No Visit for NYC, as investors pull out of Kander-Ebb-McNally musical

Playbill.com reports that the new John Kander-Fred Ebb musical The Visit, featuring a book by out playwright Terrence McNally, won't be opening this season at New York's Public Theater after two major investors walked off the project. No reasons were cited for Jeffrey Seller and Kevin McCollum's departure, which deprived the show of one third of its $1.5 million budget. This latest setback is one in a series of crises for the show; original star Angela Lansbury backed out, which messed up the show's planned Broadway opening, and a 2001 Chicago premiere with Chita Rivera drew decent but not overwhelming reviews. The show has sat on the shelf since then, but the Public was going to provide an off-Broadway venue for an early 2004 opening under the direction of openly gay director Frank Galati (Homebody/Kabul). No word yet as to future plans for the show, an adaptation of Friedrich Durrenmatt's satire about the world's richest woman and what she asks for in return for saving her impoverished hometown.