Back to the Future, Beetlejuice, and Waitress: Inside Australian Musical Theatre’s Mounting Crisis

It would be easy to look at the recent wave of musical theatre cancellations and put it down to bad luck.

But when Dear Evan Hansen abandoned its Adelaide and Canberra legs in early 2025, then Back to the Future: The Musical cut its national tour short, then Beetlejuice followed, and now Waitress has axed its Sydney season entirely — this isn’t bad luck. It’s a structural problem.

It’s a problem other producers are now speaking on the record about. In a statement provided to AussieTheatre, Suzanne Jones of JONES Theatrical Group said:

JONES Theatrical Group is deeply saddened by the recent closures of Beetlejuice and Waitress. Our thoughts are with everyone affected—not only the performers audiences see on stage, but also the technicians, crew members, managers, musicians, wardrobe departments, venue staff, marketers, publicists, ticketing agencies, hospitality workers and the many hundreds of Australians whose livelihoods depend on every production that comes into every town and city across the country.

What we do matters. Every night we provide people with escapism, connection, laughter, emotion and a chance to step away from the pressures of the world for a few hours. That is valuable, and it is needed—not only for our social wellbeing but also for our economy. Our team currently has a combination of new and established productions in the market, including The Book of Mormon, Pretty Woman: The Musical and Mrs. Doubtfire – The Musical. While our productions continue to perform well, we can also confirm what many other producers are experiencing: the cost of producing world-class live entertainment is increasing at an unsustainable rate.

Our view is that this is a challenge we should confront head-on by recognising commercial live performance for the major economic industry it already is. The United Kingdom has demonstrated that a live theatre production tax incentive can stimulate private investment, create jobs, encourage more productions and strengthen an entire industry. This is not about subsidising commercial theatre—it is about recognising its economic contribution and creating the conditions for more productions, more employment and greater investment in Australia. Australia already provides production incentives for film, television, digital games and post-production. Commercial live performance deserves to be considered through the same economic lens.

The facts speak for themselves. Live entertainment generates more than $4 billion in economic activity and supports more than 30,000 Australian jobs. More than 31.4 million tickets were sold to live performances in 2024—more than the combined attendances of Australia’s major sporting codes. This is not a niche industry. It is a significant contributor to Australia’s economy, our cities, our tourism industry and our communities.

At JONES, we remain optimistic about the future of Australian live performance. We believe this moment presents an opportunity—not simply to respond to recent cancellations, but to have a broader conversation about recognising commercial live performance as one of Australia’s great economic industries. Our audiences continue to show us how much live entertainment matters. Now is the time to ensure our policy settings encourage more productions, more investment, more jobs and stronger communities, so future generations can continue to experience the unique power of live performance.

It’s a striking thing for a sitting producer to say publicly while their own shows are still selling tickets. And the scale checks out — 26.2 million fans attended professional, ticketed sporting events across Australia in 2024, putting live performance’s 31.4 million tickets in the same league as the country’s biggest sporting codes combined. An industry that size doesn’t stumble for no reason. Freight, venue hire, and labour are all markedly more expensive than they were pre-pandemic, and marketing budgets have had to grow because audiences need more convincing than they once did — all while ticket-buyers contend with mortgage stress, rising rents, and grocery bills that look nothing like they did four years ago. A premium ticket, easily $200 or more, is no longer an easy yes. Producers are also competing in an exceptionally crowded marketplace, with more touring musicals, international acts, and experiences chasing the same entertainment dollar than ever before. Australians still want live performance — they’re just slower to commit, and that hesitation is fatal for an industry reliant on advance sales to justify moving a show interstate.

The policy ask Jones describes isn’t new. Live Performance Australia has been pushing for a Live Performance Production Incentive — a 40% offset or rebate on production costs, which LPA CEO Eric Lassen says would be revenue-positive for government. He’s pointed out that Australia already offers comparable incentives for screen and digital games, but nothing equivalent exists for live performance, despite the sector generating over $4 billion in turnover and supporting more than 30,000 jobs, with every dollar spent by a theatre organisation producing more than $4 in economy-wide spillover. APRA AMCOS has proposed a similar ‘Australia Live’ tax offset, and industry advocacy has continued in Canberra: just last week, LPA representatives met with politicians at Parliament House, joined by composer and performer Tim Minchin, for the official launch of the new Parliamentary Friends of Live Performance group.

Every cancellation makes the next one more likely. Burned audiences book less eagerly; producers who lose money tour less ambitiously; venues that sit dark lose staff they can’t easily replace. Australian musical theatre isn’t dying, but it’s under real pressure — and as Jones puts it, now is the time to ensure policy settings encourage more productions, more investment, and more jobs, rather than wait for the damage to compound.