Here’s a mystery.
The Tony Awards gave 10 nominations including Best Musical to “Paradise Square.”
The critics hated it. The producer is a famous criminal.
And yet, here it is.
Producer Garth Drabinsky, where do we start? Convicted and sent to prison in 2009 for fraud and forgery in Canada. He was disbarred from the Canada Bar Association. This was after he bankrupted his company, Livent, to the tune of $338 million.
His investors won a $23 million settlement against him in the US after he defrauded them.
For years, Drabinsky was prevented from traveling to the US from Canada. That was dismissed only because a US judge ruled that Drabinsky had already been prosecuted fully in Canada.
When “Paradise Square” first started previews on Broadway, there were stories about payroll problems, among other things.
None of the major outlets liked the show. The New York Times, the Post, the trades, all panned it.
F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. But after a long intermission spent in court rooms, Garth Drabinsky is now performing his second act. What’s really amazing is the number of investors who jumped in with him this time, including one — Peter LeDonne– who was a main player in Drabinsky’s failed productions of “Barrymore” and “Candide” in 1997. Some people never learn.
