Insurance may cover some losses, though many companies require a theater production to miss at least two performances before a policy takes effect.
On the bottom was the Kathleen Turner vehicle "High," which earned $106,023 for eight performances before closing on Sunday because of poor ticket sales.
There was nothing average, though, about the UK premiere of Brett Dean's Bliss, the belated highlight of this year's Edinburgh international festival, which arrived from Opera Australia just in time for two performances before tonight's grand spectacular fireworks finale.
★ American Ballet Theater (Friday through July 6) If you haven't yet seen Frederick Ashton's "Sylvia," lose no time; there are just three performances before the company switches to "The Sleeping Beauty" for its final week at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Yet judging by the audience reaction at a Nov. 10 show at the McCarter Theater — one of only two performances before "Turnpike" hits the road in January, stopping in Georgia and Florida before returning to McCarter for shows May 30 and 31 — the risk of a performance being derailed by overly obscure gags is slight.
In 1987, however, the ballet as it was first conceived and performed, with original set and costumes and Nijinsky's choreography (which had been seen for only seven performances before it was superseded by new choreography from Léonide Massine), was painstakingly reconstructed and re-created by the Joffrey Ballet.
It is a significant commitment for the BBC, not just in terms of airtime but also logistics: for each opera and ballet the BBC records, they talk to the director, choreographer and designer, then rehearse one or two performances before recording a third.
Each of Bach's cantatas, tied to a particular date in the liturgical calendar, had a limited shelf-life with no more than three performances before a new one was required.
The three performances before full houses at Bing Theater were the first West Coast performances of this, his second opera, composed in 1836.
