Sydney pulls the plug on Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages has cancelled its proposed Sydney premiere following poor ticket sales. The news comes in the buildup to the jukebox musical's Japanese premiere, which will take place next week in Tokyo. The Australian production, which has been playing at the Comedy theatre in Melbourne since April, had been scheduled to start previews at the Theatre Royal in Sydney from 11 January 2012. However, it was announced yesterday that the show's Sydney run would be postponed indefinitely. Rodney Rigby of production company Newtheatricals said: "It has been decided due to the current economic environment, Rock of Ages will reschedule its Sydney season at a later time." As it stands, the Australian production will have its final performance in Brisbane on 18 December. The current Melbourne run ends on 6 November. According to the Aussie theatre website , there has been speculation that Sydney's theatre market is not capable of supporting three musicals simultaneously. The city is already due to host productions of Love Never Dies and Annie from January. Meanwhile, a Japanese-language production is set to open on 28 October at the Toyko International Forum, before touring to Osaka and Fukuoka, according to Playbill.com . Popular Japanese singer Nishikawa Takanori (also know as TM Revolution) will lead the cast. Rock of Ages follows busboy Drew Foley in his attempts to forge a career as a rock star. Songs featured in the musical include Journey's Don't Stop Believing and Foreigner's I Wanna Know What Love Is. Despite Broadway success, including five nominations at the Tony awards, the UK premiere of Rock of Ages was much derided by theatre critics, with the Telegraph's Charles Spencer calling it "as unpleasant a pile of theatrical poo as it has ever been my misfortune to tread in".