New Delhi, July 13 -- ATHENS - Egypt gave its full approval. Then Egypt took it back.

nine days earlier, Turkey barred the Scarlet Lady from its Aegean ports, the first time in Atlantis Events' 36-year history that its passengers had been excluded from a country because of who they are.

Atlantis Events chief executive Rich Campbell described Egypt's denial as arriving at the worst possible moment. "We had full approval and they denied us clearance at the 11th hour," he told The Hollywood Reporter, leaving nearly two thousand passengers and a ship already at sea without a scheduled port of call. The company had received what it understood to be confirmed authorization. No official explanation accompanied the reversal.

LuPone, 77, is one...