They say that the guys in IT are always the first to know.

For two weeks, we’ve been hearing that the White Plains Performing Arts Center—a home for professional musicals in downtown White Plains—is going under. Some say they’ve fired their staff, others that they’re regrouping, others that the theater, next to the multiplex in the City Center mall, will reemerge in the mold of Nyack’s Riverspace Arts, a community performing arts center model.

But no confirmation came from Jack W. Batman, WPPAC’s executive director, nor from John Ioris, the head of the theater’s board.

Both told me the theater was categorically not closing, that suggestions to the contrary were just rumors.

But today, if you go to the theater’s Web site, you can no longer purchase tickets online for “Hello, Dolly!” which was to be the final show of WPPAC’s second season. And it no longer appears on the ticketing calendar, although it is still on the “Upcoming Show” link, slated for April 30 – May 17.

Apparently, the guys in IT knew it before anyone holding tickets for “Dolly” did.

For the past hour, no one has picked up the phone at the theater’s box office.

Two weeks ago, Keith Eddings and I reported that the theater was in trouble, that the city of White Plains was zeroing out the theater’s subsidy. Outgoing Mayor Joe Delfino, a champion of the theater as the centerpiece of White Plains’ renewal, made it to all the opening nights, but couldn’t save the $100,000 funding.

Batman and Ioris said two weeks ago that they were meeting about the theater’s future and that an announcement was to be issued April 10. No announcement came on April 10 or at any time last week. Repeated calls to the theater’s Manhattan-based PR firm, and to the theater, for a comment yielded no results. Apparently, Batman wasn’t returning the PR reps calls, either.

Now, tickets for “Dolly” aren’t on the Web site and there’s no information on what subscribers—who purchased tickets for a three-show season of “Oliver!” “A Little Night Music” and “Hello, Dolly!”—can expect in the way of a refund.

It was a good run.

For nearly two years, Batman and Company brought professional theater to downtown White Plains, luring Tony-nominee Robert Cuccioli twice to the 400-seat house next to the movie theater. Westchester’s Nick Wyman (“Phantom of the Opera,” “A Tale of Two Cities”) also appeared on the WPPAC stage, as did Jill Abramovitz, who’s playing Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl” at Westchester Broadway Theatre these days.

The shows were good and—combined with WBT—created a compelling case that professional musical theater had finally come of age in Westchester with two Equity musical houses presenting varied seasons.

Batman’s plan—to present lesser-known works and to not step on Bob Funking and Bill Stutler’s toes at WBT—muddied a bit in the center’s sophomore season, as WPPAC went to tried-and-true.

“Oliver!” is a staple of community theater seasons. “Hello, Dolly!” was presented by no fewer than five local high schools across the Lower Hudson Valley in March and April alone. What happened to the shows nobody could see anywhere else?

More importantly, where’d all the money go? Batman started things off with great fanfare and promise, and the backing of White Plains developers and merchants. But the economic downturn took its toll and losing “Dolly” is the price.

“Hello, Dolly!” is, of course, the musical about a matchmaker who sets her sights on a wealthy Westchester businessman—Horace Vandergelder, the first citizen of Yonkers—and lands him by the final curtain.

Apparently, WPPAC’s inability to lure less-fictional Westchester business people to lend their support means Dolly won’t be coming this way soon.