The show is popular among the actors of the TV show as well as with the creator of the show, Joss Whedon. "Who doesn't dream of getting a little piece of that 'Rocky Horror' vibe?" he said. "I wrote it to be an episode of television to air and disappear. I didn't think about its afterlife that much, and now it has much more of an afterlife than I could ever have expected, and a much more fun one. Of course I love it!" When he heard of the news that it was being shutdown, he said, "This is hugely depressing. I will do everything in my power to find out the exact reasoning for this and try to convince those responsible what a mistake it is. Of course, the words 'my power' might confuse my gentle readers into believing I have any. I don't know what I'll be able to do, and I've no idea even where to start. Nor do I think this was done maliciously or capriciously. But it's lousy news and it's bad business."
Michelle Trachtenburg, who played Buffy's sister, Dawn, loved the show. " 'Once More With Feeling' is pretty badass," actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy's sister Dawn, told MTV News. "They learned all the dances, all the songs," said fellow "Buffy" actress Amber Benson, who played Tara. "That's dedication."
The shows sell out and sell out fast. They have sold out up to a week in advance. The problem is that the Screen Actors Guild saw that they were charging for these shows and sent 20th Century Fox a bill for unpaid actors' residuals. Fox was unaware of the scale that Clinton McClung's show was on, and revoked his license to exhibit the show. "Needless to say, I was a bit shocked to find out that they were pulling the plug with such little notice," McClung said. "I was under the impression that everything we were doing was completely legal and had been cleared by the appropriate people. It's one thing to be throwing a fan-based event with no legal clearance and have it shut down by lawyers, but it is another entirely to be trying your best to keep it all above the board and legal and still have it come to a crashing halt."
Fox says that Criterion, who licensed McClung's show, never had the right to do so, commercially or theatrically. "That was never part of the license agreement," Chris Alexander said. "Their license agreement was to show it in certain arenas where admission is not charged, like on airplanes, in churches, on Army bases, but not commercial theaters. So they went beyond what they were authorized to do."
They are currently looking into different ways of "paying" to get into the show, such as donations. McClung says they started looking into doing benefit shows to help get out of debt.
A petition has been set up for to being the show back. "Within 24 hours, we had over 1,000 signatures," said Caroline O'Connor, who plays Willow in Buffyoke stagings. "That's pretty awesome. In the meantime, we'll laugh, we'll play, we'll sing, we'll dance, and hopefully, soon, we'll be able to do it for an audience."
