Ballarat Lyric Theatre was only able to get one show of its production of We Will Rock You on stage before the state entered a snap lockdown in July and has not been able to continue its season due to the ongoing restrictions.

Prior to opening night in July, Lyric had sold out the entire 10-show season with about 6000 tickets sold, but now the company hopes to bring the show back to Ballarat in early 2022 with an extended season.

Ballarat Lyric Theatre president Michael Whitehead said the while there was no set date, the show would return in 2022.

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"There's a demand to see it, it's such a popular, funny and great show because everyone knows the music, of course. People haven't seen live theatre for so long so everyone was champing at the bit to go out and see something and this is actually a pretty classy sort of show," he said.

"It's done in a different way. Ballarat wouldn't have seen anything like this because it has a screen at the back so the scenery is electronic. It's like the MCG scoreboard at the back.

"It's enthralling, the music's great and the cast is really very good but we've never sold out a season before we've opened before and the year that we do, we can't open."

Dr Whitehead said once dates were confirmed, all ticket holders to shows from the rescheduled 2021 season would be given priority access to the new shows before sales are opened up to the public.

"We had people leaving the first show knowing that we were locking down the next day saying, 'well, we're coming back when you reopen'. Well, it's now going to be six months, nearly eight months after we closed, we just don't know," he said.

With the show costing the company about $300,000, continuing the season is crucial for its future.

"$300,000 is a bit for us to be juggling because if the show doesn't go ahead then we haven't actually got that as cash but we have lots of costs to go out because these people, who are professionals in the performing arts, aren't getting paid," Dr Whitehead said.

"Our performers are amateur, but everything else is paid for and these people haven't been paid for 18 months on and off and this was one of the comebacks, unfortunately.

"But nobody's demanding their payment at the moment, they want the show to go ahead, they want to do the show and they only want to be paid for what they do."

When the show was shut down suddenly in June, Lyric hoped it would be able to resume sooner rather than later, leaving its extravagant set in place at Her Majesty's Theatre. However, with multiple lockdowns and a metro-regional split in that time, Lyric has not had the opportunity to move out of the theatre, creating a logistical challenge for the company.

Dr Whitehead said the company had received more support than it ever thought it would get in light of the show's rescheduling.

"Everyone's behind us to get this show going... We don't plan to disappear but it's a big knife in our heart at the moment until we can move on," he said.

"We'll get out of this fine providing we can open and run this show as planned with already a full house and an expanded season, so it would be good for us. The profile has not been what we wanted, but the support has been more than we could have imagined."

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