Theater Producer Garth Drabinsky Sets Comeback with ‘Sousatzka’
Garth Drabinsky, the Canadian stage producer who’s served jail time for fraud and forgery, has locked in plans for his comeback production. “Sousatzka,” a new musical with a score by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire and a book by Craig Lucas, will bow in Toronto next year ahead of a targeted October 2017 arrival on Broadway.
Victoria Clark (“The Light in the Piazza”), Montego Glover (“Memphis”) and Judy Kaye (“Nice Work If You Can Get It,” “The Phantom of the Opera”) will appear in the show, which is backed by Teatro Proscenium Limited Partnership and its CEO, Richard Stursberg. The production begins performances at Toronto’s Elgin Theater (pictured above) in February, with full details of the New York transfer still to be set.
If and when it lands on Broadway, the show, billed as “a Garth Drabinsky production,” would mark quite a return for Drabinsky (“Ragtime,” “Fosse”), the former Livent chief whose parole in Canada recently ended and is still under indictment in the U.S. He was convicted in 2009 for fraud and forgery related to misstatements about the finances of Livent, which had been a major player in the North American theater market.
Based on Bernice Rubens’ 1962 novel “Madame Sousatzka,” which inspired the 1988 Shirley MacLaine movie, “Sousatzka” centers on a young music prodigy, his mother and his eccentric piano teacher. Adrian Noble directs, with choreography by Graciela Daniele.
“Sousatzka” starts previews Feb. 25 at the Elgin Theater.
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