<
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/jun/30/musical-theatre-cancellations-australia-waitress-beetlejuice-industry-funding>
"Australia’s theatre industry is in desperate need of tax reform to keep it
alive, experts have warned the federal government, after two major touring
musicals and a $20m opera cancelled shows in the space of a week, citing
skyrocketing costs and soft box office sales.
Broadway musical
Waitress, starring Rob Mills and Natalie Bassingthwaighte,
announced on Sunday that it would end in Melbourne on 19 July and will not tour
to Sydney in August as planned.
And
Beetlejuice, which was written by Australian performer Eddie Perfect and
has been staged on Broadway and the West End, announced on 20 June that it
would cancel its Australian tour and end in Brisbane three weeks early. The
show was originally set to go to Perth for three weeks, Adelaide for two and
Sydney for seven.
Both productions cited multiple factors including rising production costs, the
costs of touring, cost-of-living pressures such as interest rate rises that
were affecting sales, and lower consumer confidence changing ticket-buying
behaviour.
The Crossroads Live Australia chief executive, John Frost, who produced
Waitress, said in a statement that “whilst audience enthusiasm for our work
remained strong, attendance levels and box office have not been sufficient to
support the cost of the production”.
Beetlejuice’s production company, Michael Cassel Group, said in a statement
that “for a production of this scale, the current logistical realities of
touring across vast distances between Australian cities have created increasing
cost pressures that ultimately made continuing the run unsustainable.
“While audience enthusiasm for the show has been encouraging, a more cautious
consumer environment combined with the economics of moving a production of this
magnitude could not be justified. It is a difficult decision, and not one we
made lightly.”
And on Friday, the blockbuster Italian opera
Aida announced it would no
longer come to Adelaide in February 2027 despite selling 17,000 tickets, due to
the huge rise in production and touring costs amid the Iran-US war.
TEG Live’s head of touring, Claudia Coffey, told
ABC Adelaide that the
company lost $2m and five years of work by cancelling
Aida now, but “bringing
400 people and 28 containers became totally untenable”, adding “if we sold
every single ticket to the show with the increased freight costs and travel
costs, we would be at a loss”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
