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The national tour of Eddie Perfect’s Beetlejuice The Musical has been abruptly cancelled in a further alarming sign that a cost of living crisis is seriously impacting Australia’s theatre sector.
Dates for the 2019 Broadway hit have been cancelled in Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, with the musical set to play its last show in Brisbane on Sunday, July 5, one month short of its scheduled Queensland run.
Musical theatre rebounded strongly after COVID shut down theatres across the country and the highly anticipated Australian premiere opened to critical acclaim at its Melbourne opening a year ago.
After scoring the original production, Perfect stepped into the titular role of the stripped suited mischievous demon for the Australian opening. Nominated for eight Tonys in its opening run on Broadway six years ago, rising production costs and a cost of living crisis is believed to have factored into this year’s poorer than expected box office sales.
The show’s production company Michael Cassel Group said the decision was a “difficult decision” which came despite a stellar cast, outstanding production values and excellent reviews.
“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,” the statement read.
“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.
“Our cast and crew have poured extraordinary heart and talent into this show, and they have our deepest gratitude. To the Melbourne and Brisbane audiences who came along, and to everyone who loves this production, thank you. We’re sorry to be saying goodbye sooner than any of us hoped.”
The cancellation is not isolated. Beetlejuice’s cancelled its planned Singapore run less than a month before opening. Back to the Future also had a shortened national run, cancelled at the end of last year after its opening performances in Sydney. The Canberra and Adelaide legs of the Australian season of Dear Evan Hanson were cut short a year ago.
However, Cassell’s MJ: The Musical is unaffected and said to be performing strongly in Perth.
Based on Tim Burton’s 1988 film, the musical debuted in 2019 with music and lyrics by Perfect and returned to Broadway for a brief run last year. Its Brisbane cast is led by Broadway performer Andy Karl while Karis Oka stars as teenager Lydia Deetz.
President of the lobby group Live Performance Australia, Richard Evans, said the early closure of Beetlejuice in Brisbane and the cancellation of the rest of its Australian season highlighted the “very real pressures that are being felt across the live performance industry due to much higher costs of touring and production and the growing squeeze on household budgets”. LPA representatives are travelling to Canberra this week to mount their case for tax rebates that have been credited with reviving London’s West End.
“Producers are walking a very fine line between covering their costs and what audiences can afford to pay. This can lead to having make tough decisions about whether to continue a run or tour.
“It’s not just the cast and crew who are impacted by this decision. We know that live theatre attendance has a big multiplier effect across the economy, so it’s also the lost spending on hospitality and accommodation that happens around a show.
“That’s why we need mechanisms such as a live performance production incentive to mitigate against some of these increased costs and financial risk, and support industry sustainability for the long term.”
The cancellation means audiences in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney will miss out entirely, while Brisbane theatregoers now have only a limited window left to catch the production before it leaves the country.
Fans took to social media to mourn the loss of the show, saying they were devastated and had planned multiple attendances. Ticket holders in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney will receive automatic refunds for tickets.
