The annual Brisbane Festival has unveiled its full line-up for 2014, headed by the exclusive Australian premiere season of The Perfect American, the newest work from legendary composer Philip Glass.

Brisbane will become only the third city in the world to play host to the show when the three-week-long festival commences on September 6. All up, the festival will host 73 productions and 440 performances over its duration.

Filling out the highly impressive roster of artists and performances are renowned contemporary dancer Akram Khan and his award-winning masterpiece Desh -- which the festival says is "a major coup" for Brisbane, made possible with assistance from the state government's Super Star Fund -- as well as acrobatic troupe Grupo Puja!, who, thanks to a new partnership with Treasury Hotel & Casino, will put on a free opening-night performance to celebrate the start of the event.

Returning for 2014 is the eternally beloved Telstra Spiegeltent, which hosts this year's renowned music contingent, presented by theMusic.com.au, including familiar faces such as Grinspoon's Phil Jamieson, Midnight Juggernauts, Miami Horror, Vancouver Sleep Clinic, Bombay Royale and Joe Henry, while comedians are similarly well represented by the likes of triple j presenter Matt Okine, Com Truise and Ronny Chieng. The Spiegeltent's coup de gras, though, is arguably its nightly cabaret, LIMBO, which arrives in Brisbane fresh from a sell-out season in London.

Families, too, are well catered for, with an all-ages program on offer including esteemed circus troupe Circa present the world premiere of their spellbinding new show The Physical Impossibility Of Disappearing.

The Courier-Mail Piazza, meanwhile, will be home to returning 2012 sensation SOAP - The Show, while South Bank will be home base for "towering inflatable city" Exxopolis and the Brisbane Airport Light Garden will illuminate the riverbanks with its forest of bamboo, light and sound.

Theatre-lovers, too, have never been so spoilt by a Brisbane Festival, with the 2014 event boasting its largest spread of stage-based drama yet, including the world premiere of Monkey ... Journey To The West -- which draws on the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey To The West, later used as the basis for beloved B-grade late-night series Monkey (aka Monkey Magic) -- indigenous masterpieces Black Diggers and Shadow King, and Lally Katz's adaptation of famed Norwegian play A Doll's House.

In addition, the QUT Theatre Republic -- also presented by theMusic -- returns to Kelvin Grove to stage 12 shows and other surprises over the festival's duration. Premier Campbell Newman said of the event's theatrical focus:

“Brisbane Festival will showcase the amazing work of our Queensland arts companies with participation from Circa, La Boite, Queensland Theatre Company, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Opera Queensland and Expressions Dance Company.

“Brisbane Festival will also have a stronger presence at Queensland's Cultural Precinct at South Bank working with Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Queensland Museum and Sciencentre and State Library of Queensland."

This year's Brisbane Festival marks outgoing artistic director Noel Staunton's final event, and so it is fitting that he should see out his term with one more round of the renowned Sunsuper Riverfire, which closes the festivities on September 27.

Tickets for the 2014 Brisbane Festival go on sale Monday, June 30. For more information, visit the festival website.