Broadway Publicist Found Liable in REBECCA Scandal; Musical Eyeing Spring 2016 Bow

In the latest legal news from Broadway's ever-evolving REBECCA scandal, Deadline writes that press agent Marc Thibodeau has been found liable for sending emails that caused a potential investor to pull $2.25 million from the musical, a move that forced the project to a halt.

Thibodeau has released an extensive statement on the matter, which can be found here.

Lead producer Ben Sprecher's lawyer Erik Groothius told Deadline that New York State Supreme Court Justice Oing's ruling on Thibodeau "holds that as a matter of law, Thibodeau breached his agreement and that the matter of liability can decided by a jury."

Groothius went on to say that Oing did not believe Thibodeau's argument that he was only trying to protect an innocent investor and that Sprecher has the right to argue in front of a jury that Thibodeau's "actions were defamatory" and "breached his fiduciary responsibility". The judge's full decision will become available soon.

"I've never seen anyone as committed to anything as Ben Sprecher is to REBECCA," Groothius added. The musical is now hopeful for a Spring 2016 bow, after previously saying they were aiming to debut this fall.

According to a release from the show's producers back in January 2014, "REBECCA's previous delay was initially the result of the fraud perpetrated by Mark Hotton (who is now serving time in jail) and then, more damagingly, the consequence of anonymous and malicious e-mails that were revealed to have been sent by the show's previous press agent Marc Thibodeau to a new investor who was replacing a major portion of Hotton's investors. Thibodeau's emails, which were sent as recently as three days before rehearsals were to begin, resulted in the new investor's abrupt withdrawal and the delay of the show in the Fall of 2012...On January 17, 2014, Thibodeau withdrew his countersuit against the musical."

Thibodeau reportedly wrote the new investor -- Laurence Runsdorf -- an email under the alias of "Sarah Finkelstein" to warn him that REBECCA's producers weren't trustworthy; Finkelstein later came out as one of several cover names Thibodeau had used to shy away potential investors.

Runsdorf's contribution could have saved the show after Hotton scammed REBECCA's producers out of $65,000 in 2012. Hotton, whose disastrous fraud scheme cost 130 people their jobs, was sentenced last fall to almost three years in federal prison and paid $68,000 in restitution to REBECCA's lead producer Ben Sprecher.

REBECCA was around $4 million away from its goal when Hotton agreed to help the show's producers raise the rest of the money. According to reports, Hotton "promised access to millionaire investors for a finder's fee. But the investors were make-believe, and when producers got suspicious about one of them [Paul Abrams], the scammer had him 'die' from malaria."

Commenting on today's ruling, Thibodeau told Deadline: "I will always firmly believe that Mr. Sprecher and Ms. Forlenza came to know that Paul Abrams was not real well before the show collapsed, yet they continued to perpetuate the reality of Abrams. The fact is, they were still doing business with Hotton right up until the end."

REBECCA features original book and lyrics by Michael Kunze, music by Sylvester Levay, English book adaptation by two-time Tony Award winner Christopher Hampton (Sunset Boulevard), English lyrics by Hampton and Kunze, and direction by Tony Award winner Michael Blakemore (Kiss Me, Kate; City of Angels; Noises Off) and Francesca Zambello (Little Mermaid). Multiple Tony-nominated director/choreographer Graciela Daniele (Ragtime) will create the musical staging for the show. Scenic design is by Peter J. Davidson, costumes by Jane Greenwood, lighting by Mark McCullough, sound by Peter Fitzgerald, hair & wig design by Tom Watson and special effects by Gregory Meeh and projections by Sven Ortel. Musical direction and supervision is by Kevin Stites.

REBECCA is a spectacular new musical drawn from the classic Daphne Du Maurier novel about love and obsession reaching from beyond the grave. In this romantic thriller, Maxim de Winter brings his new wife ("I") home to his estate of Manderley. There she meets the intimidating housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, who had a very special relationship with Maxim's first wife, the beautiful Rebecca, who died a year earlier in a boating accident. The young woman discovers Manderley is a house of devastating secrets, and the mystery of Rebecca may be the greatest of them all as she finds the strength to challenge Mrs. Danvers and save her marriage.

REBECCA had its world premiere in 2006 at Vereinigte Buhnen Wien in Vienna, where it played to sold-out houses for over three years. It continues with successful productions in Budapest, Hungary; Bucharest, Romania; Helsinki, Finland; Stuttgart, Germany; St. Gallen, Switzerland and at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo, and with a scheduled opening in Copenhagen in March 2014.