And the Jeremy Piven Award for Best Meltdown by a Performer Who Will Never Work Again on Broadway goes to . . . Shia LaBeouf, who was fired this week from “Orphans.”

LaBeouf has been tweeting up a storm about his abrupt exit. He also released e-mails between himself and director Daniel Sullivan, co-star Alec Baldwin and fight director Rick Sordelet.

The e-mails appear to indicate some sort of clash between Baldwin and LaBeouf, which many insiders were betting would happen sooner or later.

Broadway hasn’t seen two such hot-headed actors since George C. Scott and Nicol Williamson!

But do a little digging, and you’ll discover that no one on “Orphans” has a bad word to say about Baldwin.

“This has nothing to do with Alec,” says a source. “Despite his reputation, he has been a decent human being.”

LaBeouf, on the other hand, is getting it in the neck.

His stage experience is scant, and his performance in the rehearsal room was “erratic” to the point of being “volatile,” another source says. He put his fist through a wall once. He did it in character, but the gesture unnerved his co-stars and was not at all what Sullivan wanted.

LaBeouf later apologized for the incident, as the e-mails he tweeted revealed.

You can also see his audition tape, which he released on Vimeo. It’s like watching “The Blair Witch Project.”

Sullivan, a Tony Award winner, is methodical, patient and calm. But, sources say, he couldn’t get through to LaBeouf, whose performance wasn’t in sync with Baldwin’s and Tom Sturridge’s.

“Orphans” tells the story of two brothers who kidnap a gangster. The production has to be orchestrated carefully among the three actors. An off performance — or an off-putting one, as LaBeouf’s apparently was — throws the whole thing out of whack.

Baldwin shared Sullivan’s concerns about LaBeouf, and though he tried to work with the young actor, the differences in performance styles made for a tense and frustrating rehearsal room, sources say.

Now, Baldwin is no saint. He punched a wall because air conditioning was too low backstage at “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” a few years ago, and his co-star, Jan Maxwell, fled the production.

But “Orphans” sources insist Baldwin didn’t terrorize LaBeouf the way he did Maxwell.

“The real tension was between Shia and Dan,” a source says.

LaBeouf released an e-mail from Sullivan that read: “You’re one hell of a great actor. Alec is who he is. You are who you are. You two are incompatible.”

Sounds like there was a clash, but sources insist Sullivan was referring to the fact that their performances didn’t mesh. Sullivan is said to be upset and embarrassed that his e-mail, released out of context, seems to imply that Baldwin had a hand in the situation.

You do have to wonder, though, why Sullivan cast LaBeouf in the first place. Maybe he’s losing his touch because he’s getting old, as he himself admits in one of his e-mails: “I’m too old for disagreeable situations.” His recent revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” certainly wasn’t the work of a director at the top of his game.

It was, several sources say, Sullivan’s decision to fire LaBeouf.

He’s been replaced by the fine Ben Foster, who was Sullivan’s second choice for the part.

So as not to embarrass LaBeouf, the producers cobbled together the old “creative differences” press release. Baldwin himself pointed out to the young actor how sensitive the situation could be for him.

“I’ve been through this before,” he wrote, “what we all do now is critical. Perhaps especially for you.”

(He could have added: “Call Jan Maxwell. She’ll tell you!”)

Some Broadway insiders admire the way LaBeouf’s going down fighting.

“He muddied the waters, and because Alec’s reputation is what it is, it’s easy to conclude that he wasn’t a walk in the park either,” a producer says.

Has all this publicity stirred up ticket sales, which have been lackluster?

“I wish!” says a source on the show.