Anger for 'Jesus Christ Superstar' Cast, and a Black Eye for Its Promoter

NEW ORLEANS - NEW ORLEANS - Ben Forster, a 33-year-old British actor, was preparing for the biggest break of his career as he rehearsed the title role for an ambitious arena tour of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' that was to have its first performance here at the Lakefront Arena on June 9.

That was Thursday. On Friday, Mr. Forster, an ensemble of celebrity performers and a cast and crew of about 300 people learned that they were all out of work. The tour, which was to play more than 50 cities in North America over the summer, was canceled without warning or explanation.

'For me, it was the American dream about to happen,' Mr. Forster said in an interview on Friday night. 'What's that Miley Cyrus song, 'Wrecking Ball'? I feel like someone just came in and took a big wrecking ball to the 'Jesus Christ Superstar' tour.'

This tour's high-profile promoter, Michael Cohl, who has mainly worked with rock groups like U2 and the Rolling Stones and was a lead producer of the problem-plagued Broadway musical 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,' said on Saturday that ticket sales to support the tour simply were not there, despite the backers' having spent 'millions of dollars' and enlisting 'an army of people to promote the tour.'

'It became obvious the shows were in trouble but we tried until the last moment to give it every chance to turn around,' Mr. Cohl said in an email to The New York Times. 'In the end it just did not make business sense to continue and we didn't want the cast to endure playing to disappointing audiences.'

This latest production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's rock opera about the final days of Jesus was announced with fanfare in April, including a news conference in New York and a performance on ABC's 'Good Morning America.'

The cast featured an eclectic mix of rock and pop performers in the principal roles, including the Incubus lead singer, Brandon Boyd, as Judas Iscariot; Michelle Williams, of the R&B group Destiny's Child, as Mary Magdalene; JC Chasez of *NSYNC as Pontius Pilate; and John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, as King Herod.

The aggressive itinerary included stops at 18,000- to 20,000-seat theaters like Madison Square Garden in New York and the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with top ticket prices of about $125.

In April, Mr. Cohl said that total costs were in the range of 'eight figures' and that the tour would need to take in 'several hundred thousand dollars' each night to keep it afloat.

As recently as Thursday, cast members like Mr. Boyd and Mr. Forster were working in New Orleans with the director Laurence Connor (a director of the current Broadway revival of 'Les Misérables'); Mr. Lydon was being fitted for his King Herod costume and making his first attempts at rehearsing his character's sarcastic ragtime number.

The next morning, Mr. Forster and Mr. Chasez were rehearsing with Mr. Connor when the company's general manager entered the studio.

Describing what happened next, Mr. Forster said, 'He was like, 'Guys, take a break. We need to chat. It's not going to happen.' ' At this point in his recollection, Mr. Forster simply gasped.

Mr. Boyd, who has no previous musical theater experience, suspected he was being hazed. 'I thought it was like a prank that you pull on the new guy,' he said. 'But no.'

In London, some 70 members of the British ensemble cast who were preparing to travel to the New Orleans rehearsal next week also received the bad news. Several posted a defiant photograph of themselves on social media, extending their middle fingers to the camera. (As a show of solidarity, their celebrity castmates in America posted a picture of themselves making the same obscene gesture.)

The collapse of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' is another black eye for Mr. Cohl and his production company, S2BN Entertainment, which was presenting the tour with the Really Useful Group, Mr. Lloyd Webber's company.

Mr. Cohl is still trying to regain his footing after the closing of 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,' a $75 million production that received widely negative reviews and that ended in January after a troubled and unprofitable three-year run. Mr. Cohl said on Saturday that a tour of the 'Spider-Man' musical was still planned, to begin in the fall of 2015.

In an interview before 'Jesus Christ Superstar' was shut down, Mr. Cohl was asked whether his grab bag of star performers - a potentially incompatible mix of girl- and boy-band alumni, hard rockers and punk rockers would be enough to generate widespread ticket sales.

'Well, we're going to find out, aren't we?' he answered.

Other industry observers questioned whether American audiences would be interested in the lineup.

'None of these performers would appear to have the box office clout to ensure robust ticket sales,' wrote George Varga, a pop music critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Mr. Forster, who won his role on a British reality-TV competition show and has previously played Jesus on tours of the United Kingdom and Australia, said he was concerned by how little interest the American news media seemed to show in the new production.

In other territories, he said, 'We did lots of TV. We did heaps of radio. I felt like it was never-ending phone interviews for different publications.' In the United States, he said, 'I've done four interviews, to come and sell out several thousand tickets.' (Mr. Lydon and Mr. Boyd said they had encountered similar apathy.)

Mr. Lydon, never one to hold his tongue, strongly rebuked Mr. Cohl in an interview on Friday night.

'I had a run-in with the alleged promoter in New York,' Mr. Lydon said. 'I didn't like him and I instinctively didn't trust him.'

Mr. Cohl's treatment of cast and crew members, who set aside months of their lives for the tour, has been 'devoid of human contact,' Mr. Lydon said.

'The excuses are going to have to be phenomenal,' Mr. Lydon said. With a mischievous smile, he added, 'All that Mr. Cohl had to do was ring me up and I'd have lent him $5.'

Before he embarked on a night of red wine and gallows humor, Mr. Forster tried to put a positive face on the day's disastrous experience.

'I believe in fate, and whatever's around the corner is about to come,' he said. 'I'll keep trying. God loves a trier, right?'

When Mr. Lydon was asked what he might try for a follow-up project, he replied, 'I'm going to be doing the ballet next.'

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