Power Woes Mean Show Doesn’t Go On at Theater

Power problems of an unknown origin knocked out the sound system at the Ahmanson Theatre in the downtown Los Angeles Music Center complex Saturday night, forcing the cancellation of a performance for the first time in the theater’s history.

The production, James Joyce’s “The Dead,” was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., but a few minutes beforehand, the house lights blinked. The air conditioning and lights remained on, but there was not enough power to feed the stage sound system, said Christine Cox, Ahmanson house manager.

At 8:45, the audience, nearly a full house, was told the show would not go on.

It was unclear what caused the power problem. A Department of Water and Power spokeswoman said the utility had not detected any distribution or transmission problems downtown.

The box office computers also failed, so theatergoers had to leave without refunds or ticket exchanges.

“This is the computer age, and I’m old enough to know when they could do this without a computer,” said Leslie Nathan, a season ticket holder for 45 years, who went home empty-handed.

The box office was scheduled to open at 10 a.m. today for fall ticket sales, and production staffer Matthew Silver said that by “hook or crook” the computers would be working by then.

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was dark Saturday night, and a performance of the play “Expecting Isabel” at the Mark Taper Forum continued after a slight delay because the smaller theater does not need amplified stage sound.