THEATRE bosses have cancelled a variety show following a string of complaints from people who thought they were buying tickets for a different event.

Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre chiefs decided to scrap the performance of Bollywood Nights after hearing of problems with the show at other venues.

The show is an Asian-style variety performance featuring songs and sketches. But many of those buying tickets at other venues believed they were going to see a touring version of the hit Andrew Lloyd-Webber show Bombay Dreams.

Now Hyndburn Council, which runs the theatre, has decided to pull the performance rather than face angry complaints from people who expected to be watching a West End musical.

JSM Management, agents for the Bollywood Nights show, told the civic theatre management to cancel the performance because of the problems at other venues. The agency admitted to theatre bosses that the show was more an East-meets-West variety performance than a Bollywood story and was not what people had perceived from the Bollywood-style poster.

Nigel Green, marketing and events officer for the theatre, said: "We have been contacted this week by the management agent that we booked the show with and they have expressed concerns that in the venues it has already played at, they have been receiving complaints.

"From the poster people are perceiving the show to be in the style of the Bombay Dreams show, which has become popular recently, but it is a different kind of show. They are not being offended by it in any way it is just not what they expected.

"It does disappoint customers but at the end of the day we would prefer them to be happy and come back again than sit through two hours and then want a refund."

Bollywood Nights was due to take place in Oswaldtwistle on Saturday, with 19 more shows planned across the country until mid-January.

Hyndburn Council has apologised for any inconvenience and has advised anyone who has already bought tickets to return them to Accrington Information Centre where they will be given a full refund.

Anyone who turns up on Saturday for the show will also be given their money back.

Jeff Sutton, of JS Management who produced the show, said: "The show itself is a very good variety show and nowhere has it ever said it was a musical or from the West End.

"When we first devised the show we wanted to target the Asian audience who don't tend to go to the British theatre very often. The difficulty was that the Asian communities still didn't go to the theatre and the non-Asian theatre-goers thought it was touring version of the West End production Bombay Dreams.

"Although it says on the flyers that it is a Vegas-style variety show. Unfortunately people didn't pick up on this and they formed their own opinion that it was going to be Bombay Dreams.

"We got in touch with all the theatres to let them know about the complaints we had received out of courtesy and it was up to them whether they cancelled or not."