MIA: If the key performer in a...

MIA: If the key performer in a reunion concert calls in sick, are ticket-holders entitled to refunds?

That’s what Sandy Murray of La Verne has been asking after attending New Edition’s Feb. 8 concert at the Forum, where Bobby Brown, the most famous member of the R&B; vocal sextet, failed to appear. “We went to see the reunion of all these guys, and he wasn’t there,” says Murray, who called The Times to voice her complaint when she couldn’t get a refund.

According to a Forum spokesman, fans who asked for refunds during the show were given their money back by the promoter, Al Haymon Enterprises of Newton, Mass., but anybody who stayed till the end, as Murray did, was out of luck.

What’s customary in the concert business? A prominent national promoter said that, in general, fans who sit through the entire show forfeit their rights to refunds. Usually, though, signs would be posted or announcements made during the show to inform fans that performers would not be appearing.

Brown made it to the group’s next scheduled show, Feb. 9 in Las Vegas, but New Edition mates Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe failed to appear, touching off a stream of protests. And on Monday, DeVoe was arrested in Louisville, Ky., on alcohol-related charges. New Edition canceled a Tuesday show in Fairfax, Va. This leg of the reunion is scheduled to continue until March 2.