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Weinstein to Blame For Rockettes “Heart and Lights” Delay, Sources Buzz

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Harvey Weinstein was invited to sit in at a rehearsal just one day before the postponement of the show was announced.
Harvey Weinstein was invited to sit in at a rehearsal just one day before the postponement of the show was announced.
The day before MSG’s James Dolan pulled the plug on the highly anticpated Rockettes show  “Heart and Lights,” he had Harvey Weinstein sit in on a rehearsal at Radio City Music Hall. And, according to the New York Daily News, that invitation is what led to the turn of fortune and subsequent cancellation of the show.

Dolan and Weinstein viewed the Rockettes’ final rehearsal on Thursday, March 20, just one day before the MSG exec shut down production.

Numerous sources told the NYDN that the production, set to begin its five-week run on March 27, simply wasn’t ready for showtime.

And, in the habit of assigning blame, many fingers pointed directly at the script by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright. But others point the finger at Weinstein’s presence at the rehearsal, claiming that his feedback was highly influential in Dolan’s decision to postpone the show.

“The story was not interesting. It did disservice to the dancing and special effects,” one source told the NYDN. “The story needed to be refined.”

In addition to seeking input from Weinstein, Dolan had sought feedback from movie producer Jane Rosenthal and Broadway producer Daryl Roth. Weinstein’s spokeswoman, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, also gave input on the show, according to the NYDN.

The bad news was delivered to the 40 Rockettes in the production on Friday, where they were told that the show would be postponed until at least 2015. A source told the NYDN that many of the dancers broke out in tears upon hearing the news.

Sloane Zelnick confirmed that Weinstein indeed saw the show, adding that it simply wasn’t ready. The publicist emphasized that Weinstein, an Oscar-winning movie producer, was there solely as a friend giving advice to Dolan.

The call was Dolan’s alone, according to a spokeswoman for MSG, which is producing the show.

Weinstein has has his own personal experience with failed musical productions. He postponed bringing “Finding Neverland” to London’s West End in 2012 after pre-production in Leicester didn’t meet his standards, according to the NYDN.

And Wright told the New York Times that his experience with Dolan’s show was “darkly satiric and at times heartbreaking.”

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