Cut Your Losses

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here’s a famous saying in show biz that the show must go on. These days, however, we’ve learned the hard way that that’s not always the case. Coronavirus has ensured that all public gatherings have been canceled or postponed — but it’s not the first time.

In my years as producer and concert organizer, I can list off a number of concerts that were postponed for various reasons, either because of the weather, the health of the performer, or (a little more embarrassing) lack of ticket sales or interest. But there have also been a fair share of concerts canceled due to unforeseen world events.

One of those was an Avraham Fried scheduled in a huge outdoor arena in Ashkelon. The show was completely sold out and Avremel had already done the rehearsal for the show, when suddenly there was a report of missiles being fired toward Ashkelon from Gaza. For good reason, the government immediately canceled the concert, but it turned out there were a bunch of people who hadn’t heard about the cancelation and had already made their way to the arena. They were naturally dismayed to hear about the cancelation. But as they were leaving the venue, all those would-be concert-goers joined together in song in their own makeshift concert, their voices rising to the tunes of all the songs they could remember on the spot. Baruch Hashem, no missiles were fired, but when Avremel repeated the story to me, he said this was a true example of a concert that was a “real bomb.”

Speaking of bombs, In January 1991, MBD had a concert planned marking his 18th year in the music business. The celebration was to take place at the Westbury Music Fair, with two shows planned. The first went on as scheduled, but the next one was canceled when then-president George H. W. Bush announced the start of Operation Desert Storm (the First Gulf War). Although we weren’t anticipating any bombs in New York, the event was not allowed to go on.