Decatur, again, has to decide what it wants.

Or maybe as a city we've already decided, and that may break the hearts of those working to restore the Lincoln Square Theatre.

A performance of the play "Love Letters," starring real-life husband-and-wife team Jean Smart and Richard Gilliland, was canceled Monday afternoon with only about 250 tickets sold. The Lincoln Square Theatre holds 1,100 people.

Maybe Smart and Gilliland aren't enough of a draw to get people out of their houses on a Saturday night. Maybe tight economic conditions made ticket prices of $75, $50 and $35 untenable. Perhaps the price of gas has potential patrons defaulting to a DVD rental and a night at home with budget microwave popcorn.

However, what Lincoln advisory board chairwoman Carla Brinkoetter hopes it's not is an indictment of Decatur or of its people.

Brinkoetter saw the event as a kickoff to showing what the Lincoln could become - a haven for intimate arts experiences, drawing people to downtown Decatur to enjoy some of the changes made there.

"I was truly hoping the theater could sustain a show without having to go to the corporate community for support," Brinkoetter said. "I believe it still can."

But for the Lincoln to sustain a show with limited or nonexistent sponsorship, potential patrons have to understand the events come with a price.

"The community can't expect to get into a show for 10 bucks," Brinkoetter said. She said this in more of a tone of confusion or resignation than criticism.

Brinkoetter is just the latest in a series of observers convinced people within the city of Decatur sometimes view higher prices elsewhere as a sign of quality, and higher prices in town as a sign of people thinking they're doing little more than shoveling money into someone else's pockets.

"I truly believe," Brinkoetter said, "there are people who will go out of town for the same thing and pay two or three times as much as what they'd pay here for less than what they'd get here."

That may be the case. Or maybe the appeal of Smart and Gilliland was overestimated. Brinkoetter said ticket orders had come from Champaign, Bloomington and Springfield, so the event had some regional appeal, just not enough.

Brinkoetter also admitted to being "ambitious with the pricing."

But entertainment prices are rising. The higher price of fuel affects everything, of course, but directly and immediately affected by that price increase are the people who drive or fly from city to city to entertain people. That's why concert ticket prices have exploded, why stage shows have extended stays or sit-down production, and it's why even at $7 or $8 a ticket, movie theaters can argue they're the best entertainment bargain and not get laughed out of town.

And we're a city that was largely reluctant to pay anything close to the going market rate for acts. Look at Kirkland Fine Arts Center, too often not even half-full for acts of stunning quality.

(In 2004, being part of a small audience for violinist Eileen Ivers was thrilling for the experience and disappointing for the tiny crowd.)

The Beach Boys only sold 1,500 tickets when they played the Decatur Civic Center in 2004 at $42.50 a ticket.

Two years ago, we printed a handful of concert fees from assorted performers. Here it is again. Be assured their prices have not gone down (especially not for the late Luciano Pavarotti):

Violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, $35,000; left-wing radio host and comedian Al Franken, $50,000; Grammy-winning soul singer Alicia Keys, $60,000; opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, $100,000; comedians Bill Cosby, Dennis Miller and Bill Maher, each $100,000; 1980s rockers Motley Crue, $250,000.

Tickets for performances at those rates would probably range from at least $35 to at least $250.

Look, maybe the Smart-Gilliland "Love Letters" wasn't your thing, and maybe you're not interested in The Beach Boys, either. Maybe none of the performers listed a couple of paragraphs up appeal to you.

At some point, though, as a community, we have to decide we either want these events, or we don't. When the possibilities ultimately become limited because of rejection of any number of possibilities, it DOES become us that is the problem.

Tim Cain can be reached at timcain@herald-review.com or 421-6908.