History TroubledProduction / Theatre

** After being floored by a smash-hit production of ''Rebecca'' in Vienna, American producer Ben Sprecher commissioned an English translation and attempted to put together a West End mounting. This was canceled after exploratory excavation under the desired theatre (conducted to determine if the theatre could house the production's signature effect, its flaming, collapsing staircase) ended in a basement flood. Sprecher then set his sights on Broadway itself, but had difficulty raising the money. These issues have been attributed to Sprecher's lack of experience with mega-musicals as well as the possibility that mega-musicals were stylistically passé on Broadway.
** Their search for investors led them to Mark C. Hotton, a Long Island stockbroker, who ended up hooking up Sprecher with a wealthy Englishman named Paul Abrams who, with three associates, would invest $4.5 million, effectively completing ''Rebecca'''s capitalization. That this was far more than what the highest-rolling investors would usually put down even for a musical successfully produced elsewhere didn't phase Sprecher.

** Before Sprecher could pull the plug outright on Broadway, another man, Larry Runsdorf, having read of Abrams's death in a ''Rebecca'' press release, offered to replace most of the missing funds on condition of anonymity. However, just before rehearsals were set to begin, Runsdorf's lawyers began receiving emails warning about the perils of investing in the musical. On top of anemic ticket sales, these emails warned that Abrams was a fabrication and that Hotton (and possibly Sprecher) were committing fraud. His anonymity compromised, Runsdorf pulled his money, and ''Rebecca'' was forced to cancel.
** The FBI ended up arrested Hotton for unrelated charges of fraud, but, in a separate investigation, they provided concrete evidence that, indeed, Abrams and company were Hotton inventions used to swindle ''Rebecca''. Had Sprecher perhaps been more diligent outright (or at least looked up "Mark C. Hotton" on Google), he may have found a trail of evidence implicating Hotton in fraudulent schemes dating back to the 1990s.
** It was then revealed that Marc Thibodeau, ''Rebecca'''s publicist, had been pseudonymously sending those emails to Runsdorf's lawyers, having done those very Google searches for himself. Sprecher sued Thibodeau for $10 million, both to recover some of the production costs--Sprecher had also by then lost the rights to produce the English ''Rebecca''--and to mitigate the damage to his reputation. He was ultimately only awarded $90,000.

** In September 2012, Abrams was said to have died of malaria without having actually giving Sprecher the promised funds. Oddly, there were no obituaries in British newspapers for Abrams, nor were any death certificates issued in that name. A spokesman for the Abrams estate refused to take calls and was using an email address that had been created only a month earlier.
** Before Sprecher could pull the plug outright on Broadway, another man--Larry Runsdorf, a pharmaceuticals magnate--having read of Abrams's death in a ''Rebecca'' press release, offered to replace most of the missing funds on condition of anonymity. However, just before rehearsals were set to begin, Runsdorf's lawyers began receiving emails warning about the perils of investing in the musical. On top of anemic ticket sales, these emails warned that Abrams was a fabrication and that Hotton (and possibly Sprecher) were committing fraud. His anonymity compromised, Runsdorf pulled his money, and ''Rebecca'' was forced to cancel.
** The FBI ended up arrested Hotton for unrelated charges of fraud, but, in a separate investigation, they provided concrete evidence that, indeed, Abrams and company were also Hotton inventions to swindle ''Rebecca''. Had Sprecher perhaps been more diligent outright (or at least looked up "Mark C. Hotton" on Google), he may have found a trail of evidence implicating Hotton in fraudulent schemes dating back to the 1990s.
** It was then revealed that Marc Thibodeau, ''Rebecca'''s publicist, had been pseudonymously sending those emails to Runsdorf's lawyers, having done those Google searches himself. Sprecher sued Thibodeau for $10 million, both to recover some of the production costs--Sprecher had also by then lost the rights to produce ''Rebecca''--and to mitigate the damage to his reputation. He was ultimately only awarded $90,000.

** It wouldn't be until September 2023 that the English translation of ''Rebecca'' would debut in London. By then, Sprecher was on probation for possession and distribution of child pornography.

** In September 2012, Abrams supposedly died of malaria without having actually giving Sprecher the promised funds. Yet there were no obituaries in British newspapers for a wealthy man who died of malaria in the British newspapers, nor were any death certificates issued. A spokesman for the Abrams estate refused to take call and was using an email address that had been created only a month earlier.
** Before Sprecher could pull the plug outright on Broadway, another man--Larry Runsdorf, a pharmaceuticals magnate--having read of Abrams's death in a ''Rebecca'' press release, offered to replace most of the missing funds on condition of anonymity. However, just before rehearsals were set to begin, Runsdorf's lawyers began receiving emails warning them about the perils of investing in the musical. On top of anemic ticket sales, these emails warned that Abrams was a fabrication and that Hotton (and possibly Sprecher) were committing fraud. Runsdorf pulled his money, and ''Rebecca'' was forced to cancel production.

** It was then revealed that Marc Thibodeau, ''Rebecca'''s publicist, had been sending those emails to Runsdorf, having done those Google searches himself. Sprecher sued Thibodeau for $10 million, both to recover some of the production costs--Sprecher had also by then lost the rights to produce ''Rebecca''--and to mitigate the damage to his reputation, such as it was. He was ultimately only awarded $90,000.

* The now-cancelled Broadway production of the musical adaption of ''Film/{{Rebecca}}'', as detailed [[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/theater/rebecca-the-musical-and-the-vanishing-act-of-its-investor.html here]] and [[https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/06/rebecca-musical-betrayal-fake-death here]].
** After a successful run in continental Europe, producer Ben Sprecher canceled the London production as too costly. Even so, he decided it was ready for ''Broadway''. A mysterious British investor, supposedly named "Paul Abrams", then put $4.5 million into the play... more than ten times what the biggest-rolling investors usually throw into a Broadway musical, even one that's been wildly successful in London. But no one had ever heard of Abrams, and the producers later claimed they never met him in person.
** In September 2012, Abrams supposedly died of malaria. Yet there had been no obituaries for a wealthy man who died of malaria in the British newspapers, and no death certificates listed malaria as a cause. A spokesman for the estate refused to take phone calls, and used an email address that had been created a month earlier. Sprecher (who had never been lead producer on a Broadway musical) had already built the sets, so he lost millions when the production was canceled the following month. The FBI arrested Mark C. Hotton, a Long Island stockbroker, for his attempt to defraud the producers by fabricating the foreign investors who were prepared to put the $4.5 million in.
** It was then revealed that Marc Thibodeau, ''Rebecca'''s publicist, had been warding off potential investors by implicating Sprecher in Hotton's fraud, having managed to deduce that Abrams did not exist. Sprecher sued Thibodeau for $10 million, both to recover some of the production costs (Sprecher had also by then lost the rights to ''Rebecca'') and to mitigate the damage to his reputation (such as it was). He was ultimately only awarded $90,000.

** Lloyd Webber had been in an AudienceAlienatingEra ever since the mixed reception of ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'' in 2010, with the film adaptation of ''Film/{{Cats}}'' in 2019 coming in for especially heated criticism and mockery. Hoping to recover some of his spark, he teamed up with Creator/EmeraldFennell and David Zeppel to create a hip, modern retelling of ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'', with Fennell writing the book, Zeppel writing the lyrics, and a planned opening on the West End in August or September 2020.

* ''[[Theatre/CinderellaLloydWebber Cinderella]]'' ([[MarketBasedTitle retitled]] ''Bad Cinderella'' for its Broadway run) ended Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's decades-long uninterrupted run of always having at least one show running on Broadway, when it bombed and shut down after just a few months. As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvU8173saNw these]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgOIlVUfJYM videos]] by Ashley Norton and WebVideo/SarahZ demonstrate, it was beset by a litany of problems, of which the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic was just the start.

** The show finally opened at full capacity on August 18, 2021, hyped up as the first opening of a new musical since the pandemic. Reviews of the West End production were positive, with particular praise going to the cast, though Norton speculated that at least some of the praise came down to overexuberance at being able to finally see a live musical on the West End again for the first time in over a year. Sure enough, as time wore on ticket sales declined, reviews (especially [[{{Foreshadowing}} from American critics]]) grew increasingly critical, and it only wound up nominated for one UsefulNotes/LaurenceOlivierAward (for Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as the Stepmother) in a year that, due to the pandemic, saw it face little competition. Lloyd Webber, by various accounts, grew [[PrimaDonnaDirector increasingly combative]] as criticism piled in, allegedly [[HostilityOnTheSet berating cast members]] to the point of leaving them in tears and causing some of them to consider [[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt walking out]] or even going on strike. When asked about the matter, he responded by denying the allegations but saying that "nobody has a right to be on stage" and criticizing the show's younger cast members in particular for thinking that they weren't in the "service industry" as actors.

* ''Theatre/{{Carrie}}'': The initial run of TheMusical of Creator/StephenKing's novel went down so poorly that a whole book of Broadway flops was titled ''Not Since Carrie''. That book and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTaAzFl_GYk&t=1233s&ab_channel=WaitintheWings Wait in the Wings]] detail what went wrong:

** By 1965, Lionel Bart had known nothing but success as a writer for the pop charts and on the West End, and so he didn't want for producers to get in on any show he had going. After considering a large-scale adaptation of ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', he opted instead to do a spoof on the [[Myth/RobinHood Robin Hood]] legend which would've been in tune with the then-present [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire_boom satire boom]].

** At this point in their careers, Bart and Littlewood were accustomed to getting what they wanted, and they were able to convince the producers that, to best accommodate that improvisational energy, the actors would rehearse--unpaid--at Lionel's house before the first try-out. After about two months of this, Littlewood decided the only way she could get a workable script was to write it herself.

** Reviews in Manchester were dire, as was the backstage gossip leaking into the press. Joan Littlewood walked away or was fired from the production.

** ''Twang!!'' limped into the West End in December 1965 to somehow even worse reviews. It gave up the ghost in late January 1966 when Bart stopped writing checks. Its failure, in tandem with his lavish and financially imprudent lifestyle up to then, eventually led to Bart signing away most of his music and theatrical royalties. His reputation would only be rehabilitated in twenty years' time thanks to ''Oliver'' revivals. Joan Littlewood never worked in commercial theatre again.

* Even if it was the biggest money loser up to that point, in time, 1965's one-performance Broadway musical ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_(musical) Kelly]]'' might have been forgotten had producer David Susskind not invited a journalist to tag along for the out-of-town tryouts. Lewis H. Lapham's subsequent [[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Second_Act_Trouble/H8mb_JMx4u0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22lewis+h.+lapham%22+AND+%22has+anybody+here+seen+kelly%22&pg=PA330&printsec=frontcover write-up]] captured the blow-by-blow in excruciating detail.

** By 1965, Lionel Bart had known nothing but success in the pop charts and on the West End, and so he didn't want for producers to get in on the action. After considering a large-scale adaptation of ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', he opted instead to do a spoof on the [[Myth/RobinHood Robin Hood]] legend which would've been in tune with the then-present [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire_boom satire boom]].

** There was a co-bookwriter named Harvey Orkin credited alongside Bart, but his contributions barely made it into any final product. Supposedly, Bart gave Orkin co-book credit to settle a poker debt.

** Hiring Burt Shevelove as book doctor and replacement director did little to assuage producers, many of whom pulled their investments thus jeopardizing the West End run. Against all advice, Bart put his own money in the show; he felt obliged to bring it to London "just to show the knockers."

** Hiring Burt Shevelove as book doctor and replacement director did little to assuage producers, many of whom pulled their investments thus jeopardizing the West End run. Against all advice, Bart put his own money in the show.

** ''Twang!!'' limped into the West End in December 1965; it gave up the ghost in late January 1966 when Bart stopped writing checks. Its failure, in tandem with his lavish and financially imprudent lifestyle up to then, eventually led to Bart signing away most of his music and theatrical royalties. His reputation would only be rehabilitated in twenty years' time thanks to ''Oliver'' revivals. Joan Littlewood never worked in commercial theatre again.

** By 1965, Lionel Bart had known nothing but success in the pop charts and on the West End, and so he didn't want for producers to get in on the action. After considering a large-scale adaptation of ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', he opted instead to do a spoof on the [[Myth/RobinHood Robin Hood]] legend which was in theory very much in line with the present [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire_boom satire boom]].
** For his director, Bart wanted [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Littlewood Joan Littlewood]]. She was most famous for developing plays through extensive improvisation, and she had given Bart his start in the West End having selected him to write songs for ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be'', a smash hit when it transferred from the East End. Bart wanted that same improvisational frisson for the Robin Hood musical, now called ''Twang!!''. A good idea in theory, but, in practice, these techniques seemed to conflict with the discipline called for in musical comedy. Consequently, the book of the musical was in constant flux. So were the songs, which came and went in a heartbeat. As Bart had once said, "Songs should be like sneezes: spontaneous."

** Curiously, too, little if any of the familiar Robin Hood stories were being satirized. Instead, the largely original story (such as it was) involved freeing a nymphomaniacal lady-in-waiting of Maid Marian's (played by [[Creator/BarbaraWindsor Barbara Windsor]]) from an arranged marriage that would ultimately benefit Prince John.
** At this point in their careers, Bart and Littlewood were accustomed to complete control. So was their set and costume designer, Oliver Messel, who had been forced to design with no story firmly in place.

** Hiring Burt Shevelove as book doctor and replacement director did little to assuage producers, many of whom pulled their investments and thus jeopardizing the West End run. Against all advice, Bart put his own money in the show.
** ''Twang!!'' limped into the West End in December 1965; it gave up the ghost in late January 1966 when Bart stopped writing checks. Its failure, along with several other lavish and imprudent financial decisions, eventually led to Bart signing away most if not all of his music and theatrical royalties. His theatrical reputation would only be rehabilitated in twenty years' time thanks to ''Oliver'' revivals. Joan Littlewood never worked in commercial theatre again.

** When ''Twang!!'' moved to Manchester for the pre-West End tryout, Kenneth Moule, hitherto pulling double-duty as music director and orchestrator on a musical score that wouldn't gel, collapsed at the first dress rehearsal. Things didn't get better as Bart and Littlewood's working relationship cratered.

** For his director, Bart wanted [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Littlewood Joan Littlewood]]. She was most famous for developing plays through extensive improvisation, and she had given Bart his start in the West End, having selected him to write songs for ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be'', a smash hit when it transferred from the East End. Bart wanted that same improvisational frisson for the Robin Hood musical, now called ''Twang!!''. A good idea in theory, but, in practice, these techniques seemed to conflict with the discipline called for in musical comedy. Consequently, the book of the musical was in constant flux. So were the songs, which came and went in a heartbeat. As Bart had once said, "Songs should be like sneezes: spontaneous."

** ''Twang!!'' limped into the West End in December 1965; it gave up the ghost in late January 1966 when Lionel stopped writing the checks. Its failure, along with several other lavish and imprudent financial decisions, eventually led to Lionel signing away most if not all of his music and theatrical royalties. His theatrical reputation would only be rehabilitated in twenty years' time thanks to ''Oliver'' revivals. Joan Littlewood never worked in commercial theatre again.

* In November 1965, while Lionel Bart's ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' made history as the longest-running British musical, he threatened the West End with a production of his newest show ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twang!! Twang!!]]'' after a shambling, acrimonious, and press-beset tryout in Manchester.

** For his director, Bart wanted [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Littlewood Joan Littlewood]], She was most famous for developing plays through extensive improvisation, and she had given Bart his start in the West End, having selected him to write songs for the smash-hit ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be''. He wanted that same improvisational frisson for the Robin Hood musical, now called ''Twang!!''. A good idea in theory, but, in practice, these techniques seemed to conflict with the discipline called for in musical comedy. Consequently, the book of the musical was in constant flux. So were the songs, which came and went in a heartbeat. As Bart had once said, "Songs should be like sneezes: spontaneous."

** Curiously, too, little if any of the familiar Robin Hood stories were being satirized. Instead, the largely original story (such as it was) involved freeing a nymphomaniacal lady-in-waiting of Maid Marian's (played by [[Creator/BarbaraWindsor Barbara Windsor]] from an arranged marriage that would ultimately benefit Prince John.

----

** Bernie Jacobs was then afflicted by "transient global amnesia", leaving any artistic decisions vis-a-vis Shubert in the hands of Gerald Schoenfeld. Bernie was the more artistically minded of the two, while Gerald handled the organization's real estate.

** The London production opened to mixed reviews but healthy houses, many critics and album fans recognizing the circumstances Nunn faced. When Nunn began to look to Broadway, he decided to start from square one, to do ''his'' ''Chess''. He ordered a new physical production and began altering the material extensively, this time with frequent collaborator Richard Nelson on book. Among other changes, there was now a bona fide book, as in, more spoken dialogue than usually found in a Tim Rice rock opera. For another, the character of Florence was changed from a Hungarian-born Englishwoman to a Hungarian-born American woman, effectively foreclosing the possibility of Elaine Paige reprising the role on Broadway. Rice (who had been having an open affair with Paige for years) was especially chagrined by rumors that Judy Kuhn, the new Florence and Broadway's first Fantine, was having an affair with Nunn.

** Given all these late-cropping change-ups and obstacles, outside observers why ''Chess'' seemed like it was barreling toward Broadway, especially with ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' poised as the musical to beat that season. ''Phantom'' itself might have been the reason; Rice would get to square off with his old collaborator, just as Nunn would get to square off against the man who had had him fired from ''Phantom''.

** With cast in place, sets commissioned, and a London theatre booked, Bennett vanished in a flurry of gossip and rumor. He was stricken with AIDS and ashamed of it, and so swore the producers to secrecy. To the press, Bennett declared his withdrawal was due to a heart condition. Meanwhile, Rice, Andersson, and Ulvaeus were left uninformed.

** Following the hair-raising vicissitudes of putting ''Chess'' on stage, Andersson and Ulvaeus swore off musical theatre for good. That is, until, years later, when Judy Craymer, Rice's assistant during ''Chess'''s production, got them to sign off on using their ABBA songs for [[Theatre/MammaMia a musical]] she was cooking up.

** However ingenious his concepts--not least of which was the presence of dozens upon dozens of video screens obsessively broadcasting the titular chess match--Rice suspects Bennett's heart really wasn't into ''Chess''. For one, two musicals of his, ''Scandal'' and ''The Children's Crusade'', had died in the very workshop process he helped form, and, even with two smashes to his name, Bennett was paranoiacally aware that Broadway only cares about one's last show. Moreover, Bennett was just beginning to make up with Bernie Jacobs, whom he regarded as a father figure, after the latter had thwarted his efforts to start a New York theatre empire of his own.
** With cast in place, sets commissioned, and a London theatre booked, Bennett vanished in a flurry of gossip and rumor. He was stricken with AIDS and ashamed of it, and so swore the producers to secrecy. Meanwhile, Rice, Andersson, and Ulvaeus were left uninformed. To the press, Bennett declared his withdrawal was due to a heart condition.

** The London production opened to mixed reviews but healthy houses, many critics and album fans recognizing the circumstances Nunn faced. When Nunn began to look to Broadway, he decided to start from square one, to do ''his'' ''Chess''. He ordered a new physical production and began altering the material extensively, this time with frequent collaborator Richard Nelson on book. Among other changes, there was now a bona fide book, as in, more spoken dialogine than found in the usual Tim Rice rock opera. For another, the character of Florence was changed from a Hungarian-born Englishwoman to a Hungarian-born American woman, effectively foreclosing the possibility of Elaine Paige reprising the role on Broadway. Rice (who had been having an open affair with Paige for years) was especially chagrined by rumors that Judy Kuhn, the new Florence and Broadway's first Fantine, was having an affair with Nunn.

** Given all these late-cropping change-ups and obstacles, outside observers why ''Chess'' seemed like it was barreling toward Broadway, especially with ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' poised as the musical to beat that season. ''Phantom'' itself might have been the reason; Rice would square off with his old collaborator, just as Nunn would square off against the man who had him fired from ''Phantom''.
** Not only did ''Chess'' open on Broadway to apathetic reviews, its Cold War plot was already old news by 1988 when the writing was on the wall for the Soviet Union.

** For their musical adaptation, Merrick and Merrill wanted to follow the example of Capote's hard-edged novella, less so the softer derivation that was the 1961 film. Both Nunnally Johnson and Sidney Michaels made an attempt at writing a book for such an unconventionally dark musical before admitting defeat. Joshua Logan toyed with directing until he decided that a hardened Holly just wouldn't play. Eventually, Abe Burrows took up both writing the book and of directing what was then known as ''Holly Golightly''.

** The London production opened to mixed reviews but healthy houses, many critics and album fans recognizing the circumstances Nunn faced. When Nunn began to look to Broadway, he decided to start from square one, to do ''his'' ''Chess''. He ordered a new physical production and began altering the material extensively, this time with frequent collaborator Richard Nelson on book. Among other changes, there was now a bona fide book. For another, the character of Florence was changed from a Hungarian-born Englishwoman to a Hungarian American, effectively foreclosing the possibility of Elaine Paige reprising the role on Broadway. Rice (who had been Paige's secret lover for years) was especially chagrined by rumors that Judy Kuhn, the new Florence and Broadway's first Fantine, was having an affair with Nunn.