The story of Beetlejuice the Musical in Brisbane is the story of the ghost-with-the-most haunting the city – not with a mischievous poltergeist’s presence, but with a big-name production’s absence.
A high-profile Tony-nominee cutting short its Brisbane run will do that. So will the early shuffle into Aussie theatre’s afterlife of a show that made the rare move of playing the Queensland capital before gracing Sydney’s stages.
ArtsHub: ‘Breaking point’: MEAA demands action as live performance crisis deepens
For local theatre lovers, even when Aussie seasons are locked in, seeing the latest hit in the River City is never a given. Not knowing for years if an acclaimed, buzzed-about production will add a Sunshine State visit to its Australian dates at all is also common.
Beetlejuice the Musical closing in Brisbane four weeks early is particularly dispiriting, then. Heartbreaking as well – even more so for those who lost work and income as a result.
It’s also inspiration for audiences to take a cue from Barbara and Adam Maitland, the couple whose untimely deaths kickstart Beetlejuice’s narrative in Tim Burton’s 1988 film, leaving them spooking their old home and leading them to the movie’s impish namesake – but also sparking the realisation that there’s never a bad time to make the most of what you do have.
Supporting Brisbane theatre – quick links
Big shows, big blows
When producer Michael Cassel Group announced Beetlejuice the Musical’s early Australian demise – news that came less than a fortnight after the show launched in Brisbane on just its second Down Under stop, and a week after its official Brisbane opening night – it was a devastating development for Australian theatre overall.
Alongside Brisbane’s truncated run, future stints in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney were completely scrapped. Only in Melbourne, which hosted Beetlejuice’s Australian debut in 2025, did the show play a full season.
The Eddie Perfect-driven musical isn’t alone in closing early or scaling down Australian touring plans in recent years. From Back to the Future: The Musical to Dear Evan Hansen and Annie, the list keeps growing.
A mere week passed between Beetlejuice the Musical’s revelation and the announcement that fellow Broadway favourite Waitress was also downsizing its Aussie footprint, ditching the Sydney transfer that was set to follow its now-just-finished Melbourne season.
This is a ‘crisis facing the live performance industry across the country’, as the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance rightly dubbed the distressing state of affairs.
The union’s calls for state and federal governments to act – to support not just jobs for performers, musicians, crew and technicians, but also the ongoing sustainability and longevity of Australian theatre – deserve to echo loudly, including well beyond the venues that are being left empty by the spate of cancellations.
Help wanted, including from audiences
With the price of mounting theatre productions rapidly rising, as with everything amid cost-of-living pressures that show no signs of subsiding, financial support from the government is clearly needed. Tax rebates that help ease costs, similar to the scheme for film and television production, is one sound proposal. Offsetting the price of tickets for audiences through a cultural pass is another.
How can theatregoers lend a hand right now as well? The answer is as simple as showing up (and with the more people, the better).
Catching a show isn’t cheap, nor a priority for most while navigating budget stress, as the MEAA’s proposed voucher system recognises. Before any discounting kicks in to counter slow sales and fill seats, a ticket to a big-name production like Beetlejuice the Musical is a sizeable ask – and often still is after any price reductions.
It isn’t astonishing that when patrons are booking, they’re doing so later and later, adding to the uncertainty for producers. Brisbane’s penchant for last-minute purchases is a long-standing trend, both recognised and stressed about by arts organisers well beyond theatre.
ArtsHub: Karis Oka on Beetlejuice the Musical: ‘I’ve always loved the dark and macabre’
Still, the cost of a seat didn’t stop MJ the Musical from staging a sold-out season in Brisbane from March this year.
An aversion to buying tickets too far in advance hasn’t impacted the impending return of The Lion King either, which just this week set a new record for the highest-selling musical presale in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s history.
It’s time to front up
Sure, a jukebox musical celebrating the King of Pop in a year where the big-screen biopic Michael has made over a billion dollars at the global box office was always bound to moonwalk to success. Also, The Lion King has been roaring thunderously for stage box offices for decades now (its new Brisbane record broke the one held by the show’s own 2014 Brisbane season).
But Beetlejuice’s fate demonstrates that successes aren’t causing a ripple effect even among other high-profile productions. With Perfect behind it, plus Broadway validation, those eight Tony nominations, warm reviews, US star Andy Karl leading the Brisbane run, Australia’s own Karis Oka wowing crowds and the show’s stunning set design – alongside the enduring love for Burton’s original movie – Beetlejuice is almost as high-profile as it gets.
ArtsHub: Karis Oka on Beetlejuice: ‘I’ve always loved the dark and macabre’
It might be a case of use it or lose it in Brisbane. If we only front up en masse to see proven smashes with well-known songs or that rely upon a music superstar’s catalogue of mega hits – so, the biggest of big musical names – then other productions could start bypassing the River City altogether.
Yes, Pretty Woman: the Musical made its Down Under premiere in the city in 2025. Sting’s The Last Ship then arrived for an Australian-exclusive run in April. They were rarities, however – and the latter with struggling ticket sales, unsurprisingly at their full couple-of-hundred-dollars price before discounting.
Plenty of shows still just play Sydney and Melbourne anyway, the only cities announced so far for both Mrs Doubtfire and A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.
Blockbusters are merely one part of Brisbane’s, and Australia’s, stage ecosystem, but their broad appeal is vital in ensuring that a night at the theatre remains regularly on the agenda for as wide an audience as possible.
Cinema wouldn’t survive without huge hits like current sensation The Odyssey that virtually everyone makes a date to see ASAP – that they plan a specific trip out of the house around, turning it into an occasion – and the same is true of the stage.
Upcoming Brisbane theatre to add to your calendar
Thankfully, Brisbane audiences have options when it comes to what’s heading to the Queensland capital’s theatres in the next year, including much-anticipated returns, world premieres and everything in-between.
The Book of Mormon is saying hello again before July is out, running until early October. Death of a Salesman arrives in late August, while the stage-to-screen Anastasia plays Brisbane in September and October.
Kicking off spring, Brisbane Festival will feature the world premiere of the AFLW-focused Strong Is the New Pretty by Prima Facie’s Suzie Miller; West End favourite The Choir of Man for its Queensland debut; the Australian premiere of Luke Murphy’s Scorched Earth; the family-friendly puppetry of the underworld-set Dead as a Dodo; Michelle Lim Davidson’s Koreaboo; and more.
After Queensland Theatre’s Pride & Prejudice in July, Olivier Award winner Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) gives Jane Austen a different spin from the end of September. Fiddler on the Roof has a date with the city in October, as does Into the Woods in November, when The Lion King also prowls in.
Come January, popular pop-infused regal retelling SIX the Musical makes a comeback, for its third season in Brisbane in half a decade after 2023 and 2025. For a splash of blood-soaked satire, the American Psycho musical is also on its way in 2027.
They’re just some of the productions on Brisbane’s upcoming cultural calendar – and seeing even one is the best way that Brisbanites can support the city’s theatre scene.
We should mourn what’s been lost, and understandably so, when a show like Beetlejuice the Musical wraps up early. As a certain rascally bio-exorcist helps the Maitlands learn, though, we should also do our part to embrace and savour everything that we can.
