At present, the theatre hopes to run the show from September 18 to October 3 but this will depend on the Prime Minister's alert level announcement on September 14.
"This is Jacinda Ardern but for the purposes of this, an amateur theatre enthusiast and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage," she said in the video.
"To all the cast and crew who are involved in The Blue Brothers: First Contact, the show, I'm so sorry that it's been postponed four times now. I do feel personally, partially responsible for that but I hope you'll be up and running very, very soon.
A pretty special message for everyone involved in The Blues Brothers: First Contact (that includes our patient audiences) - straight from the top! Thanks to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for keeping our country safe and also having a lot of love for the local arts scene, which has been impacted by COVID-19. We can't wait to bring this show to the stage under Alert Level 1 (might have to host a VIP seat for the PM, perhaps?)
Big thanks to our Blues director Gordy for nabbing a few seconds of Jacinda's time while she was at The Kollective - TK yesterday.
"All my best wishes to you and all of the crew from Tauranga Musical Theatre, I hope you have a wonderful performance. I hope it becomes cathartic for you to finally be on the stage, putting on the show for your community.
"I hope you know how important you are to us in these troubling times, these are the times that we need the arts."
Show director Gordy Lockhart, general manager at The Kollective in Tauranga, where Ardern visited on Tuesday, took the opportunity to chat to her about the show.
"I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The cast themselves and the show are entirely supportive of the lockdown, we need to get rid of Covid-19.
"Nonetheless, the frustration is quite incredible, particularly when you've been rehearsing a show since February.
"It's really difficult to keep that motivation up, we've been trying really hard to keep the cast motivated and when Jacinda was down at The Kollective I thought I'd take the opportunity to see if she'd do something."
Lockhart said he was "so impressed" by the Prime Minister who was given a less-than-10-second briefing from her assistant before recording the video.
"It was just awesome, it was absolutely amazing. Being the arts and culture minister she obviously has that passion already. I guess having a history in some sort of amateur theatre, she understands that passion that goes into it."
Tauranga's "Blues Brothers" Stephen Ormsby and Cameron Buchanan. Photos / Supplied
On Ardern saying she felt partially responsible for the show's postponement, Lockhart said she was being tough on herself.
"I think it was a bit tongue in cheek, at the end of the day most of us would take the view that the Government, led by Jacinda, have done an astonishing job with the Covid response," he said.
Tauranga Musical Theatre president Jeremy Sparrow said it was awesome to have the PM take the time to acknowledge the importance of local arts to a community and to get a personal shout-out was "amazing".
"Our cast and crew have certainly had a tough time with all the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 so I think this was just the pick-me-up we all needed to remind us why we do what we do and how much joy performance and arts bring to the community."
The 16-year-old Tauranga runner lowered his own national U17 and U18 1500m records at the Sound Running Sunset Tour in Los Angeles.
Video / Athletics NZ
