Want to see the contemporary drama "Ghosts of Ocean House?" Don't expect to buy a ticket for the show at Utah State University's Old Lyric Repertory Company.

The company, which is a training program based in the USU theater department, had advertised the mystery would be performed as part of its four-play summer season. On Thursday, officials announced they would instead mount J.B. Priestley's 1945 play, "An Inspector Calls," a revival from the company's 1993 season.

The change was purely a business decision, according to Craig Jessop, former musical director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, who now heads USU's music and theater departments. "One of the charges that I have been given is to make certain that the Old Lyric Theatre pays for itself and is on a financial sound basis," Jessop said. "With all of the cuts, it does not have the donor and university sponsorship that [it] has enjoyed in the past. We need to get as many bodies in the seats as we can."

The dumped play, "Ghosts of Ocean House," described as a thriller and a ghost story, was a nominee for the prestigious 2007 Edgar Award for the year's best mystery. Its plot revolves about two sisters and a brother, along with their spouses, who meet one summer to make a decision about the family home. During their stay, dark secrets about the family's past are revealed.

In a May 27, Logan Herald Journal story the play was described as touching on the issue of incest. That's not accurate, said playwright Michael Kimball, in a posting to the newspaper story. "It is not about incest," Kimball wrote. "It is about a young schizophrenic bride whose husband insists on treating her mental illness with prayer, so he takes her out of psychotherapy and off her meds -- and that's when the house becomes haunted."

Sally Okelberry, marketing director for the theater company, said the last-minute switch was a surprise, as the show is set to open July 9, in the middle of the repertory company's June 11-Aug. 1 season. "That always throws a wrench into the production of anything but on the whole, people have been very supportive," Okelberry said. "We understand the reasons. We just have more work to do now."

Okelberry added that Jessop's concern wasn't with the subject matter, but how it would sell to the company's summer theater audience.