We Will Rock You opened last night to a sold out audience at Her Majesty's Theatre with the theatre company set to perform the show for the next 10 days, but those plans are currently on hold.

The company hopes to return to the stage if the lockdown is lifted on Wednesday and extend its season at Her Maj to make up for the performances lost due to the five-day lockdown.

Director Steve Armati said the cast were already in hair and make-up by the time the announcement was made late Thursday afternoon.

"There were a lot of whispers and rumours going around yesterday all throughout the day so it was a pretty tense day for everyone," he said.

"By the time I arrived in the theatre, there were a lot of tears there and everywhere and people were quite upset but the cast, to their credit, rallied around each other."

Mr Armati said the lockdown could cost the amateur theatre company more than $100,000.

"Like most community or amateur theatre environments, you're only as good as your bank balance and we know we don't have millions of dollars tucked away there, we don't have that at all, and one bad show can really hurt us," he said.

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"This show here had all the promise, we had a virtually sold-out season already pre-sold, we'd sold over 6500 seats.

"Like a lot of companies, you do run a very shoestring budget... and something like this could wipe out not only our company, but a lot of other companies around the state as well."

Almost 50 cast members and more than 130 crew members had spent the past five months preparing for the show, with the cast rehearsing 12 hours a week.

Despite the disappointment, Mr Armati said the cast and crew was able to draw some positives out of the situation, such as the opportunity for a second opening night.

"I said to the cast, you've no reason, leave nothing on the stage, leave it all out there and they went out there and they did a phenomenal job," he said.

"The audience was absolutely fantastic. They were laughing, they were clapping, they were dancing. Yesterday's announcement probably magnified the audience's response because they knew they were going into a lockdown as well.

"We are working very closely with the Her Maj staff. The show's not being cancelled, it's being rescheduled and by rescheduling, hopefully, it will be an extension of our season from our current run."

Meanwhile, Royal South Street has also had its start delayed with its junior and senior piano competitions unable to go ahead this weekend.

The eisteddfod's first event was planned to be the junior piano competition on Saturday, followed by its Chopin competition on Sunday, but those events will now be rescheduled for later in the year.

Royal South Street will now kick off with instrumental solos on Thursday, followed by debating on Monday, July 26.

"We've got to line up the planets so that we can get everybody together on the same day to defer it back a month or two," chair Peter Zala said.

"We've got to work out now to get everybody's diaries to line up... and that's going to take a bit of doing."

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