Starting the year on March 27 will be the Queensland Theatre Company-Melbourne Theatre Company co-production Ladies in Black, an original Australian musical with music and lyrics by Crowded House's Tim Finn that won Best New Australian Work at the Helpmann Awards this year.

Program manager Gill Hugonnet said Ladies in Black was "a feelgood musical" set in the 1950s that told the story of a young woman working at a department store who is introduced to life by her co-workers.

"It's got a ripper of a score and is uniquely Australian."

Ending the year will be the previously announced ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, which starts its national tour in Canberra on November 24.

In between will be a wide variety of companies and shows. Returning favourites include Bangarra Dance Theatre presenting Stephen Page's Bennelong, the story of an Eora man who acted as an interlocutor between the British government and Indigenous Australians (August 3-5); Bell Shakespeare's productions of two Shakespearean plays featuring memorable villains with Kate Mulvaney in the title role of Richard 3 (April 6-15); and Mitchell Butel as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (October 13-21).

Also returning will be Circa with Landscape With Monsters (September 6-9), an acrobatic work created in response to industrial landscapes; Sydney Dance Company with Orb, combining the world premiere of Full Moon by Taiwan's Cheng Tsung-lung and Ocho by Rafael Bonachela and Nick Wales (May 25-27); and the satirical Wharf Revue (September 12-23).

One of the revue's members, Jonathan Biggins, will also be writing and directing a new play for the Sydney Theatre Company. In Talk (May 31-June 3), John Waters will play a talkback radio host who barricades himself in his studio and broadcasts live when events start going out of control and various media – the ABC, The Daily Telegraph, social – enter the fray.

"Jonathan Biggins says it's about the death of journalism – it's social commentary," Hugonnet said.

Another new Australian work is Coranderrk (June 14-15) by Ilbijerri Theatre Company, who previously brought Jack Charles v the Crown.

"It's about a group of Indigenous people from Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve claiming the right to own land and self-determination," Hugonnet said. That was in 1881 and, she said, "It makes you wonder how things could have evolved with our relationship with the Aborigines."

A couple of classics will make their way to the stage: Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, adapted and directed by Damien Ryan, who will also play the swashbuckling, self-loathing hero in Sport for Jove's production; and an adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 by the State Theatre Company of South Australia.

"It's a UK production with an Australian cast – it's an amazing production, harrowing and very spectacular."

Somewhat lighter are Blue Love, Shaun Parker & Company's blend of physical theatre, film and dance (August 16-17) – "It's a tale of modern romance that pokes fun at romantic notions," Hugonnet said – and The Popular Mechanicals, imagining what might have happened offstage during the rehearsals of the play-within-a-play in A Midsummer Night's Dream (November 1-4).

Hugonnet said that although the season was slightly smaller in 2017 (14 shows compared with 16 this year) it was about "finding a balance".

She said the theatre wanted to work out the right mix of of shows that would attract and entertain audiences as well as stimulate and challenge them.

Season ticket holders can purchase tickets from October 17, new season bookers can buy tickets from October 31, and single tickets go on sale on November 14.

For more information on Canberra Theatre Centre 2017 Collected Works, see canberratheatrecentre.com.au.