Broadway’s real-life Max Bialystock.After producing “Ragtime” and “Show Boat” in the 1990s, Drabinsky was thrown behind bars in 2009 for keeping two sets of books for his Broadway production company Livent.
In doing so, he misled investors into believing that money-losing flops were really big hits, bilking them out of some $500 million.
The Canadian crook was only allowed to cross the border into the United States again in 2019 after charges here were dismissed with prejudice because he served time in Canada. “Paradise” was set to be the jailbird’s big return after 20 years away, but the new musical at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre is riddled with backstage drama and hemorrhaging money. “With Garth,” a source said, “it’s always an ocean of red ink.”The production’s spokesman, Jim Byk, played down issues with the production in a statement: “The cast of ‘Paradise Square’ is currently in rehearsal in a Midtown studio.
Rehearsals have been going exceedingly well and have been running slightly ahead of schedule. “There were some administrative issues that the cast wanted their union to address, and they used the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday, February 21 to do so.
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