Broadway Journal

‘REBECCA’ PRODUCER SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS OF PROBATION IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE

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Ben Sprecher, who has produced shows and managed theaters in New York since the early 1980s and is best-known for a Broadway musical that collapsed before it could open, was sentenced Thursday afternoon to five years of probation for possessing child pornography. He’ll be required to publicly register as a sex offender in any state in which he resides.

Judge J. Paul Oetken accepted the recommendation of the producer’s court-appointed lawyer, Martin S. Cohen of the Federal Defenders of New York. Citing the seriousness of the crime, the Justice Department had sought a prison term of 78 to 97 months. The U.S. Probation Department recommended a year and a day of incarceration.Continue Reading

ESCAPE FROM MANDERLEY: ‘REBECCA’ PRODUCER SETTLES WITH PRESS AGENT

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Ben Sprecher/Steven Hirsch

EXCLUSIVE: Broadway’s oddest and most enduring financing-scandal-turned-courtroom-drama has closed.

After six years, 471 legal filings, one trial and another that had been on tap, Rebecca  producer Ben Sprecher has ended his effort to hold his former press agent accountable for the collapse of his musical. Last month, Sprecher settled his personal lawsuit against publicist Marc Thibodeau, obviating a second trial concerning the aborted Broadway show.Continue Reading

‘REBECCA’ PRODUCER SEEKS NEW TRIAL AGAINST PRESS AGENT

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Ben Sprecher/Steven Hirsch

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Sprecher‘s six-year campaign to hold his former press agent accountable for the collapse of his musical and reputation has been cleared for another courtroom showdown.

Earlier this month, an appellate court declined to intervene in the producer’s lawsuit against publicist Marc Thibodeau, opening the door for a second trial relating to the aborted musical Rebecca.  At issue are emails that the press agent sent to a prospective backer in September 2012, linking Sprecher to a fraud.

Sprecher is “radioactive in the theater community and unable to find work,” the producer’s lead lawyer, Erik Groothuis of Schlam Stone & Dolan, wrote in an October 2018 brief in New York Supreme Court. Thibodeau “torpedoed both the musical, and my career with it,” Sprecher said in a 2017 sworn statement.Continue Reading

‘NERDS’ CRASH HIGHLIGHTS WEAK INVESTOR PROTECTION

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EXCLUSIVE: Ticketmaster and Telecharge say they refund theatergoers for cancelled performances.

It’s a different story for investors in shows that get cancelled before opening night. Exhibit A: Nerds,  the musical.

In early 2016, Nerds Broadway LLC collected $606,000 from 13 angels who wanted in on the comedy about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Four days after receiving the last of the checks and less than two months before the scheduled Broadway opening, lead producer Carl Levin announced Nerds’ indefinite postponement. He cited the loss of a major backer.

Until recent years, a production company that abandoned a show was obligated to make investors whole, except the investors who waived their right to a refund.Continue Reading

RUDIN, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS ESTATE TENTATIVELY SETTLE ‘GLASS MENAGERIE’ LAWSUIT

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Joe Mantello and Sally Field/Julieta Cervantes

EXCLUSIVE: A promising Broadway courtroom drama appears to be closing out of town.

Scott Rudin and the University of the South have agreed in principle to settle the University’s lawsuit alleging that Rudin’s production company failed to pay royalties on his Glass Menagerie revival starring Joe Mantello and Sally Field. Lawyers for both sides filed papers in Federal Court in Tennessee disclosing the tentative deal yesterday, exactly a year after the play began previews at the Belasco Theatre.

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