Ticket sales for The Rocky Horror Show musical at Civic Theatre are tracking ahead of smash Broadway hit Come From Away.
It was announced on October 25 that the 50th anniversary tour of the iconic musical was coming to Newcastle in 2024, and tickets are being snapped up quickly for the three week run.
More than half (54 per cent) of the tickets sold so far have been to new Civic Theatre customers and theatre producer Sir Howard Panter of Trafalgar Entertainment said there had been about a million dollars in sales so far.
"Which is not too bad seeing as we haven't done a great deal of work on it," he said.
"I think the number of tickets so far is about 10,000 which is exceptionally good. Obviously we're hoping for a sell out.
"It's a show that everyone loves and everyone's got a feeling for it. I can hardly meet anyone who doesn't know the brand."
Sir Howard made the comments on his second visit to the theatre this year, after travelling to Newcastle in May scouting new locations for Broadway productions after the success of Come From Away, which was staged at Civic in February.
"This theatre should have a more consistent flow of great productions," Sir Howard said.
"On the UK theatre circuit, this would be an number one venue. Absolutely no question about it.
"By number one, I mean it gets all the number one shows and there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be and we just thought well, let's start talking about it.
"This seems to us to just be gold that's just being not properly brought to fruition, and that's nobody's fault. It's just there isn't enough attention on it."
And while ticket sales for concerts and festivals in the Hunter have reportedly slowed compared to previous years, Sir Howard said theatre sales were still going strong.
"There was a post-COVID pop and that's come back a bit," he said.
"But your mother's always got a birthday. You've always got an anniversary and your kids always need an outing... and theatre is genuinely an affordable luxury that everyone wants and it's the emotional connection as well with a theatre."
Sir Howard visited with cast member Stellar Perry, who plays Magenta. She was equally complimentary of the Civic Theatre space.
"This is the kind of theatre I would walk into and it would be my dream to stand on this stage," she said.
"So I feel extremely blessed and grateful and excited to actually plant my feet here for a little while for the tour."
Perry has performed in the role for the past nine months, and said she particularly enjoys performing for regional audiences who don't get to experience big shows as much as the capital cities.
"It has been the best nine months of my life, hands down," she said. "I'm living my dream. Everyday I wake up and pinch myself."
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said she believed theatre fans would embrace the show, but also expected a slightly different crowd to Come From Away.
Tickets sales have been recorded from as far away as Armidale, Tamworth, Coffs Harbour and into the ACT.
"A lot of us know Rocky Horror," she said. "I mean it is the 50th anniversary tour and we have the likes of Jason Donavan and Myf Warhurst on this stage here in the Civic Theatre and it's also very interactive with the audience.
"So I expect people to come dressed up for the show, to really interact with the characters on stage.
"We have seen people travel both interstate and intrastate when we had Come From Away the Broadway musical.
"We saw 21,500 people come for those shows.
"This has a three-week run from the 12th of January and ticket sales are already very, very strong. So my expectation is that if you want to get in and have a wonderful experience of Rocky Horror at the Civic Theatre, you probably need to make those plans now."
