Sydney’s season of Back to the Future: The Musical will now mark the end of the show’s Australian run, after producers abandoned plans for a national tour and confirmed the production will close at the Sydney Lyric Theatre on 25 January, 2026.

High operating costs, softer-than-expected ticket sales and a challenging economic climate for large-scale theatre have stymied plans to take the musical – adapted from the 1985 film – to other state capitals. A season to Melbourne had been flagged, with discussions underway for further engagements elsewhere. But as Sydney’s box-office pattern became clear, taking the large and expensive show on the road was deemed too risky, with losses already mounting.

Speaking to News Corp mastheads, co-producer John Frost of Crossroads Live Australia said discounting tickets had not solved the problem. “The box office really didn’t move. We did a discount sale about three weeks in and it did well, but the minute we stopped discounting, the sales dropped back down.”