A fairy tale turned into a horror story for children and parents who turned up yesterday in Oamaru for the touring show Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
After waiting to get into the Waitaki Boys High School auditorium, they were told the show had been cancelled.
The same thing happened in Timaru on Saturday, when the performers failed to take the stage at the Theatre Royal.
L&L Morris, in association with Moran and Myers Ltd, promoters of the long-running show, which has toured Australia and New Zealand during the past 12 years, cancelled venues south of Christchurch after shows on July 10 and 11, because of poor early ticket sales.
Spokesman Peter Gardiner said yesterday advertisements were supposed to have been placed advising the shows were cancelled, but "someone did not do their job".
The promoters apologised to those who turned up for the cancelled shows.
"I understand they only sold 49 tickets for the show in Oamaru, and in some places none."
The show had been brought from Australia at considerable cost and the promoters could not afford to continue, because of the poor ticket sales, Mr Gardiner said.
Katherine King, two other adults and four children, arrived at Waitaki Boys High School about 45 minutes before the show was due to start at 1.30pm to get good seats.
She had paid $161 for three adults and four children.
As they waited outside the auditorium, other people started to arrive.
Not long before the show was due to start, a school employee arrived and told them it had been cancelled.
"The children were disappointed and people were angry they had not seen anything about the show being cancelled," she said.
"One grandmother was virtually in tears."
Mrs King said one family, who had waited for about an hour, had come all the way from Kauru Hill.
"There was nothing on the door or anywhere else to tell us the show was cancelled," she said.
Oamaru I-site handled ticket sales for the show.
Manager Tania Pacey said it was told on Friday the show had been cancelled and there would be advertising telling people.
However, she did not know whether the cancellation was advertised.
Yesterday, they were refunding ticket money to irate parents.
Merlin's Ticketek Booking Agency had the same reaction from parents in Timaru when Saturday's show was cancelled.
It said some had heard "by word of mouth" about the cancellation, but others were not aware the show was not going on.
An Internet website promoting the show noted the South Island shows had been cancelled.
Some other centres the show was scheduled to visit south of Christchurch included Mosgiel, Balclutha, Gore, Alexandra, Roxburgh, Te Anau, Dunedin and Queenstown.
