Updated April 17 with information on the financial impact to the city
The Book of Mormon is not returning to Great Falls this season after canceling its Feb. 11 show.
At the time, the presented, Innovation Arts and Entertainment, said in a statement that, “unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances” the show was canceled. “We understand the disappointment and frustration likely felt by ticket purchasers and we apologize for the cancellation. We are working to reschedule the date, and if we are unable to reschedule, any ticket purchased for the show will be refunded. Ticket purchasers have been contacted by the Mansfield Box Office with this information.”
On April 11, Owen Grubenhoff, Civic Center events manager, told The Electric that the box office had started the refund process.
Those who paid with credit cards will get a refund in about two weeks.
It will take a bit longer for those who paid by cash or check since the box office has to issue checks and send them by mail, Grubenhoff said.
He said city staff was sending emails to all Mansfield Theater patrons on April 11 informing them of the process.
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During the March 21 Mansfield Advisory Board meeting, Grubenhoff said he’d already issued refunds to about 40 people, most had more than one ticket.
He said a lot of ticket holders were holding on hoping that Book of Mormon would reschedule at the Mansfield.
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In March, he said the show promoter had said they were trying to give a solid answer by the end of the month, but it wasn’t looking good.
“It’s hard to move an entire show to the middle of nowhere Great Falls, Montana when there’s not other shows in cities nearby,” Grubenhoff told the board.
He said the cancelation was due to the local labor union not meeting the labor requirement for the show.
Grubenhoff said the stagehand labor union has a contract with the IAE, the show promoter, that required about 50 people for Book of Mormon and they were more than 10 people short when load-in was starting.
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At that point, the show had the right to cancel, he said.
The theater staff made efforts to help get more people, Grubenhoff said, “but in the end, the show wasn’t satisfied with the effort for the labor or the timing of it.”
He said the cold weather on the day of the show was a factor since several stagehands cars wouldn’t start and people travel from out of town for that work.
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“Some just didn’t want to work when it’s 20 below out and they’re in and out of our building, don’t get paid a lot,” Grubenhoff said, since for most it’s not a full-time job and they’re on call for the union.
The city wasn’t a co-presenter for this year’s Broadway series and IAE, the presented, rented the theater for the show.
Grubenhoff told The Electric that the city lost about $7,000 from the Book of Mormon cancellation in credit card fees and ticketing fees charged by its ticketing software company.
Chicago, which was also part of the Broadway series this season, went on as planned a few weeks later.
The theater recently booked the Sturniolo Triplet show for April 23.
The brothers are YouTube sensations and Grubenhoff said that VIP tickets sold out quickly with people coming from around the globe for the show, including Portugal, Peru and Austria.
He said that the theater sold about 500 tickets in the first 24 hours, only 25 of those were from Great Falls. About 100 were from Canada.
Grubenhoff said most of the Sturniolo shows around the county sold out.
