Garth Drabinsky’s ‘grand moves’: Artistic ambition and commercial illusions in the 1990s

Abstract

The Canadian producer Garth Drabinsky (b. 1949), who brought The Phantom of the Opera to Toronto in 1989, formed Livent, which originated musicals that transferred to Broadway and the West End such as Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992), Hal Prince’s revival of Show Boat (1993), and Ragtime (1996). Livent declared bankruptcy in 1998, and Drabinsky, with Livent co-founder Myron Gottlieb, was convicted of fraud and forgery.