The "Busker Alley" fiasco appears to be nearing its denouement. Ticket sales at the St. James Theater box office have been suspended and customers told that refunds would be mailed.
The injury to Tommy Tune's foot during a performance in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 1 appears to have doomed the show, which was supposed to begin previews last week. "It is a perilous business, particularly perilous when you're dealing in stars," said one person involved in the musical.Things are getting a little chaotic. Barry and Fran Weissler, the producers, are still talking about a postponement, rather than a shutdown. Weissler says ticket sales may start up again. "Are you asking for a start date? I don't have one," he said.
Others involved with the show say that the obstacles to continuing are formidable, both in terms of money and theater availability. The producers have spent about $6 million to bring the show to New York, and would have to raise more to keep it going during its hiatus.
- THEATRICAL ROYALTY - Lord Snowdon sat in his suite at the Mark Hotel in Manhattan the other day, giggling over some of the subjects in his photographic portfolio: John Hurt in pantomime drag. Sir Ian McKellen embracing a statue of Bacchus. Kenneth Branagh on a tanning bed.
Lord Snowdon, born Antony Armstrong-Jones ("Call me Tony"), was assigned by the editors of Vanity Fair to capture on film the entire first rank of the British theater world, which means virtually every great British actor. And so, he spent the spring and summer traversing Britain (and every British actor's unofficial second home, New York City) to shoot everyone from 22-year-old Jude Law to 91-year-old Sir John Gielgud, for the November issue.
Having grown up on the fringes of the theater - his uncle, Oliver Messel, was a renowned stage designer - Lord Snowdon says he could not turn the assignment down. Still, it was grueling, sometimes requiring him to shoot three subjects a day. And to insulate himself from potentially hurt feelings, he let the editors decide who was in and who was out. (Emma Thompson, for instance, is not included. "She's not really theater," Lord Snowdon explained.)
He even got Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh - once close collaborators, now competitors - to sit together in a group shot.