EXCLUSIVE: A Federal judge has ordered producer Joey Parnes and two of his companies to pay more than $200,000 owed to designers of his short-lived, 2023 revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin.’
In August 2024, Parnes signed a stipulation that six Dancin‘ designers were shortchanged by a total of $202,683. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer confirmed an arbitrator’s award that Parnes and two limited liability production companies he controls pay the shortfall to the designers’ union, plus interest and attorney’s fees.
Sound designer Peter Hylenski, Tony-nominated this season for Maybe Happy Ending and Just in Time, is the Dancin‘ designer owed the most: $51,000, which includes unpaid fees and pension and health contributions.
Beyond acknowledging that the Dancin’ designers were underpaid, Parnes didn’t file court documents in the case. It’s unclear why the shortfall occurred. But the fact that the designers didn’t receive all of their initial fees — or in the case of Hylenski, any fees — suggests that the producer didn’t raise enough of a financial reserve for the show.
A December 2021 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Dancin’ was to be capitalized for up to $15 million. There isn’t a subsequent filing online indicating how much was ultimately raised. Neither Parnes nor the designers’ union — United Scenic Artists, Local 829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which filed the court case to confirm the arbitrator’s award — returned calls or emails to Broadway Journal.
The court decision is a reminder that theater artists can wait for years to be compensated, if they’re paid at all. Dancin‘ began previews in March 2023, when Broadway audiences were still spooked by the pandemic as Covid outbreaks led to cancelled performances. Following mixed-to-positive reviews (“often-thrilling, often-frustrating revival of the 1978 dancical,” wrote Jesse Green in the New York Times), it closed after 65 regular performances.
Its average weekly box office gross was about $550,000, which isn’t enough to sustain a big Broadway musical.
A year after opening, the production received $1.7 million from New York state via its tax credit program to encourage Broadway investment. One backer said he retrieved about 10 percent of his money, due to the tax credit.
Parnes, who grew up in the Bronx and is a Yale graduate, has more than 50 Broadway credits and did two stints as executive director of the Public Theater. He’s best-known for an unlikely producing triumph: the 2013 Broadway operetta A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, which won the Tony for best musical and became a modest hit. Patrick Healy later reported in the Times on Parnes’ two-year slog to raise its $7.5 million capitalization from 130 investors.
From 2013 to 2019, Parnes was a general manager and executive producer on Scott Rudin’s Broadway productions, an association that ended badly. In a 2021 lawsuit, Parnes accused Sue Wagner and John Johnson — his Gentleman’s Guide producing partners and former associates in his office — of conspiring to destroy his business relationship with Rudin and usurping it for themselves. Wagner and Johnson countersued and the case was discontinued the following year.
In the Dancin’ season of 2022-23, Parnes was a lead producer of a second show, KPOP. A challenging, original musical about Korean pop stars, it ran just 17 regular performances and failed commercially. Parnes is currently developing a new revival of Ain’t Misbehavin‘, the 1978 Fats Waller musical.
A word about the season that ended on Sunday: The Broadway League reported record grosses of $1.89 billion, thanks to an excellent season artistically and several star-driven plays that commanded extraordinary prices. But when omitting the 53rd week of 2024-25, which exists because of a quirk in the calendar, overall box office sales were up less than 1 percent from 2018-19, the last complete season before the pandemic. That’s a negligible increase, especially after considering inflation.
Notwithstanding theatergoers’ age-old and legitimate complaints that Broadway is too expensive, there hasn’t been enough ticket price inflation for musicals struggling to cover their costs. The average paid admission for a musical was $126.29, the lowest since 2019-20. While the average musical ticket was up 3 percent from 2018-19, production budgets and operating expenses have increased dramatically in the past six years.
