Buzz Closes College Musical

A 16-show run of “Babes in Arms” at Saddleback College’s McKinney Theatre that was scheduled through Sunday was cut short, not by stinging reviews but by stinging bees.

The bees invaded a recent early matinee, stinging the lead actress and prompting the show’s cancellation after three performances.

Some cast members joked that the show wasn’t meant to be. Others suggested the name of the 1937 Rodgers & Hart musical be changed to “Bees on Arms.”

But the humor went only so far.

“It’s really disappointing when you don’t get to do what you do and then something like a bee can beat you out for the space,” said Shanon Mills, 20, of Long Beach, who had a role in the production.

The musical about the son of an old vaudeville team who puts on his own show to avoid being sent to a work farm with other vaudevillians’ children was the third and final event of the Mission Viejo college’s Civic Light Opera summer series, said Rocco Cifone, dean of the fine-art division.

Julie Dixon Jackson, one of the two professional performers in the cast, was stung when the bees suddenly appeared at a matinee, Mills said, but no one knew exactly what had happened at the time. As the show continued, the actors and the audience could see more and more bees under the stage lights.

That evening’s show was canceled as Cifone and others tried to figure out when the fly loft could be cleared of thousands of bees.

“It’s the first time we’ve had to cancel the run of an entire production because of, essentially, an act of God,” Cifone said. The show, he said, was to be the “marquee event for the summer.”

The rest of the performances, which were to run through Sunday, were canceled, and $32 general admission and $30 student ticket holders received refunds. The actors still had to be paid, as well as the bills for costumes and rental equipment, Cifone said. Officials did not have an estimate of the financial loss.

It would have been too difficult to move to another theater, Cifone said: “That’s like trying to move your house.”

The Civic Light Opera program, which has an annual $250,000 budget that is funded by the college and through private donations, is one of the few in the state that teams professional actors with students, he said.

“It really is a big blow to our season,” Cifone said. “We’re going to have to try to make up for those serious losses.... It’s going to be difficult to compensate for this next season.”

Mills, a Cal State Fullerton senior and a first-time performer with the series, called the experience “very disappointing.”

“It’s hard, because we had no control over the situation.”

Officials said they first thought the cast would still be able to do some of the performances but then realized the extent of the invasion.

“There were thousands in the lights, in the catwalks on the seats and so forth,” said college President Richard McCullough. “Everything had to be vacuumed and cleaned.”

A private exterminator hired by Saddleback College used a flower-based pesticide to get rid of the bees. The honeycomb still needed to be removed Thursday before the 400-seat theater could reopen today as scheduled. Officials did not know what the cleanup cost would be.

About two people out of every 1,000 are allergic to bees, according to the University of California’s integrated pest management program.

In the production -- which included 18 cast members and about two dozen production staff -- a musician and a staff member said they were allergic to stings, Cifone said.

The situation hit close to home for Cifone: His wife is allergic and carries a special medicine at all times. “If she’s stung, she has to go to the hospital and risks death,” he said. “I couldn’t risk that with anybody.”