Convicted Producer Garth Drabinsky Developing MADAME SOUSATZKA Musical?

The New York Post writes that convicted forger and producer Garth Drabinsky is planning his next stage project.

Rumor is Drabinsky, producing via entertainment company StageVentures, has booked Toronto's Elgin Theatre for a new musical based on the 1988 film MADAME SOUSATZKA, which he produced, starring Shirley MacLaine.

The movie centers on a renowned Russian piano teacher, Irina Sousatzka, who gets a new student -- Bengali piano prodigy Manek. The pair quickly forms a bond over their immigrant backgrounds.

Among StageVentures' past investments are Broadway's Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Bonnie & Clyde and Wonderland.

Drabinsky has also allegedly spoken with Richard Maltby, Jr. about joining the team. The pair worked together on FOSSE, which won the Tony for Best Musical in 1999.

Drabinsky is out on parole after serving three years in Canadian prison for fraud and forgery. He and his business partner Myron Gottlieb (who received a four-year sentence) were convicted of two counts of fraud in 2009 after misreporting Livent's quarterly financial statements. Livent, now defunct, was one of North America's biggest Live Theatre companies in the '90s. The company had produced such Broadway shows as Ragtime, Showboat, The Phantom of the Opera and Kiss of the Spider Woman.

As a condition of the parole, Drabinsky is forbidden from "owning or operating a business or managing money for any other individual, company or charity." The producer's final hurdle will be bypassing the Ontario Securities Commission's attempts to ban him from raising money ever again.