PARADISE SQUARE Producer Garth Drabinsky Loses Appeal To Revive $50M Equity Lawsuit

Garth Drabinsky, the Broadway producer behind Ragtime, Showboat, and Paradise Square, has lost his appeal to revive a lawsuit against Actors' Equity Association.

The case, which had been dismissed by a judge in 2023, accused the union of illegally placing him on its "Do Not Work" list. 

After facing backlash from Equity and a number unions over unpaid wages and benefits from the Broadway production of Paradise Square, Drabinsky denied the claims and struck back, suing Equity in federal court, seeking 50M in damages for defamation and future monetary losses as a result of his addition to the list. He later filed an amended complaint, adding antitrust claims. 

Reuters is reporting that this week, the New York 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's earlier ruling that said Drabinsky could not allege antitrust claims against the union. According to the ruling, Drabinsky failed to prove that an exemption from liability would be applicable.

As for the legal reasoning behind the decision, BroadwayWorld's Cara Joy David, who has been following the unfolding legal saga over the past two years, wrote in 2023, "There are statutory exemptions related to labor organizations and also strong case law that holds that as long as a union essentially stays in its lane, it won't be held liable for antitrust violations. Drabinsky argued that the exemption did not apply because Equity was not acting within its self-interest."

In his ruling, Judge Raymond Lohier wrote "Even reading the allegations in the light most favorable to him, Equity engaged in the boycott precisely to protect its members’ wages and working conditions. The Complaint alleges, for example, that Paradise Square cast members objected to unsafe conditions on set, a racially hostile work environment, and unpaid wages. Equity placed Drabinsky on its “Do Not Work” list only after it heard from its members. It explained that Drabinsky was added to the list because he had breached the union contract. For these reasons, we think the Complaint itself shows that Equity pursued its legitimate self-interest in placing him on the list."

The original court, found the statutory exemptions applied and went through one-by-one knocking down Drabinsky's arguments to the contrary. The Court stated: "Based on the allegations in the FAC, AEA acted in its self-interest by barring its members from working for a producer who had defaulted on his obligations to the union, and AEA did so without combining with non-labor entities."

Actors’ Equity executive director Al Vincent Jr. said, in a statement, “The decision will serve Equity and the labor movement well in the future with respect to the right to use the Do Not Work list against employers that harm our members.”

Drabinsky’s attorney Luke Hasskamp said in a court filing said that the boycott "was without due process and unjustified by any legitimate union self-interest."