Another musical is quietly cancelling shows, but Australia's theatre sector refuses to die

Exclusive: Anastasia: The Musical appears to have quietly cancelled several Sydney performances as Australia’s theatre industry buckles under the pressure of high costs and soft ticket sales.

One theatre-goer received an email just nine days before the June 17 performance they had tickets for, saying it had been cancelled “due to a scheduling change”.

Other Wednesday evening performances no longer appear on the Sydney schedule. Tickets remain on sale for all other scheduled performances.

In a statement to nine.com.au, a spokesperson for The Anastasia Company confirmed it is facing environment and economic challenges.

“We are exploring all avenues to keep costs down which includes monitoring and sometimes changing the schedule of performances in order to keep our shows on stage,” they said. 

“We are constantly looking at options to broaden our audiences while continuing to present an array of world-class productions, like Anastasia, and will continue to do so in the future to ensure a successful, flourishing and sustainable live theatre industry.”

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The Anastasia Company would not confirm how many shows had been rescheduled or cancelled.

Anastasia is still scheduled to travel to Adelaide and Brisbane after the show’s Sydney leg wraps up on July 18.

But these quiet cancellations point to a larger problem within the sector, and it could spell trouble for thousands of Australian workers.

Theatre industry caught in a ‘perfect storm’

Last week, Beetlejuice: The Musical scrapped its Sydney, Perth and Adelaide dates, and days later Waitress axed its Sydney shows.

Associate professor Narelle Yeo, artistic director of the Music Theatre program at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, called it terrible for audiences.

“The cancellations mean both the Capitol Theatre and Sydney Lyric will be dark, or empty, for six months,” she told nine.com.au.

But cancellations are nothing new in a post-pandemic world.

Back to the Future: The Musical and Dear Evan Hansen both cut their national tours short last year, and the trend has continued in 2026.

COVID-19 forced widespread cancellations and left thousands of creatives out of work; now global economic upheaval and Australia’s cost-of-living crisis have pushed the arts to breaking point.

“The sector is in a very dire state,” Dr Izabella Nantsou, researcher of creative industry labour, policy, and funding at the University of Sydney, told nine.com.au.

“We’ve got a very difficult nexus, as others have commented on, of a cost of living crisis, rising costs, global instability, touring costs, labor costs. 

“It’s kind of a perfect storm [and] Sydney specifically seems to be where all these productions are dying.”

Musical theatre has taken a harder hit due to the high costs associated with large casts and crew, elaborate sets and costumes, huge venues, and multi-city tours.

But the challenges that forced Beetlejuice and Waitress into an early curtain call are not limited to musicals.

“This is a crisis right across the sector, and I think that does ultimately boil down to the economic environment,” Nantsou said.

Justifying the cost of dinner and a show

The average Australian household spent $292 each week on recreation and culture in 2025, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and theatre tickets can eat up a good chunk of that.

Tickets for Waitress′ Melbourne dates started from $69.90 and Beetlejuice’s Queensland dates started from $75.

That’s an almost $150 bill for two of the cheapest seats, even more if you want to bring the whole family or dine out beforehand.

“What you have to incur as a family of four, for instance, is not just the cost of one ticket but the cost of, say, four tickets, dinner, parking, transport, all of these things,” Nantsou said.

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“You can easily be looking at $1000 or more just to go to the theatre one night.”

Spending that kind of money just isn’t feasible for Aussies struggling to afford essentials like rent, groceries and utilities.

“People are having to make far more stringent decisions about their discretionary spending at the moment,” Nantsou said.

Sydney Theatre Company executive director Anne Dunn told nine.com.au many attendees are waiting longer to book tickets, and attending fewer shows in 2026.

“Audiences want to know that they’re investing their money in a show that’s going to really deliver for them,” she said, and it’s putting the sector in a precarious spot.

“But that is something we’ve known about for a number of years now, and been talking to government about for a number of years.”

Because audiences aren’t the only ones struggling.

‘Thousands and thousands’ of jobs on the line

When theatre shows get cancelled, it’s the artists and creatives behind them who suffer the most.

“The closure of a musical theatre production is the loss of real jobs and income for highly skilled and talented performers, creatives and crew,” Eric Lassen, chief executive of Live Performance Australia, said.

Artists already earn less than half of the national average wage, and Natsou said there’s just not enough discussion at a policy level about how to make creative careers in Australia sustainable.

Government investment in arts and culture increased to $8.6 billion in the 2023–24 financial year, according to A New Approach (ANA), Australia’s arts and culture think tank.

But per capita expenditure by the federal government declined in that same period, dropping to just $114, the lowest figure on record.

Australia is also spending about 25 per cent less than its OECD peers on ‘recreation, culture and religion’ on a GDP basis.

“We are in a moment of desperate need for radical reform as to how we support and generate a thriving arts ecology in this country,” Nantsou said. 

“Imaginative ideas about how we might better support the sector are in abundance, and so it is on our governments to listen [and help] keep the sector afloat.”

That could be in the form of tax reform, subsidies like the post-pandemic Dine and Discover vouchers, or even subsidised transport to and from shows.

Live Performance Australia has put forward a proposal for a live performance production incentive that would allow producers to claim back more of their costs of production.

Modelled on a similar scheme which had a transformational impact on the UK theatre industry, it would drive investment and rebuild confidence in the sector. 

Dunn called it one of the strongest ideas being put forward by the sector.

“At the end of the day, this is a $3.9 billion sector, it’s a contributor to the economy, and there are thousands and thousands of jobs involved,” she said.

“It’s not just the jobs and livelihoods of the performers on stage, it’s all the people from set builders and electricians and riggers and scenic artists, right through to box office and front of house people who work in marketing and finance.”

(Stage) light on the horizon

“There’s a lot of doom that plagues the way that we talk about these problems in the arts,” Nantsou said.

“But artists are incredibly resilient, and creative practice is never going to go anywhere.”

Ticket sales are up post-pandemic and main stage theatre companies have enjoyed sold-out seasons of Australian shows like Sydney Theatre Company’s production of An Iliad, starring David Wenham.

Amateur theatre also continues to thrive, demonstrating a strong interest in from young audiences.

Industry insiders have made it clear that Aussies aren’t losing interest in the arts; the current economic climate is just forcing them to be more selective about the stories they pay to see on stage.

And those stories need to keep being told.

“The role that the arts plays in our community is as a way of bringing people together, a way of actually sharing space and sharing a joyful moment in what can otherwise be a fairly challenging time at the moment,” Dunn said.

“I think we need the arts more than ever at this point in time.”