Derby's pantomime Beauty and the Beast has been cancelled because the Assembly Rooms is closed after a major fire and the City Council has been unable to find an alternative venue.
A total of 995 people had bought tickets for the show and 6,420 had made reservations.
Doubts were expressed about whether the panto would go ahead when the Council’s major venue suffered a huge blaze in its car park in March 2014. The authority subsequently said the venue would be closed for at least 18 months and it would have to decide whether to repair the building or replace it.
Councillor Alison Martin, cabinet member for leisure and culture, said the authority had investigated several other venues in the city but none was suitable.
She said, “Unfortunately we haven’t been able to identify a solution which would meet our audience's expectations and be logistically and financially viable.”
There had been hopes that the Council’s £27m velodrome and events arena on Pride Park might open early to accommodate the panto. The new venue is now expected to open early in 2015.
The Council’s entertainments arm Derby LIVE has one other attraction at Christmas, Babbling Vagabonds’ Naughty Meg and the Christmas Elves, which runs in the Guildhall Theatre from 11 until 28 December.
The Council is unable to say whether a panto will be staged in 2015.
Derby Theatre will be staging two Christmas 2014 productions: a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol from 5 December until 4 January on the main stage and Red Earth’s re-telling of Hansel and Gretel in the studio from 9 until 28 December.