New York City, Boston, Chicago, Miami and Atlantic City before ending in the Wayne Newton Theatre at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. Spacey's performance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on December 11, 2004 received a standing ovation. Dodd Darin commented, "It was said about my dad that he had some big brass ones. To do a film about my dad is one thing, but it's another thing to go out and attempt to work a nightclub. Kevin's got a lot of courage. I think he sounds good." The film was shown and promoted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2004. WGA arbitration Beginning in October 2004, the Writers Guild of America, West conducted arbitration to determine writing credit for the scripts that had been written since Barry Levinson, who developed the film at Warner Bros. in 1987, left the project. Lewis Colick, James Toback and Tom Epperson disassociated themselves for credit by the WGA. The Guild justified credit to Colick, who wrote the first draft of The Bobby Darin Story in 1987, and Kevin Spacey. Actor-writer Jeffrey Meek believed he deserved credit; he was paid $85,000 of a promised $125,000 to settle his claim. Spacey said Meek was "not a hired writer" on Beyond the Sea. "He turned in a draft, but it was a draft based on earlier material based on my own screenplays," Spacey said. Meek said he was hired by producer Harvey Friedman, a friend who helped connect him with Spacey, and whom supports his claim to have produced 12 drafts, including one that was reported by Variety to have been greenlighted by MGM in early 2003. "He bought my material and then acted like I didn't exist," Meek explained. "I'm not saying I'm Rembrandt, but it's like someone buying a painting and then scratching the name off of it and putting their own there." Reception Critical response Beyond the Sea received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 147 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 42% of the critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 5.2/10. Its consensus states "Kevin Spacey's bio of singer Bobby Darin is either a fearless piece of showmanship or an embarrassing vanity project, according to critics." Metacritic calculated a weighted average score of 46/100, based on 35 reviews. Sandra Dee, Dodd Darin, Jimmy Scalia and Steve Blauner responded enthusiastically to Spacey's work on the film.