Orpheum's 'Christmas Carol' canceled

Call it the ghost of "A Christmas Carol."

A star-studded version of the holiday classic was announced, then canceled, at Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre. The production, with F. Murray Abraham billed to star as Scrooge and James Garner narrating as Charles Dickens, was to have run in mid-December. The cast also was to include George Wendt, Wayne Knight, Stockard Channing and Timothy Hutton. The last two dropped out.

But the Minneapolis engagement, a rental that was never a part of the Hennepin Theatre Trust's Broadway season, was scotched when producer Kevin Von Feldt, also the writer and director of the show, could not come up with the second deposit to secure the venue.

"It took a little while to work things out with our investors," said Von Feldt, a St. Paul native who attended what is now Cretin-Derham Hall High School and today lives near Rice Lake, Wis. "The deal also was complicated because we worked it out with one party, then they had a change of regime."

Fred Krohn, who ran the State, Orpheum and Pantages theaters for decades, left his post in late August.

Refunds are being offered to ticket buyers at point of purchase, said an official at the theater who would not comment otherwise.

Von Feldt said that he is exploring a lawsuit against Broadway Across America, which manages the Orpheum, because "the cancellation is against industry norms." "The deposit is to make sure that they can recoup rent and everything, and with just one ad, the show was selling tremendously," he said. "The first deposit was 10 grand. The second was 15. They were sitting on $140,000 in sales."

He said that he hopes to book the show elsewhere, perhaps in New York, so that it does not jeopardize a small national tour.

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390