Assured by producers that their jobs were safe, actors skipped auditions for other musicals. Band members signed apartment leases. Investors wrote more checks for the show.

But when they all gathered together on April 8, for a final rehearsal of their musical, “A Night With Janis Joplin,” a theater’s worth of hopes were dashed. They learned that the show’s lead producers — who had moved “Joplin” from Broadway to the lower-budget Off Broadway — were canceling the run because of poor ticket sales, just 48 hours before reopening downtown at the Gramercy Theater.

According to five production members who were at the Gramercy that night, one actress reacted with cold fury about the show’s marketing. Another curled up in a ball. Crying silently was the show’s star, Mary Bridget Davies, who had earned critical acclaim as Joplin on Broadway and may nab a Tony Award nomination next week. The investors seemed calmer, although one later used a profanity to rue the “train wreck” that the production had become.

The implosion of “A Night With Janis Joplin” — which had a budget of $3.9 million on Broadway and about $650,000 for the Gramercy — stands as one of the messiest of the theater season, judging by interviews this week with seven actors and musicians who were involved with the show.