Staff at a historic Suffolk theatre are hoping tonight's show will go on after a forced closure following the discovery of a fire safety issue. 

The Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds was forced to close immediately on Thursday afternoon, on advice of Fire Safety officers, meaning its performance of Suffolk Young People's Theatre's Ghost, The Musical, had to be cancelled. 

Now, following work by a fire protection service, staff have said they are 'cautiously confident' that tonight's 7.30pm performance of the musical will go ahead as planned, and 'even more confident' that both performances on Saturday, August 5, will go ahead. 

In a statement on social media, a spokesperson said: "Work is being undertaken today (Friday 4th August) by a fire protection service.

"As a result, we are cautiously confident that the 7.30pm performance of Ghost The Musical for tonight (Friday 4th August) will go ahead as planned and even more confident that both performances on Saturday 5 August will also go ahead.

"Our Box Office are busy contacting customers who had tickets for last night’s cancelled performance with a view to moving them to alternative shows.

"We apologise once again to the cast of SYPT and audience members for the inconvenience and dissapointment."

Decisions on future shows at the theatre will be made no later than 2pm on Friday, a spokesman said.

Ghost The Musical was set to run from August 2 to August 5 at the theatre. 

Theatre Royal was designed and built in 1819 and has many of its original features intact.