It was but a few days ago that Kandi Burruss and producer husband Todd Tucker hit the radio trail in support of the tour version of their play ‘A Mother’s Love’.
However, while buzz for the US trek was healthy, it appears the back-end business side of things was anything but.
For, after just four shows, the 30-date jaunt has been abruptly cancelled.
Details on the drama, which we’re sure will play out on The Real Housewives Of Atlanta, below…
Burruss has remained somewhat coy about the matter save for an Instagram post stressing that she’d been frowning for most of the day, however her friend and cast-mate Funky Dineva spilled the tea:
It saddens me to have to even tell you the bullsh!t I’m about to tell you. After all the ranting and the raving, A Mother’s Love WILL NOT be coming to a city nearest you after all. Simply put, it appears that the promoter who the play was licensed to may have bitten off a little more than they could chew. Quiet as its kept, I knew something in the milk wasn’t clean when the check I was written for my first week’s salary bounced. Writing this post is a little weird for me, because I am so use to telling other people’s tea, and not my own. However, here we go…
For those of you wondering “how is it that the play stop moving due to lack of resources, and Kandi is rich”, here’s how. Kandi & Todd created and produced the original play. After the play’s initial run in Atlanta, Kandi & Todd were apprehensive about travelling the play around the US on their dime, because these were unchartered territories for them. One magical day, A promoter approached Kandi & Todd about wanting to invest in and promote the play on a 30 city tour. The reasonable assumption to any rational adult is that if someone approaches you about putting a 30 city tour together, that they have the resources and the skill set to do so. Well we all know what they say about assumptions…
Sad, right? But it gets worse…
A gamble was made by a promoter who used people’s lives as chips. Being given a contract that pretty much says you will be on the road from September – December and paid XYZ salary weekly was all the go ahead people needed to quit their day jobs, reject other offers, and basically rearrange their lives. Last night, when news broke that the tour was cancelled, there were many tears shed. People’s lives changed in a matter of seconds. Expecting to be paid this Monday, and in exchange being told that the tour is no more, coupled with the fact that you quit your job (your only source of income), emotions were running high. There were some people in the room who honestly had no other money than what was in their pocket, and was really depending on this Monday payout.
How incredibly unfortunate. That said, given Kandi’s business savviness, we doubt it’ll be long before she has her hands in other fruitful endeavours.
Needless to say, it’ll be uber interesting to see how this plays out on season seven of ‘Real Housewives’ – which begins airing in November.
So, the promoter ran off with the money or never had it advance to the actors and venues. These shows had to be scheduled and BOOKED months in advance. If tickets are selling to the shows, which I believe they are, there is no reason this tour can’t be salvaged, either by another promoter who has the money to pay the upfront costs or by Kandi and Todd.
Kandi is an astute businesswoman, but also a sweetheart. She will make this right for the interested parties and get her profits in order simultaneously.