Tribute concerts labelled ‘bad cruise ship karaoke’ cancel planned NZ return tour

Tuesday, 17 March 2026

A series of musical tribute shows, panned in 2023 for being akin to “bad cruise ship karaoke”, have cancelled a return visit to our shores in May over visa issues.

But while one person said New Zealand had never experienced “such great concerts”, former workers have spoken out about what they say was a “chaotic” time behind the scenes.

Events showcasing the music of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, along with the work of acclaimed composer Hans Zimmer, were set to be staged in Lower Hutt and Christchurch in May.

Like the last tour, there were promises of mystery star guests; the Harry Potter tribute touted a “Weasley star”, referencing the fictional family from the Harry Potter franchise, while the Lord of the Rings show said it would be “presented by the legendary voice of the Saruman actor Sir Christopher Lee”. Lee died in 2015.

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Tickets were available for purchase on Monday morning, but Ticketmaster pages for the events were later taken down and both New Zealand venues confirmed the shows have been called off.

“I can confirm these events have been cancelled by the production company. We will be putting a cancellation notice on our website shortly,” said Lower Hutt Events Centre sales manager Sarah Mataira.

“I have emailed the production company with regards to tickets still being on sale and hope to hear back from them soon.”

Venues Ōtautahi Chief Executive Caroline Harvie-Teare said the promoters had also scrapped shows planned for the Christchurch Town Hall, “citing issues with their Ukrainian orchestra leaving Europe with the continued Russian-Ukrainian conflict and additional further challenges with the war in the Middle East”.

Adverts for the Harry Potter shows said they were being performed by the “London Film Orchestra”, while a planned tribute to Hans Zimmer was advertised as featuring the “Hollywood Film Orchestra”.

According to the show’s website, dates in Australia are still going ahead - despite these being planned for ahead of the original New Zealand dates.

Repeated attempts to reach the show’s promoters have been unsuccessful. The performances were previously put on by a company called Star Entertainment, which has recently rebranded to Lancelot Productions.

However, after The Post posted in a private Facebook group dealing with complaints about the company and its productions, a comment was left by someone named Pinar Kok who criticised our original reporting and claimed The Post had spread misinformation.

“New Zealand has never seen such great concerts,” Kok wrote.

A LinkedIn profile for someone with the same name shows they are currently the head of travel and office manager for Lancelot Productions.

“Factchecking: Any serious journalist would verify the facts first and review a performance personally before spreading misinformation or defamatory statements,” the comment said.

Kok’s comment stated that Aivale Cole, a New Zealand opera singer who performed on the original Lord of the Rings soundtrack, was one of the “star soloists” in the shows, along with Zealand actor Jed Brophy who appeared in the film series. While Brophy did not respond to a request for comment, Cole confirmed she was not part of the upcoming tour.

Meanwhile, former workers affiliated with the company behind the tribute shows have spoken out to The Post about what they say their experience was behind the scenes.

Actor Bruce Hopkins, who played Gamling in the Lord of the Rings series, appeared as one of the star guests during the 2023 New Zealand tour, but told The Post he would not accept any future work from the company and that he was “embarrassed” by his prior involvement.

“It was really ugly when I realised what I'd got myself into,” he said.

Emails from the time, provided to The Post, show a Star Entertainment representative criticised Hopkins for “badmouthing” the show on social media and allegedly forgetting his script.

Hopkins denied losing his place in the show. “I have never in my 45-year career of performing had such little direction for a show,” he said in response. While he deleted his Reddit post, Hopkins said he felt his own reputation was being “unfairly damaged” through association with the tour.

He also said he was only contacted to appear in the shows four days before they were staged.

One Wellington-based freelance production manager, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he was involved with Star Entertainment while stuck in Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He applied for a booking agent role, and after an email exchange was asked if he could start immediately. Part of the job involved booking tour venues across the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and managing existing dates in Scandinavia.

“Staff were regularly instructed to put shows on sale the next day, despite the practical steps normally required - venue contracts, deposits, ticketing agreements, marketing approvals, and venue permissions. From my professional perspective, these timelines were often unrealistic,” he claimed.

“In my professional opinion, the company’s operations did not reflect standard practices in the live music and touring industry and often appeared chaotic.”

Former tour manager Paul Boschi was hired at the tail end of the Covid era. He says that the two shows he worked on - a rock opera and a science fiction TV tribute show - were expected to have the same exact touring itinerary.

“The idea, which had not been explained to me, was to tour the[m] as a package. So the sci-fi would be [a] matinee and the rock opera an evening show. The itinerary was really tight, and I [c]ould not see how this could work logistically building in ample travel time, time for install, tech rehearsal, and talent rehearsals,” he said.

Prior to cancellation, the upcoming New Zealand shows were expected to follow a similar schedule, with 4pm and 8pm shows celebrating films from different film franchises set to be staged.

Boschi said he chose to leave the company once his regular work picked up again after the Covid lull, as he “didn’t want to be the face of a product I didn’t believe in”. In his opinion, the quality of the shows was not good enough.

Venues Ōtautahi’s Harvie-Teare said anyone who had purchased tickets would be able to get their money back.

“We would like to reassure ticket purchasers that all ticketing revenue has been held by Ticketmaster and they will receive a full refund.”