- It’s been a bad month for Sydney’s vital theatre industry.
- Two cancellations have been announced thanks to the cost of living crisis and the high price of putting on shows.
- It is time for the State Government to put as much work into helping the theatre as it does into night clubs and pubs.
This month, the government announced record arrivals and spending by tourists. Domestic and international visitors in the year ending March 2026 spent a record $61.9 billion across the state, a 16 per cent increase year on year.
Major events were singled out by Destination NSW as delivering significant economic returns. Sporting events such as The Ashes and the British & Irish Lions Tour helped drive UK visitor spending to more than $1 billion.
But while another area of the visitor economy delivers crucial returns, it was not mentioned. In fact, Sydney’s theatre industry rarely gets a shout out as the State Government appears to focus on night clubs, concerts and big events.
Yet theatre, a vital part of our cultural scene, is hurting more than most from the cost of living crisis and high costs. We’ve now had ,three cancelled musicals in less than a year, and one theatre says it will be dark for 30 weeks.
First came Back to the Future, which closed early at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre and abandoned its planned national tour. Then the Michael Cassel Group announced the cancellation of the Australian tour of Beetlejuice, scrapping seasons in Sydney and Adelaide despite months of anticipation.
Now comes another blow. Waitress, starring Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Rob Mills, will end its Melbourne season on July 19 and will not travel to Sydney’s Lyric Theatre as planned.
The producers and ticketing organisations are arranging refunds. And our theatre community is in shock.
The news had already spread. The Times of India headlined: Australian musical ‘Waitress’ gets cancelled for Sydney season: ‘This is disappointing news’
Three major productions. Three commercial disappointments. Three warning signs. This is no longer simply a theatre industry problem. It is a problem that will hit our tourism industry, too.
Sydney has just enjoyed record visitor numbers and record visitor spending in the year to March 2026. Hotels are fuller, restaurants are busier and international tourism is recovering strongly. NSW has set itself the ambitious target of growing annual visitor expenditure to $90 billion by 2035.
But great cities don’t attract visitors simply because they have beautiful harbours. They attract them because they offer unforgettable experiences. Broadway is one of New York’s biggest tourist attractions. London’s West End is an economic powerhouse.
Melbourne has spent decades nurturing its East End Theatre District into Australia’s premier theatre precinct. Sydney should be leading Australia in commercial theatre. Instead, it is beginning to lose productions before audiences even get the chance to see them.
As one theatre goer said in a Reddit post: “Wtf is going on in Australia? Is there a curse there where American musicals can’t do a full tour there without shutting down under mysterious circumstances?”
The economics no longer stack up
The cancellation of Waitress is perhaps the most worrying yet because producer John Frost is a seasoned professional. Crossroads Live has delivered some of Australia’s biggest musical successes.
Yet even Frost admitted the production had become impossible to sustain. “Cost-of-living pressures, interest rate rises and domestic and international economic uncertainty have contributed to softer box office performance,” he said in announcing the cancellation.
Earlier this month Michael Cassel Group — arguably Australia’s most successful commercial producer of the past decade, responsible for Hamilton and MJ The Musical — reached almost exactly the same conclusion in cancelling Beetlejuice.
These are not obscure productions. They are internationally recognised Broadway hits with built-in audiences. If they cannot survive, producers will inevitably become more cautious about bringing expensive new musicals to Australia.
That creates a dangerous cycle. Fewer productions lead to fewer visitors. Fewer visitors make productions harder to finance. Eventually Sydney risks losing its reputation as a must-visit theatre destination.
Government seems to have forgotten the theatre
The NSW Government deserves enormous credit for recognising the importance of Sydney’s night-time economy. It has invested heavily in bringing live music back to the city.
It talks regularly about pubs, clubs, festivals and late-night trading. All of those initiatives matter. But where is theatre in that conversation?
Commercial theatre is one of the highest-value forms of entertainment any city can offer. A couple travelling from interstate to see a musical doesn’t simply buy two theatre tickets. They book flights, they stay in hotels, they eat in restaurants and they shop.
Every musical generates economic activity far beyond the theatre foyer.
Yet there is little evidence theatre occupies the same strategic importance in government thinking as live music.
It should.
Sydney has been here before
During a tour of the magnificent State Theatre, one fascinating statistic stood out. Sydney once boasted around 28 theatres.
Many disappeared during the office-building boom of the 1960s and 1970s, when historic entertainment venues were demolished in favour of commercial development.
Entire generations of theatres vanished from the city skyline.
Melbourne largely protected its theatre heritage. Today its famous East End Theatre District remains Australia’s most concentrated collection of commercial theatres, with six major venues operating within a few city blocks and dozens more performance spaces across the city.
Sydney still has outstanding venues — the Capitol Theatre, Theatre Royal, Sydney Lyric, State Theatre, Roslyn Packer Theatre and others — but they operate largely in isolation rather than as part of an identifiable theatre precinct.
For years there have been discussions about creating a genuine Sydney theatre district. Those conversations now deserve renewed urgency.
Time for action
The cancellation of Waitress should be a line in the sand. Three failed productions in quick succession should trigger an urgent conversation involving government, producers, theatre owners, Tourism NSW and Destination Sydney.
Is more marketing support needed? Should blockbuster productions receive tourism assistance similar to major sporting events? Can Sydney finally develop the theatre precinct that has been discussed for years?
Because if producers begin quietly bypassing Sydney—or shortening seasons to minimise financial risk—the city will lose far more than opening nights. It will lose one of the experiences that helps make it a world city.
