Cambodian Dance Troupe Back on Its Feet : Culture: The 55-member group whose U.S. tour was stalled here by debt hits the road again with the help of a compatriot now living in Mission Viejo.

The Cambodian dance troupe whose American tour collapsed in Orange County under a mountain of debt after only four performances to near-empty theaters is back on the road again.

The 55-member troupe owes the jump-start of its 19-city tour to a Mission Viejo man who has made a fortune selling doughnuts.

Ted Ngoy, himself a Cambodian immigrant who owns a string of doughnut shops from San Francisco to San Diego, said he’s taken financial control of the troupe and will lead it to the East Coast on two Greyhound buses where the group will perform in New York, Rhode Island and possibly Montreal.

“We have made many contacts with people in New York,” said Ngoy, who has been boarding the group’s 29 male members at his Mission Viejo home since mid-September. “I think things are looking real good. We may go all the way to Montreal.”

Ngoy said he took control of the group Angkor Dreams earlier this week in an agreement reached with the former tour coordinator.

The original tour, an exhibit of music and dance performed by young Cambodians from a refugee camp just inside Thailand near the Cambodian border, was stopped last month after a failed publicity campaign in the U.S. brought few spectators to its inaugural California performances and debts totaling $56,000.

Before the tour’s collapse, McNeel said, the group had plans to perform at the United Nations, Washington’s Constitution Hall and Florida’s Disney World. They were to end the tour Nov. 3 in New York and fly back to Thailand, but Ngoy said the members have wanted to settle their debts before leaving.

Since initial reports of their plight, Ngoy said, the group has been chipping away at the debt with benefit shows last week in Yorba Linda and Long Beach.

Thursday, the doughnut-czar-turned-promoter brought his show to Disneyland where park officials provided free passes to all its members, food coupons and a stage where they could perform.

With the renewed interest, his financial backing and contacts made through Cambodian communities along the East Coast, Ngoy said he believes that the group will be able to make up its losses and fly back home on schedule.

Although the group will forgo its planned performances at Disney World and Constitution Hall, Ngoy and Evelyne Sak, who has been boarding the group’s 26 female members in her four-bedroom Anaheim home, said Angkor Dreams has tentative performance dates scheduled in Providence, R.I., Boston and Philadelphia, before departing from New York.

“Mr. Ngoy has taken responsibility for the whole tour, and he will see it through to the end,” Sak said. “It’s a big responsibility, that’s why we are working so hard.”

While he is gone, Ngoy will leave the management of his 20 Christy’s doughnut shops in the hands of his children.

“(The tour) could be disastrous,” said the businessman, who fled to Southern California in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took control of his homeland. “I want to see them be successful. It’s not all about money anymore. There is an attachment between us. I will be sorry to see them go.”

After another benefit performance in Stockton Sunday, the group will load up the buses and a U-Haul trailer for the trip east.

Sak said the trip east will be financed mostly by Ngoy and with whatever donations they can get.

“We still have some problems, but we are very optimistic now,” Sak said. “We just want to help them get on their way.”

Ngoy, who will hold a going-away party for the company at his home Saturday, said he has been overwhelmed with donations of clothing, luggage, food and money.

“I feel like I cannot let them go away alone,” Ngoy said of his decision to travel with the group. “I feel I have to be with them.”