PARADISE SQUARE Producer Garth Drabinsky Renews Appeal to Reopen $50 Million Equity Litigation

Garth Drabinsky, the Broadway producer behind Ragtime, Showboat, and Paradise Square, is again petitioning the courts to reopen his lawsuit against Actors’ Equity Association. BroadwayWorld reported earlier this summer that Drabinsky was denied in a previous petition to reopen the case.

The case, which was also dismissed by a judge in 2023, accused the union of unlawfully placing him on a “person unable to work” list.

Drabinsky argues that AEA’s justification for blacklisting him—that he violated the union’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA)—is false because he was never a signatory to the CBA and therefore could not have violated it. This misstatement, he says, undermines AEA’s claim that it acted in its legitimate self-interest.

The petition cited the prior decision’s misinterpretation of two prior precedents (HA Artists & Associates, Inc. v. Actors’ Equity Association (1981) and American Federation of Musicians v. Carroll (1968)).

Drabinsky claims he did not control wages and working conditions at Paradise Square. However, the panel found he controlled various aspects of production, including hiring, firing and wages, based on the findings against him, which it said was improper at the filing stage.

Drabinsky requests a rehearing by the full court and a rehearing by the panel to correct these perceived errors, arguing that the panel’s decision is contrary to established Supreme Court precedent and improperly resolved the factual and legal issues at the filing stage.

After Equity and a number of unions responded negatively to unpaid wages and benefits from the Broadway production of Paradise Square, Drabinsky denied the claims and responded by suing Equity in federal court, seeking $50 million in defamation damages and future monetary losses as a result of his listing. He later filed an amended complaint adding antitrust claims.