Eat the Richie!
Lionel Richie fans revolted Monday night, we’re told, when they showed up at a Times Square concert venue expecting to see the icon give an intimate perfomance — only to hear him rattle on about his new book for an hour instead.
Spies say some fans paid as much as $600 a pop for stubs on ticket resale sites for the event, billed on sites including Ticketmaster and StubHub as “Truly: An Evening of Lionel Richie and Friends.”
One person was overheard saying they’d shelled out $1200 for the evening, and even had special T-shirts made for the night.
But when the “Hello” superstar took the stage only to settle in for a thought-provoking interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts about his new memoir “Truly,” it became chillingly became clear that nobody would be dancing on the ceiling that night or, indeed, anywhere else.
According to a source in the 1500-person auditorium at Town Hall, the crowd began to jeer and heckle the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
“They were pissed,” said the spy, “People walked out; someone yelled ‘Shut up and sing!’ Another person was escorted out, screaming, ‘I want my money back!'”
“At one point he told a story about being robbed and someone called back, ‘So were we!’,” they added.
We’re told Richie did seem to acknowledge the issue, saying at one point, “If you’re looking for a concert, you came to the wrong place.”
After the show, a snarl of concert-… er… Q&A-goers, some still clutching Twizzlers, descended on the box office demanding refunds.
“It was craziness,” said our onlooker.
But Richie’s camp pointed the finger at fans.
His flack, Jeff Raymond, told Page Six, “It was always advertised as a moderated Q & A (no musical performance) and [it] seems some customers did not read the language.”
“Also, $600.00 was not the cost as that number came secondary market sites – not from Ticketmaster,” he said, “Average cost was $77.00, which included a copy of the book.”
Perhaps adding to the confusion, Richie is also in the midst of a residency as a musical act.
A similar thing happened to Miley Cyrus ealier this year. During the Tribeca Film Festival, Cyrus did a screening of her movie “Something Beautiful” at the Beacon Theater, followed by a Q&A.
People who bought tickets on third-party websites seemed also to have misunderstood the event, with one yelling: “We thought this was a concert, we paid $800.”
Town Hall didn’t get back to us.