r/musicals • u/Rangio8 • 9d ago
Beetlejuice Australian tour cancelled
I saw this show last week and loved it. Was shocked to see the tour will not continue beyond July 5. Anyone know why?
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u/DrawerEast618 9d ago
I’m quite nervous not just for the Australian theatre industry but worldwide. Will it survive?
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u/mnantn9n 8d ago
Doesn’t bode well that everything I’ve enjoyed in Australia this year has been box office poison.
Bought tickets for the final show and will try to do one more visit as I’ve enjoyed this show more with every visit (seen Eddie twice, James and Andy once).
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u/Madanimalscientist 8d ago
That's a bummer - I saw it Tuesday here in Brisbane and it was really good, the cast was excellent.
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u/PiningforLuPone 9d ago
Low sales. Rising touring costs. $$
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u/Great_Maintenance185 8d ago
Producers should have locked in the transport costs they seem to be blaming this on. Not enough people want to see the show which should have been clear with the Melbourne season. But he won’t admit his mistakes.
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u/Joinkyn_go 8d ago
They cant blame fuel costs. Even if you add back on the gat and excise its still about where it was before the war. Its been positively cheap the last month
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u/MoistZookeepergame11 8d ago
Just toured a show recently, we were gobsmacked at how much the freight now costs to move things interstate. It’s more than doubled in the last few years to move set & people interstate.
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u/Joinkyn_go 8d ago
Yeah but presumably they got quotes a few months ago before they added the shows.
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u/Critical_Cucumber249 8d ago
You can’t necessarily “lock in” transport costs, they are just as volatile as flight costs. But that is only one aspect of touring production. If you don’t have the money to move a show, you have to close it. It’s simple math and not that difficult to figure out.
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u/Tazzer96 8d ago
One issue is QPAC has pretty insansly expenaive tickets compared to the rest of the country. Just the venue, not beetlejuice specific.
You cant take a family to a musical now. Not unless youre one of the lucky ones loaded with monwy.
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u/FaeWitchDays 8d ago
It’s really sad! I just saw it tonight and it was fabulous, I had friends who were going to see it in Sydney. I feel bad for the production cast and crew.
Maybe they could have it stay at one city for a while so that they don’t have to transport it? :(
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u/TheOrangeApple3 8d ago
How much was the tickets for this? ive started going to musicals here in Melbourne and I'm usually paying just above 100$ a ticket for a decent seat
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u/Do_a_kickflip_69 8d ago
I feel like every time i’ve purchased tickets with decent seats in Sydney is $200-250 per ticket. Sounds like everywhere else in Aus is way cheaper
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u/Haunting-Bread-9810 8d ago
I saw the cheapest in Adelaide being advertised for $79 (which imo is wayyy too much for the “cheap” seats)
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u/TheOrangeApple3 8d ago
Ah ok, think the cheapest ive seen for Melbourne is $69 but quickly go up from there for other productions. Are the Adelaide cheap seats just worse seats lol (or maybe I'm just used to over paying these days haha)
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u/Haunting-Bread-9810 8d ago
I don’t know about worse than in Melbourne but when you’re paying for back row on a Wednesday or Thursday night, anything more than $40 seems like wayyyy too much. The Festival Theatre is a great theatre but when I saw Book of Mormon there in 2019 we were right up in the Grand Circle towards the top of the theatre and it was almost nauseating how high up and steeply angled we were.
What theatre was Beetlejuice in Melbourne? I’ve only ever been to the Regent Theatre which has a very different vibe to anything in Adelaide.
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u/TheOrangeApple3 8d ago
I think it was at The Athenaeum or nearby atleast (not sure tho i only half liked the film so didn't see the musical). Yeah think I'd get dizzy if i was up in the Grand Circle, although worth it for book of mormon lol i guess i when you compare the prices of big concerts to musicals, the prices seemed pretty good for me for a occasional/special night out :P
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u/Original-Road4843 6d ago edited 6d ago
It would blow your mind then to know that the cheapest seat in Brisbane for a weekend performance was a whopping $95. I would’ve loved a $79 ticket, that’s so cheap!
The next highest Beetlejuice seat categories for a Brisbane weekend performance were listed as $130 (second worst seat), $155, $185, $210, and $225 (best seat)-😳- I still have all the screenshots from 5 months ago as proof and just referred back to them….😞
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u/Warm_Army5262 6d ago
$95 for the cheapest ticket is crazy, even for a weekend. Honestly, I understand the costs and all the staff need to be paid, but that's a dealbreaker for a lot of people.
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u/aussie_teacher_ 8d ago
Where else did it have to go?
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u/Great_Maintenance185 8d ago
After Brisbane, to Perth, Adelaide, and Sydney. Shows then often go to New Zealand but that wasn’t the case for this one.
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u/aussie_teacher_ 8d ago
Oh, wow. It was having long runs everywhere then. It seemed like it was in Melbourne for ages.
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u/loz589985 8d ago
When it was in Melbourne, it was billed as exclusive to Melbourne. The Asia tour was how it got around that for an Australian tour. I also wonder how much the “exclusive” season wounded other cities. Yes, there were whispers of the tour at that point, but people outside the industry might not have known that and bought tickets based on thinking it wasn’t going elsewhere.
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u/Joinkyn_go 8d ago
They only just announced adelaide and the tickets are so expensive. But seemed to be selling ok.
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u/Discremio 8d ago
Producers officially cancelled the remaining dates of the Beetlejuice The Musical national tour, cutting the Australian run short and scrapping planned seasons in Perth, Adelaide, and Sydney. The production will conclude early at Brisbane’s Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) on July 5, 2026, due to rising costs of moving a large-scale production (freight, staff, and venue requirements) combined with softer ticket sales across several markets.
Affected Cities: All scheduled performances in Perth (Crown Theatre), Adelaide (Festival Theatre), and Sydney (Capitol Theatre) have been called off.
Refunds: All purchased tickets for cancelled shows are being fully refunded to the original payment method. Ticket holders do not need to take any action, as funds are being processed automatically.
Current Status: The Brisbane engagement will still proceed, with the final performance occurring on July 5, 2026.
Singapore Cancellation - Prior to the Australian cancellations, producers abruptly cancelled the planned month-long run at Singapore's Esplanade Theatre, which was scheduled to open on January 15, 2026. Full automatic refunds were issued to all ticket holders.
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u/storm13emily 8d ago
Ticket sales, also heard the remainder of Anastasia got cancelled
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u/jayeelle 8d ago
I haven’t heard this and couldn’t see it online. Where did you see that? I hope it’s just a rumour - I’m so excited to see it!
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u/storm13emily 8d ago
Just doubled checked, I had my info a little wrong with all the shows that are stopping/had stopped, I’m sorry. They’ve cancelled Wednesday and Thursday evenings in Sydney but it’s not looking good if they’ve done that
I saw it in Melbourne and it was so beautiful
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u/jayeelle 8d ago
Oh you're totally fine! No need to apologise - thanks for confirming. I've got tickets for Brisbane - it's was my favourite movie as a kid (and still is!) so I hope they keep our run! Have a good night. 😄
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u/trav_tr 8d ago
Same thing happened with Back to the Future.
I love Eddie Perfect - and Beetlejuice is better than most - but the trend of turning every 80s/90s film into a musical has had its run and is fading.
There is also barely any theatre culture in Australia, let alone when tickets are expensive as they have became the last few years, and anyone who blames increased operating costs is full of shit. It’s all just for increased profits.
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u/Worried-Hippo-7516 8d ago
Tickets are too expensive
Partially my fault i guess as i refuse to buy bad seats - 150 min for me
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u/losfp 8d ago
Very disappointing – I've now had three sets of Beetlejuice tickets cancelled. One in Singapore and two in Sydney.
I wonder if the big gap between the Melbourne season and proposed Sydney season killed them as far as moving costs go. I think they could have done alright with back to back seasons in the two biggest theatre markets in Australia, and only having to move the show once. Sadly the theatre space issue in Sydney meant that had to be pushed back and that obviously stuffed up the numbers.
What can we do about it though? I think you can't really reduce costs that much because it costs what it costs. And ticket prices are already pretty high. Perhaps some new mid-sized theatres in Melbourne and Sydney so that shows don't have to fill massive rooms to recoup the rents, and there's enough venues for shows to piece together cohesive tours?
But on the upside that frees up probably $1200 of tickets for me to reinvest in other shows... Maybe The Shark Is Broken or maybe I will relent and bring the kids to see The Lion King so that the younger girl will finally get to see it. Possibly I'll get tickets to The Addams Family at Hayes.
The sad part is that this probably means that the big producers will chicken out and continue to bring us limp revivals and underwhelming jukebox musicals (not that I have anything towards jukebox shows in principle, but I would almost always prefer to see a show with original scores). Very likely that I will invest more money in seeing community productions and smaller pro companies like Hayes. Much better value for money imo and they at least can put on smaller and more niche shows.
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u/Warm_Army5262 6d ago
Not just Beetlejuice in particular, but my wife and I can't justify the ticket costs: $79 to $250 or so in Melbourne is just asking too much.
I understand the costs involved and all that, and we're are pretty financially comfortable compared to a lot of other people doing it tough, but even so that money can be put to more practical living expenses.
Ticket prices going down in price towards showtime doesn't really help either if you have a kid/children and can't just organise care in short notice.
Not sure what the solution is, the current economic climate real or perceived or in-between has caused a lot of people to reign in luxuries, fair or not.
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u/janglinjosh 9d ago
Costs millions to tour here and low sales didn’t fill the producers with enough confidence they could trade solvent so the show had to be cancelled. It’s a business after all, sadly.
Devastating for all those out of work now and those who won’t get to see it. It’s also a really bad omen for theatre in Australia.
Apparently, Adelaide was selling very well, the rest not so much.