, Monteverdi, Handel and others. Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery, February 16.