Showtixx Shows Red, Goes Dark

Showtixx, a Sherman Oaks-based company that handled telephone reservations and credit card sales for many of L.A.’s sub-100-seat theatrical productions, has gone out of business, still owing an estimated $25,000 worth of ticket receipts to Hollywood’s small, nonprofit Celebration Theatre and smaller sums to several other companies or producers.

Showtixx owner Steve Thomas has been unreachable for more than a week, and the firm’s remaining assets are missing, according to Thomas’ former associates. Earlier this year, Showtixx represented more than 20 productions simultaneously, according to an ex-employee of the firm.

In a July 1 telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times, shortly before his disappearance, Thomas discussed the recent decline of his business. He cited as factors a crashed computer system and a bank crackdown on an overextended credit limit. He also said, “I wasn’t in the office as much as I used to be,” because of “other business-related matters.”

Thomas said in the interview that he wanted “to salvage the business and pay the outstanding debts to my clients.” Although three former employees had left the company, he said new workers were being trained and that the office would reopen the following day at 11 a.m.

The office did not reopen. During the Fourth of July weekend, computers and most of the furniture were removed from the office, according to Thomas’ former partner Del Shores and former Showtixx office manager Tommy Flanagan. On Tuesday of this week, an answering machine message at the Showtixx reservations number still instructed callers to leave a message, but the voice mailbox was full.

Celebration Theatre’s artistic director Robert Schrock said Thomas had said he would pay $3,000 of his debt to the theater during the July 4 weekend, but the promised cashier’s check never arrived.

Schrock called the $25,000 loss from the ticket revenues kept by Showtixx “nothing short of catastrophic” for his small company, which has an annual budget of just over $200,000 and charges $20-25 per ticket. Schrock and another staff member have gone unpaid since mid-June, and he said the theater is unable, at least for now, to post a $1,378 bond due Friday with Actors’ Equity to cover salaries for the cast of its hit revue “Naked Boys Singing,” which could close as a result. Nor are the show’s creators being paid their monthly percentage of the gross. Plans for a fund-raiser that would help make up the loss are underway.

Schrock said that Celebration, perhaps in conjunction with other producers, plans to take legal action, though he said Tuesday that the group’s attorney is still investigating Showtixx’s ownership records and considering legal options.

The collapse of Showtixx follows the demise last August of Theatix, a similar company. At that time, some of Theatix’s clients switched their business to the relatively new Showtixx. Producer Michael Arabian sued Theatix’s owner Melodie Annis for what he said was a $10,000 loss of ticket money for his show “Is It Just Me, or Is It Hot in Here?”--he said a judgment is expected soon--then became a Showtixx client in December. Now, he said, Showtixx’s Thomas owes him the receipts for six recent performances of the same show.

Commenting on the factors cited by Thomas that led to his company’s collapse, former Showtixx office manager Flanagan said last week that “there was no problem with the computer system.” He said that for about a week earlier this year, the volume of ticket orders was so high that the firm had exceeded the credit limit on its merchant account, but it continued to take orders and simply processed the charges later, after credit was restored.

Flanagan said that Thomas had been increasingly inaccessible to both staff and clients in recent months, even though Thomas alone retained the responsibility of paying producers their receipts (after deducting the Showtixx service charges). Several months ago, producers began complaining to Flanigan about bounced or late checks--or no checks at all, though producers Leigh Fortier and Shores (who used Showtixx for his recent production of “Melody Jones” at Hollywood’s Theatre/Theater) told The Times that checks that initially bounced were later made good.

Showtixx’s three employees weren’t paid for their final two weeks, Flanigan said, and during this period Thomas couldn’t be reached. The employees stopped coming to work, one by one, with Flanagan the last to go, he said. He began suggesting to callers that they should buy tickets at the theaters rather than via credit card, though he continued to relay their reservations to the theaters. Meanwhile, producers--alarmed by bounced checks or their own failure to reach Thomas--began withdrawing their business.

When Thomas briefly resurfaced during the first week of July, he spoke in person to playwright-producer Shores, with whom he had started the business.

Shores, who said he loaned Thomas $20,000 to launch Showtixx and is still owed $12,000, said he told Thomas that “he had to deal with this, to step up to the plate and be a man.” Thomas replied that he intended to obtain loans in order to pay off his debts, Shores said, and that “if nothing else, he’d set up a payment schedule to the Celebration.”

One other company, Tickets L.A., now provides telephone box-office service for many of the smaller theaters, and Flanagan and Hudson Theatre producer Gary Blumsack both said they are considering launching new ticket services. Some theaters handle telephone reservations in house. The Tiffany Theater box office is now handling Celebration Theatre’s telephone orders.

Schrock called the $25,000 loss from the ticket revenues kept by Showtixx “nothing short of catastrophic” for his small company, which has an annual budget of just over $200,000 and charges $25 per ticket. Schrock and another staff member have gone unpaid since mid-June, and he said the theater is unable, at least for now, to post a $1,378 bond due Friday with Actors’ Equity to cover salaries for the cast of its hit revue “Naked Boys Singing,” which could close as a result.