It’s not often you can say that an indoor theater performance has been rained out. But what has happened to the national touring production of “Hairspray” in Denver this week is the baseball equivalent of a double-header washout.

The first two performances of the popular Broadway musical’s week-long visit to Denver on Tuesday and Wednesday were canceled after “an errant activation of the sprinkler system in the Buell Theatre,” said Heidi Bosk, the Denver Center’s associate director of press and promotions.

At around 8 a.m. Tuesday, local crews had just begun a process called the “load-in,” when traveling set pieces and other equipment are taken off trucks and put into place on the Buell Theatre stage, said Brian Kitts, director of communications for Denver Arts and Venues.

“A member of the crew bumped into a pipe that was attached to the sprinkler system, setting off the sprinklers above the stage,” he said. “It was just one of those things. A weird accident.”  

Kitts said the sprinklers were shut off “in a matter of minutes,” preventing any major damage to the building or the show’s set pieces, which had not yet been moved into place.

But a backstage crew member who witnessed the incident said more than a foot of water quickly collected in the ensemble pit. He attributed the accident to “an unbalanced batten (or wall fastener) that came loose, went screaming up the grid and put a hole in the sprinkler-system pipe.”

While the water was mopped up within four hours, Wednesday’s performance was also called off as a precautionary measure to make certain extensive lighting equipment above the stage was not damaged, Kitts said.

“While we were optimistic that performances could resume today, upon further review, we have determined that we need one more day to complete our load-in and thoroughly test our systems to ensure that we can provide the quality production our community is accustomed to,” said Bosk, who added: “We anticipate that performances will resume Thursday, March 7.”

The show, about a plucky, plus-sized teenager working to integrate a Baltimore TV dance show in the 1960s, runs in Denver through Sunday, March 10.

Any cancellation of a Broadway performance creates both a logistical ticketing nightmare and a potentially large financial hit to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which presents all visiting Broadway shows in the Buell Theatre. 

While the DCPA did not say exact figures, it stands to reason that about 5,000 patrons were impacted by the two canceled performances in the 2,800-seat Buell Theatre. When a show only has eight scheduled performances to begin with, moving thousands of people into the remaining six simply becomes a math problem.

“Patrons will be contacted and offered the opportunity to exchange into an alternate performance or receive a refund,” Bosk said.

Tom Mustin had tickets for Tuesday’s opening performance but didn’t learn he wasn’t going to hear one of the musical’s hit songs – “You Can’t Stop the Beat” – until he arrived at the theater. (The Denver Center emailed him about the cancellation by 11 a.m., but he was working all day and didn’t check his messages.)

“You can’t stop the beat, but apparently you can stop people from walking in to watch the show,” Mustin (himself an anchor at Denver7) told Denver Gazette media partner 9News.   

‘Hairspray’ hometowner visits high school

Christy Oberndorf, a graduate of Grandview High School in Aurora and the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, has returned to Denver as Tammy, a teen council member on “The Corny Collins Show” in “Hairspray.”

And on Tuesday, in the hours before what was supposed to be her triumphant return to Denver, the 2019 True West Award-winning breakout performer returned to Grandview to offer current students their second fully fleshed example of what is possible in the past month.

On Feb. 15, Grandview grad Erik C. Peterson did the same on a quick break from Broadway’s “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Both were taught by retiring theater chair Brianna Lindahl.

Oberndorf has been performing on area stages since she was just a kid in the DCPA Theatre Company’s 2008 seasonal staging of “A Christmas Carol.” She won her True West Award for her performance as Sophie in BDT Stage’s “Mamma Mia,” and she starred as Dorothy in Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s “The Wizard of Oz.” She played a different “Hairspray” role – as Penny – in Parker Arts’ production back in 2017.

She also sang the national anthem before the Denver Broncos’ victory over the Cleveland Browns at Empower Field on Nov. 26 on a “Hairspray” promotional visit.