The Goodman Theatre upset patrons when it canceled two weekend performances of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” including a Saturday night show canceled with about an hour’s notice and a Sunday matinee that was called off right at curtain time, after the audience was at the theater.
Many audience members took to social media to decry the lack of notice and said that no explanation had been given for the sudden cancellations. They also noted they were out of pocket for parking and transportation.
According to Denise Schneider, the Goodman’s chief communications officer, there were different reasons for the two cancellations. The problem Saturday reportedly was a lack of available understudies after illness occurred in the cast and several cast members called out. On Sunday, it was discovered that there were insufficient people in the wardrobe run crew (the staffers responsible for costume changes) to make the show happen.
On such occasions, theaters may go ahead with some kind of performance, or offer patrons some kind of compensatory concert staging, but the Goodman elected to cancel and, one patron noted, some minutes after the advertised curtain time.
“We deeply regret the inconvenience it caused our audience,” Schneider said in a Sunday night statement. “Despite extensive planning to prevent illness-related cancellation, the number of outs due to illness eventually exceeded our coverage capacity, which led to (Saturday) night’s cancellation. Today, we thought we could proceed with the matinee, but a last-minute issue on our wardrobe crew forced the cancellation. We intend to proceed with performances as scheduled in the upcoming week, our final in the run.”
“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” has commercial producers attached and is expected to eventually move to Broadway, although that is not yet confirmed and the show generally is regarded as needing more work. The Goodman Theatre said it was reaching out to weekend audience members to process refunds or exchange their tickets into performances this week.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com