Curran’s leader out after rival wins legal fight
A long legal battle between the dominant producers of Bay Area theater has apparently led to the ouster of Carole Shorenstein Hays, operator of the Curran theater on Geary Street. The impresario, who has dominated the commercial stage in San Francisco since 1977 when she started the “Best of Broadway” series with partner Robert Nederlander, has turned over the Curran to Englandbased Ambassador Theatre Group, operator of 50 stages worldwide, it was revealed late Friday.
It was also revealed Friday that Shorenstein Hays had lost her case to her former
partner Nederlander over a noncompete clause that stated that she would not compete for Broadway productions within 100 miles of San Francisco. The Delaware Supreme Court ruled June 20 that she violated this agreement by staging “Dear Evan Hansen” last season at the Curran and by bringing in the longawaited Bay Area premiere of the Broadway smash “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which is scheduled to open in October and is expected to last indefinitely.
The Curran was leased to Ambassador Theatre Group as of June 11. In a statement released Friday, the company announced that “Harry Potter” would open as planned, regardless of the court ruling.
The Delaware Supreme Court decision overturns an earlier ruling by the Delaware Chancery Court in favor of Shorenstein Hays, which allowed the Curran to put on “Evan Hansen” and move forward with “Harry Potter.” Shorenstein Hays will continue to own the Curran and retain her silent 50% partnership in SHN, which operates the Orpheum and Golden Gate.
Just two years ago, Shorenstein Hays reopened the Curran after a major remodel and announced from the stage, alongside her husband and children, that the Currran was always her first love in stages and would be her family’s theater from that moment forward. Neither Shorenstein Hays nor her husband and business partner, Dr. Jeffrey Hays, were available for comment Friday.
“This should finally put an end to the efforts of Mrs. Hays and her affiliates to undermine SHN’s decadeslong program of bringing the best of Broadway to Bay Area residents,” SHN attorney Matthew Larrabee said in a statement issued Friday by Nederlander San Francisco, which partners with Shorenstein Hays Nederlander to operate the Golden Gate and Orpheum, the other two main commercial stages in the city. “The prior claims of victory in this litigation by Mrs. Hays’ representatives were obviously premature and have now been proven wrong.”
In 2010, Shorenstein Hays purchased the Curran for $16.6 million and continued a longstanding lease with SHN, which was founded in 1977. But in 2014 that arrangement expired and Shorenstein Hays resigned as copresident, while retaining 50% ownership in SHN. She formed CSH Curran LLC to operate the Curran, but as part of the breakup, Shorenstein Hays agreed not to directly compete with SHN within a 100mile radius of San Francisco and to “maximize the economic success” of the Golden Gate and Orpheum theaters.
CSH refurbished the 1,600seat theater to its 1922 splendor and reopened it in 2017. CSH, composed of Shorenstein Hays and her husband, and their children, Gracie and Wally, then started bidding against SHN for Broadway touring shows.
Suits and countersuits have been ongoing since 2014 in Delaware, where both companies operate as limitedliability company partnerships. The battle intensified when the Curran booked exclusives on two major Broadway productions, “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Harry Potter.” Nederlander San Francisco filed suit in September seeking an injunction to prevent those productions, but a judge denied the move, allowing Shorenstein Hays to go ahead.
Friday’s ruling upheld the injunction and the noncompete provisions of the contract between Shorenstein Hays and SHN.
The Delaware Supreme Court ruling was harsh on Shorenstein Hays, a longtime theater fixture financed by the commercial real estate empire of her late father, Walter Shorenstein. The ruling stated that in the course of the dispute, Shorenstein Hays had offered “flippant, evasive, ridiculous answers and speechmaking during depositions.”
SHN attorney Larrabee declined to comment as to whether he would try to stop the production of “Harry Potter,” but said he will be pursuing damages for the staging of “Dear Evan Hansen” and other touring Broadway shows that came through the Curran, including “Fun Home,” “Bright Star” and “Eclipse.”
“The claims for recovery for past seasons will be addressed in the ongoing litigation when the case is returned to the Chancery Court,” he said.