Currituck: the show doesn't have to go on.

• Position: Eastern

In late December 2005, a lawyer representing the brother of superstar Dolly Parton pitched a deal to government leaders wanting to expand the local economy: build a 1,500-seat theater that would be the linchpin of an entertainment district that could produce thousands of jobs and expand the tax base. No, this wasn't Roanoke Rapids. That city didn't get the offer until Currituck County had turned it down.

Not that it proved to be much of a deal. Roanoke Rapids is saddled with repaying $21.5 million it borrowed to build The Randy Parton Theatre. It fired Parton as a performer in December and is trying to get out of paying him $1.25 million during the next five years. In its first four months, the theater averaged only 200 ticket sales per performance, far short of the 1,000 per show that had been promised. City officials hope the venue, renamed The Roanoke Rapids Theatre, will do better under new management, which took over in November.

Paul O'Neal, chairman of the Currituck commissioners in 2005, says it could have happened there. "Conceptually, we were behind the project 100% from the beginning." Commissioners thought the county would benefit from side businesses and entertainers attracted to the theater district it would anchor near Moyock. County officials even talked to Chesapeake, Va., leaders about contributing to the project. The problem came, he says, when it...