The UK tour of 1960s hippie musical Hair – starring Bradford singer Gareth Gates – has been cancelled and will not be staged at the Alhambra this summer.

It was due for a week’s run in Bradford in May. Mystery surrounds the reasons why the whole tour has been scrapped.

A spokesman from the production company said: “The producers of Hair are sorry to announce that unfortunately the forthcoming UK tour will not be going ahead.

“Despite the best efforts of all involved to keep the production moving forward, it has become apparent that certain criteria could not be met and regrettably the show will not now open in Liverpool as originally planned.

“The producers would like to apologise to the many fans of this iconic show who had been greatly excited by its planned revival.”

Whether the age of austerity put paid to the Age of Aquarius is not clear. Advance ticket sales for the the musical, also starring Zoe Birkett and Amy Diamond, were under 1,000.

“That’s one of the lowest sales for a show this season,” said Bradford theatres general manager Adam Renton.

“Large shows are able to tour due to a mixture of financial backers and guaranteed contracts with certain theatres. All the theatres that had taken Hair were Number One venues.”

However, he admitted that advance ticket sales had been slow for some of these theatres too.

Former Bradford Cathedral choirboy Gareth Gates, 27, the 2002 Pop Idol runner-up, was to have played the part of Claude, a young American torn by his pacifist principles and family pressure to be drafted into the US Army and fight in Vietnam.

The show was due to open in Liverpool on April 10, transferring to the Alhambra from May 7 to 12.

Cancellation could mean the loss of thousands of pounds of revenue to the Alhambra, depending on whether a replacement show can be found.

Mr Renton said: “To get a replacement at this stage would be difficult to do. I am programming now into autumn 2013 and into 2014. It may be we can take a couple of single night shows. A week’s gap will affect our income.

“Business at the moment is very strange, very unpredictable. Some shows are doing incredible business, others are struggling. There’s no parity.”

Shows throughout February pulled in 41,000 people to the Alhambra, including more than 10,000 for the Horrible Histories show – double the number the last time it was here, he added.