Drabinsky prepares for Act 3
Former Livent mogul is orchestrating his latest comeback
Garth Drabinsky had spent his 63rd and 64th birthdays in jail. But for his 65th birthday this year, the mood was decidedly upbeat and festive.
On the last Sunday of October, about 45 of his nearest and dearest gathered for a lunch in his honour at the fashionable Soho Club in Toronto’s Entertainment District. Among them were his wife, Elizabeth Winford, other family members and loyal old friends who have stuck by him throughout the nightmare that began in 1998 with the shocking collapse of his theatre empire.
The theme of the party was “the best is yet to come.” That’s a reference to a spectacular comeback Drabinsky is determined to orchestrate, with plans to produce several Broadway musicals being crafted by award-winning New York writers.
Two well-connected allies have key roles in Drabinsky’s dream of making that slogan come true with a triumphant third act — meant to match his earlier peaks as CEO of Cineplex in the 1980s and founding boss of Livent in the 1990s.
One is Richard Stursberg, the controversial former head of the CBC’s English-language operations, who is expected to play a leadership role recruiting investors for new shows while Drabinsky takes the modest title of creative director.
The other key supporter is the birthday boy’s kid brother, Cyril, who has made a fortune in the film-processing business and used it to enable Garth and his wife to continue living the high life in Forest Hill and Muskoka despite his troubles. Cyril flew in from New York, where he now lives and works, to attend the party.
Clearly, Garth — who served 17 months in prison after being convicted in 2009 of fraud and forgery in connection with the 1998 collapse of Livent — has no intention of living the rest of his life quietly on the sidelines.
Instead, he is reaching for the top of the showbiz heap again, after being expelled twice from the mogul club. His first term in power ended when he was exiled from his Cineplex movie empire in 1989 after losing boardroom battles. His second term, as a high-flying impresario in commercial theatre, ended with the 1998 collapse of Livent amid revelations of a financial meltdown. Among the projects Drabinsky is pursuing: A stage musical based on the 1988 movie Madame Sousatzka (which Drabinsky produced with Shirley MacLaine in the title role). It is being adapted for the stage by Richard Maltby, who earned a Tony nomination for directing Fosse (produced by Drabinsky just as Livent was collapsing). According to the New York Post’s Michael Riedel, Drabinsky has already booked Toronto’s Elgin Theatre for a pre-Broadway run.
Amelie, about the same charming and scheming young woman depicted in the 2001French movie. To write the script, Drabinsky has chosen playwright Craig Lucas, who earned Tony nominations for Prelude to a Kiss and The Light in the Piazza. Drabinsky and Lucas are also said to be planning a show called Hard Times, inspired by the Stephen Foster song.
Throughout his career, Drabinsky was famous for his bombastic, selfpromotional style. But now, even while talking to friends, writers, actors and business partners about his big plans, he is trying to avoid publicity. (He did not respond to a phone message asking for details of his current projects.)
At the hearing that led to full parole, granted in February, Drabinsky said there was no chance to would ever again run a company, build an empire or handle other people’s money. Instead, he would limit his role to working on the creative side, which he told the Corrections Canada parole board he was doing as a consultant.
Given Drabinsky’s combative style, explosive temper and aggressive conduct during his days at Cineplex and Livent, some may be surprised that in a new showbiz venture he would be content to stay on the sidelines concerning financial matters.
Stursberg could give Drabinsky’s projects a needed boost.
During his stints running Telefilm Canada and the CBC’s English TV and radio networks, Stursberg acquired some powerful and wealthy allies.
And in the eyes of potential backers, he could provide a measure of credibility, especially if he is investing his own money.
Stursberg has worked with Drabinsky before. When he was at CBC, Stursberg took a chance by putting Drabinsky’s entertaining talent-contest show Triple Sensation on TV in prime time — and was pleased with the results. In 2008, Triple Sensation was nominated for a Gemini Award. Later, in The Tower of Babble, his provocative 2012 memoir about the CBC, Stursberg referred to Drabinsky as “a great mogul.”
(Stursberg refused to be interviewed for this article.)
Some veteran Garth-watchers will find in Drabinsky’s future plans alarming echoes of a recent misadventure: the ill-fated Capital One BlackCreek Summer Music Festival at the Rexall Centre, which arrived with fanfare in the summer of 2011. BlackCreek had all the features of a classic Drabinsky phenomenon: huge ambition, high risk, big-name stars and alarming costs.
Drabinsky was modestly billed as the program director, while Kevin Albrecht was identified as the boss of the operation.
Plagued by many problems, including stormy weather, big prices, empty seats, parking chaos and its location in a tennis facility, BlackCreek crashed within months of being launched. Its sudden death, like that of Livent years earlier, came as a stunning blow to suppliers, performers and technicians who had a stake in it.
Only weeks later, Drabinsky landed in jail.
It had taken 13 years for Drabinsky to pay the price for the Livent fiasco. Then in September 2011, there was an unforgettable weekend that took him from the sublime to the horrendous.
On Saturday he and his wife quaffed champagne at an exclusive lunch followed by the world premiere of his movie Barrymore at TIFF. On Monday, he went to jail.
After serving less than 30 per cent of his five-year sentence, he was released in February 2013 on day parole, which meant he had to sleep nightly at a halfway house. In January 2014, he was granted full parole and will continue to be on parole until the fall of 2016.
Since emerging from jail, Drabinsky has been fighting on many fronts to salvage whatever trappings of prestige he can. After being notified he was being stripped of his Order of Canada, he is continuing the legal fight, even after a federal court ruled against him. He is also appealing the decision of the Law Society of Upper Canada to disbar him and facing a battle with the Ontario Securities Commission as well.
Considering all the crushing blows he has had, it’s amazing Drabinsky has the strength, self-confidence, optimism and determination to carry on.
How does he keep going? The answer appears to be: with more than a little help from his friends, especially affluent and prominent figures who bonded with him back when he was riding high.
One telling detail that emerged during his parole hearings was that Drabinsky had received loans of more than $7 million from friends: none of whom, he assured the pa- role board, is looking for repayment anytime soon.
The fallen mogul’s most important benefactor throughout his troubles has been his brother, Cyril, whose showbiz fortunes rose spectacularly even while his older brother’s were spiralling down.
How did Cyril acquire wealth and power while Garth was losing both? When Garth was CEO of Cineplex Odeon in the 1980s, he chose Cyril to run Film House laboratories, its wholly owned film-processing subsidiary in Toronto.
In 1990, the year after Garth was forced out of Cineplex, the Rank Organization purchased both Film House and the prestigious Hollywood film processing company Deluxe Laboratories (formerly a division of 20th Century Fox).
At that point Cyril segued into Deluxe.
In 2006, Deluxe was acquired by MacAndrews & Forbes. Its chair and CEO, New York tycoon Ronald O. Perelman, who controls many other companies including Revlon, named Cyril Drabinsky president and CEO of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group.
Under his watch the company has been hugely successful, using digital technology to manage and distribute for film and TV companies. Cyril was recently promoted to chair of Deluxe.
Along the way, the tale of the Drabinsky brothers and their role reversal is as gripping as the one told in the current hit movie Foxcatcher. Cyril has made it possible for Garth to launch a comeback while continuing to enjoy the lifestyle of the rich and famous, which includes such perks as a luxury car and a lavish country retreat not far from the Corrections Canada cell he occupied at Gravenhurst.
Last weekend, Drabinsky was a guest at another glittery lunch. The occasion was a reunion of the cast of Livent’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which opened in 1992 at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre and toured North America for years. The reunion was triggered by the fact that Donny Osmond, the original star, was in Toronto appearing in a show with his sister, Marie Osmond.
The performers were abuzz with hopes that Drabinsky’s return to the front lines of showbiz would mean lots of work for them in the near future. There was even talk of a hoped-for new concert version of Joseph that Drabinsky might stage for one week in Toronto, with Donny Osmond back in the starring role.
In the epic tale of Garth Drabinsky’s ups and downs, this season marked not only the relentless mogul’s 65th birthday but another major anniversary. It’s 25 years since he unveiled the magnificently restored Pantages Theatre (now renamed the Ed Mirvish Theatre) with the Canadian premiere of The Phantom of the Opera, which went on to run for a record 10 years. For almost a decade, Phantom and Joseph were enough to make up for Livent’s many failures — until they weren’t.
Three years later he has reemerged, as determined as ever to fly (to quote the title of his 1995 autobiography) closer to the sun. And it’s safe to say that no matter what happens, the third act of this saga won’t be boring. mknelman@thestar.ca