Townsend Aide Cites Pay Dispute in Cancellation

Filmmaker and comedian Robert Townsend canceled his performance with the vocal group the Dells at the Celebrity Theatre on Sunday because theater officials did not pay him in the way his contract demanded, according to Townsend’s publicist.

“My understanding is that on the night of the show the theater was supposed to have a cashier’s check, or cash,” publicist Tony Wafford said Monday. “The promoter wanted to write a check from the venue on the venue’s account, and that wasn’t part of the deal. . . . We hung around a while waiting” for theater officials to produce a cashier’s check or cash “but that never happened. We had no alternative but to leave.”

Celebrity officials could not be reached for comment Monday. A box-office employee said only that he knew the concert had been canceled at the last minute, but “nobody knows why.” He added that ticket buyers could get refunds at points of purchase, and that there are no plans to reschedule the show, which had played the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday.

Townsend made an announcement from the stage Sunday explaining the cancellation to the audience, but Wafford doesn’t “know exactly what he said.” Wafford said he also does not know how many tickets had been sold.

An Anaheim police spokesman said there were “no reports of incidents, no trouble of any kind” at the theater Sunday night.

Townsend’s concerts have been offshoots of his recent film “The Five Heartbeats,” which portrays a black R & B group that hits the big time in the 1960s despite pervading racism in the music business and society at large. The Dells, a veteran R&B; group, provided some of the music and served as technical advisers for the film.