‘Misery’ play gets the axe

By Cameron Rasmusson
Reader Staff

“Misery,” the highly-anticipated local Halloween-season theatrical production of the Stephen King novel, is canceled after play supervisors found themselves caught in the middle of a legal battle.

According to Dorothy Prophet, founder of Cade Prophet Memorial Productions, the local production is a casualty in an ongoing rights war between King and Simon Moore, who adapted the novel for the stage. The forced cancellation is a painful blow for a cast and crew that already invested significant time, energy and money into the production.

“While this makes me sad, I must say that when I measure this disappointment with my ‘new normal’ yardstick, no one has died,” Prophet wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “This is a speed bump in the journey of life, and we will be just fine.”

The play received a cease-and-desist letter from Moore, who has tangled legally with King and Warner Brothers, which owns the film rights to “Misery,” for decades. Moore initially acquired the rights to write a stage adaptation of “Misery” but lost them when Warner Brothers bought the rights for its movie adaptation. After days of communicating with lawyers, Prophet and her collaborators found that while King and Warner Brothers had no problem with the production, they were unwilling to put that in writing — a consideration that Moore’s representation demanded.

Prophet founded Cade Prophet Memorial Productions in honor of her son, Cade Prophet, who died in an accident at Palouse Falls State Park in 2017. The theater company’s productions are intended to raise money for causes that Cade was passionate about.

“I want to thank Ken Wood, Kate McAlister, Eric Bond, Ricci Witte and Meredith Field for their countless hours of work on this project,” Prophet wrote. “Our future productions are safely in place, but more on that later.”

Refunds for those who pre-purchased tickets to the play are available at Eve’s Leaves.