Michael Riedel

Michael Riedel

Theater

Diva Amanda Plummer ‘a nightmare’ backstage

Today’s special — diva dish! The diva is Amanda Plummer, one of our finest, if battiest, stage actors. And here’s the dish: Plummer received rave reviews as the demented actress in “The Two-Character Play,” an obscure Tennessee Williams melodrama running at off-Broadway’s New World Stages. The Times’ Ben Brantley described her character as a “raging paranoiac, blessed and cursed by a talent [she] can no longer control.”

That’s pretty much how people working on the show describe Plummer herself.

Since the production opened in June, nearly 15 performances have been canceled, several because Plummer refused to go on. Two weeks ago, she canceled the Wednesday matinee two minutes before the curtain went up because she saw particles of dust floating around in the lights. “It’s too distracting. I can’t perform with all this dust in the air,” she told the management. Her co-star, Brad Dourif, came onstage and told the sold-out house the show was off.

The pair didn’t show up for that evening’s performance either, so their woefully under-rehearsed standbys, Rob Sedgwick and Elize Russell, performed with scripts in hand. Russell wore Plummer’s costume, which was “too big and baggy for her,” says a source, and Sedgwick practically tripped over the furniture. Most of the paying customers left when they learned the stars were out. Sources say the standbys rattled around in front of about 13 people.

Plummer usually has Tuesdays off. But since the July Fourth weekend started on Thursday, the producers added a Tuesday performance. Plummer was having none of it. She missed her half-hour call and didn’t return several frantic messages from the stage manager. The performance was canceled.

Early in the run, she fell off the stage and injured herself — a legitimate reason to miss some performances. But with so many canceled shows, the producers are bleeding money and, sources say, decided to close the production at the end of the month. (Plummer and Dourif will miss performances Monday and Wednesday due to a death in Dourif’s family. Sources say she refuses to perform without him.)

Backstage, Plummer has been “a nightmare,” a source says. She refused to perform if the air conditioning was on, even in the middle of the summer. The management turned it way down, so she couldn’t hear it, but that led to complaints from sweltering audience members.

New World Stages is made up of several theaters, one of which is home to “iLuminate,” a hip-hop musical. Plummer hates noise backstage and “flipped out” one night because she could hear the bass player from “iLuminate,” says a source. She stood in front of the theater shouting, “I’m not doing the show until you turn off that music!” (Soundproof padding was hastily installed.)

Plummer has a reputation for being a diva. She’s been let go from shows in the past (“Art of Success” at Manhattan Theatre Club), and when she appeared in the off-Broadway play “Abundance,” Times reporter Alex Witchel described her as “someone who can call her own shots.” One night, Plummer took a strong dislike to her wig, delaying the 8 p.m. curtain nearly an hour. (At least there wasn’t a dust problem.)

“The Two-Character Play” has been troubled from the start. The director, Gene David Kirk, was let go during technical rehearsals after reportedly clashing with the stage manager. His picture was posted at the stage door with orders that he not be admitted to the theater. Shortly after, the lighting designer quit and, in a fit of pique, sources say, erased all the lighting cues.

Plummer refuses to speak to her producers, and sources say they’re considering lodging a complaint about her with Actors’ Equity.

Plummer was unavailable for comment.

In a statement, the producers said: “We offer no comment on these allegations. Ms. Plummer is the production’s ‘raison d’etre.’ When one desires to put on the best production possible, one hires the best . . . She is a theatrical treasure as her performance confirms and her reviews record.”

Plummer is from a storied theatrical family. Her mother is Tammy Grimes, and her father is Christopher Plummer. They divorced in 1960 and, as he wrote in his memoir, the family’s relationships were strained. Apparently, there’s still trouble with Mom. A source says Plummer “neglected” to leave a ticket for Grimes on opening night. (The box office managed to find her a seat.)

As for Dad, he attended a later performance — but left at intermission.

“I just have to go,” he muttered to a theater staffer. “Don’t let her know.”