Commercial Break: Theater Owners Play Hardball, Producers Cry Foul
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Just when the theater scene could have used a little peace and quiet, a battle has broken out in the ranks of commercial producers–a battle that could have a lasting impact on the way the game is played in Chicago. Proclaiming that fair play had been abandoned, the veteran commercial producing team of Michael Cullen, Sheila Henaghan, and Howard Platt (CH&P) spent much of last week decrying the manner in which the operators of the Wellington Theater, Wes Payne and Michael Leavitt, ousted the CH&P production of Shirley Valentine and replaced it with the David Dillon-John Pasinato production of the musical Nunsense, which is moving into the city from the Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace. After a complex concatenation of phone calls, faxes, meetings, and legal maneuvers spread out over three tense days, CH&P finally decided to try moving their one-woman show to the Briar Street Theatre, where it may reopen later this month. But throughout all the wheeling and dealing, CH&P maintain that Payne and Leavitt (who also operate the Apollo Theater) failed to deal openly and in good faith to keep Shirley Valentine at the Wellington. “Their inexperience,” says Cullen, “has manifested itself in their unethical dealings and embarrassed the whole theater community.”
The clash of egos cannot be discounted in the Shirley Valentine affair. CH&P consider themselves the senior producers in town. Yet in recent weeks Payne and Leavitt, relative novices as commercial producers, have nabbed the rights to Lend Me a Tenor and M. Butterfly, two Broadway hits that in years past would have landed almost automatically at CH&P. CH&P are openly skeptical of whether Payne and Leavitt can successfully mount the two shows. All the bickering is giving pause to other local producers. “I have no desire to produce in Chicago right now,” says Alan Salzenstein, “because it seems some producers are competing with borderline ethics.” Instead, Salzenstein and partner Criss Henderson are opening A Girl’s Guide to Chaos in Boston in October. And Payne himself concedes the Shirley Valentine mess won’t be easily glossed over. “I do feel guilty in this matter,” he says. “I’m afraid people in this business all over the nation will think we are all a bunch of petty, backbiting individuals.”
Cliff Dwellers Hanging in Suspense
