L.A. Run of Stage Musical ‘Selena Forever’ Is Canceled

The five-day Los Angeles run of the stage musical “Selena Forever” has been canceled due to disagreements between the promoters and producers of the musical, based on the murdered tejano singer’s life. The show was scheduled to open Thursday night at the Universal Amphitheatre as part of an eight-city tour.

The show’s producers blame Universal’s promoter Emily Simonitsch for “abandoning” their show due to low pre-sales of tickets. Simonitsch, however, blamed producers for the cancellation, saying they insisted on a two-week run but she would only agree to one week.

Michel Vega, one of the four producers of the musical, said through his publicist Gabriel Reyes on Monday he was “very shocked and disappointed” by the cancellation. Vega said the tour will otherwise continue as scheduled, including a June 13-18 run at the Civic Theatre in San Diego. Vega also said he hopes to find another venue and date for the musical in Los Angeles later this year.

“Selena Forever” had been scheduled to be staged locally at the 2,200-seat Wiltern Theater today-May 21 but was moved after Simonitsch convinced Vega and others that 6,251-seat Universal, which was condensed for the show, was a better venue.

“We have a better history promoting Latin events in the community,” she told The Times when the switch was arranged. Wiltern Theater house manager Michelle Barber was unavailable for comment.

Producers and others involved with the musical, including Selena’s family, are questioning Simonitsch’s advertising and promotion of their $2-million stage show, which they say has drawn large crowds in the Texas cities of San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Corpus Christi and El Paso, as well as Chicago.

A source close to the musical said Simonitsch told producers she had spent $50,000 promoting the show. But publicists for the show say the extent of Simonitsch’s advertising campaign was sending 10,000 photocopies of a flier to publicists for distribution.

Eduardo Cancela, general manager and vice president of KLAX-FM, a popular Spanish-language radio station, said he knew nothing about the show, even though KLAX is one of the few stations that still play Selena’s music.

“I can’t believe that in a city with 5 million Latinos you can’t find an audience for a show like that,” Cancela said. “She’s huge. . . . Something like this, it’s all in the marketing. I don’t think they got the word out very well. We didn’t get any ads. I haven’t seen ads anywhere.”

Robert Trevino, vice president of Promotional Management Group in San Antonio and the man who arranged sponsors for the tour, said that in the other cities where the musical has run, advance sales were not an indication of actual sales.

“Latinos are new to the theater,” Trevino said, echoing comments made at the musical’s premiere in San Antonio by its director, William Alejandro Virchis, and producer Tom Quinn. “They come at the last minute. We were shocked and flabbergasted they would cancel on us. It just sends the wrong message to everyone in this industry about Latinos and our musical. What, we weren’t good enough to play in one of the top markets? This musical is as good as anything I’ve seen on Broadway, and I’m sorry you all won’t get to see it.”