Ben Hur Goes Bust

The producer of a “Ben Hur” spectacular about to tour Europe is bankrupt and as many as 50,000 ticket-buyers seem to have little chance of getting their money back.

Franz Abraham of Art Concerts says he has no choice but to scrap the upcoming dates that were to start in Germany at Gelsenkirchen Veltins Arena Feb. 5-6 and continue in Austria at the Vienna Stadthalle Feb. 9-10.

Abraham is requesting that ticket-holders don’t ask for refunds, as there’s no money to pay them. He says he’s trying to set up a new company to reschedule the dates for later in the year but hasn’t said what ticket-holders should do if that doesn’t happen.

He says any remaining company money must be handed over to the liquidator.

The Antwerp Sportpaleis Web site says the Ben Hur shows scheduled for March 5-6 are also canceled because the producer is having “financial difficulties.”

Jan Vereecke of PSE Belgium, which promotes the annual Night Of The Proms shows, says his company decided not to reschedule because the ticket sales didn’t justify the increased costs.

“We had already rescheduled once and there is a limit to how many times you can do this because of the costs involved. We’ve lost our deposit but our cancellation insurance covers us for an eventuality such as this,” he said. PSE and the venue have started paying the refunds.

The other shows on the Ben Hur Web site are all in Germany – Kaltenberg Arena, Berlin Tempelhof and Frankfurt Festhalle. All presales have been put on hold.

Richard Hoerman of Vienna-based Austrian Entertainment said the cancellations are “a nightmare,” particularly as he had invested heavily in the promotion in return for a percentage of the profits.

He had barely two weeks’ notice that the dates had to be canceled, at which point it looked possible to add matinees and do five shows with a total capacity of 33,500.

Hoermann said he has cancellation insurance but it doesn’t cover the bankruptcy of a working partner. He said he’s hoping the receiver can salvage something from the wreckage.

The wheel came off Ben’s chariot when a tour of Spain, Portugal and Italy had to be scrapped because of poor ticket sales, a situation made worse by Focus magazine running a story saying Art Concerts was insolvent.

Abraham says the knock-on effect of the article was that the German tax authority became wary of paying out an outstanding VAT claim of euro 600,000 and the company insuring Art Concerts’ credit lines for up to euro 1.5 million pulled out because it said the risk assessment had changed.

“Two million euros would have made all the difference to us and suddenly it was no longer there,” Abraham told Pollstar. He declined to discuss the size of his company’s debt beyond saying it’s “enormous.” He says he’s considering suing Focus for defamation.

Last month a creditor Abraham declined to name began proceedings to have Art Concerts wound up.

He also said he and his staff are heartbroken as they believed in the production that took in £2 million at the box office when it had a two-night premiere at London O2 last September.

Art Concerts was founded in 1986 and has created such touring productions as Carmina Burana and huge operas including Verdi’s “Aida” and Bizet’s “Carmen.”