The

[alliez92092]

Apparently Ben Sprecher never met, or spoke to, this phantom lead investor. This story just keeps getting more entertaining.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/theater/rebecca-the-musical-and-the-vanishing-act-of-its-investor.html?smid=tw-nytimesTheater&seid=auto

[PlayItAgain]

wow

[philly03]

Yikes.

[rosscoe(au)]

Warlow was right to choose Annie over this as his Broadway debut.

[frogs_fan85]

This Sprecher guy makes Ken Davenport look like David Merrick.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Malaria.

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

LOL, a London business associate with an AOL email address? F-R-A-U-D.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Johannesburg, eh? A location in South Africa? Please tell me Ben Sprecher did not get fooled by a 419 scam, the oldest trick in the book. I would almost welcome the news that Sprecher created the character of Mr. Abrams to buy time to raise the additional funds over his falling for an Internet scammer in desperation to get a show up.

[egghumor]

or anything up

[somethingwicked]

g.d.e.l.g.i., that's what I've thought all along- that the lead producers made up this dead investor rather than be outed as having lied to their other investors about missing such a huge chunk of money from their capitalization so late in the game. Even failing to raise funds for the show three subsequent times is better than claiming you accepted $4.5 million from a person you knew little to nothing about and only corresponded with via email.

To be honest, this is sounding more and more like the Stephen Glass story. Glass was a writer at the New Republic in the 90s. One of his biggest stories raised a couple red flags in the fact checking process, and when the errors became too egregious for him to be able to explain away, he was adamant that he'd been misled by a source that had clearly made things up (much like Ben Sprecher is now coming forward with this information about the shadiness of this mystery investor.) Upon further probing, the New Republic found out that Glass had completely fabricated the entire story in question, as well as completely or partially fabricating many others over his tenure at the magazine.

The fact that the Times article continued to emphasize that the email address for the investor's "representative" was made only a month ago (pretty close to the time the news of said investor's "death" broke) continues to make me think Sprecher is much more of the perpetrator than the perpetrated in this debacle. A sad, sad thing for everyone involved.

[leefowler]

The Times article made me sad, actually...Whatever hopes the producer had for bringing Rebecca to Broadway have vanished with the Times article, which paints him as an incompetent, if not a charlatan.

[newintown]

I love real life Bialystocks. Especially when they fail. Venal stupidity is just so dang entertaining.

[egghumor]

Perhaps Mr. Abrams' financial interest was triggered when Sprecher told him that Reba McEntire was seriously considering the role of "I" at one point in the life of the production.

[Wee Thomas2]

I threw a drink in Abrams face once.


Ok, twice.




Fine, five times. But that's it, I swear. And they were gin and tonics, so the quinine should have fought off the malaria.

[egghumor]

REBECCA seems to be the most seriously plagued production in decades -- and always going up in flames!

[bobs3]

Reminds me of a show in the late 1980s about one of the Kennedys (can't remember name of show). The producer was a woman who pretended to be the secret wife of one of the Rockefeller brothers (she even had a photos of him around her apartment) and tried to raise money for the show using her imaginary Rockefeller connection. She did bamboozle a few investors but she never raised enough money to open the show even though a marquee was raised at the theater and a cast and director had been hired.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

^ Might you be referring to Adela Holzer and Senator Joe?

[egghumor]

I miss the golden days of Adela Holzer! What a legend!

[bobs3]

That's right! And it wasn't about the Kennedys, it was about Senator Joe McCarthy.

[bobs3]

Didn't Adela Holzer end up going to jail for defrauding investors? Perhaps she has since hooked up with Garth Drabinsky.

[egghumor]

PEOPLE magazine profiled our girl Adela back in 1975:


Broadway Angel is Her Game

[Smaxie]

[Jon]

Nimrod and the Tower of Babel???

[bobs3]

^^ I am guessing that is a joke since it is also on the Virginia marquee (oh, the wonders of Photoshop).

[egghumor]

Since leaving prison in 2010, Ms. Holzer currently serves as one of Mitt Romney's most trusted tax advisers.

[Smaxie]

Oh yes. It was meant to run in rep with Senator Joe. Needless to say, it didn't happen after Senator Joe closed after something like 3 previews.