FALLEN IMPRESARIO: DRABINSKY OUSTED AT LIVENT.

TORONTO--Until late this summer, Garth Drabinsky, the Toronto-based producer who was bringing Fosse: A Celebration in Song and Dance to Broadway, was known in the theater community as a maverick, the Canadian who came out of the Great White North and turned the Great White Way on its ear. Sic transit gloria! On January 14, Fosse is scheduled to open at the Broadhurst Theatre without Drabinsky. On August 10, the day after the show opened in Toronto, Drabinsky and his partner, Myron Gottlieb, were suspended from Livent Inc., for alleged "accounting irregularities."

Fosse director Richard Maltby Jr., says, "Garth's a continuation of a long time of great individual producers like Florenz Ziegfeld, Billy Rose, and David Merrick. He carries on the great traditions of those entrepreneur impresarios who put their own stamp on shows and produced quality entertainment."

There is no denying, however, that over the years, Drabinsky's well-reported legendary temper, acid tongue, huge ego, competitive ruthlessness, and unbridled ambition have not endeared him to many. One former employee sums up Drabinsky as "a creative genius, a lousy businessman, and a rotten human being." Despite the pejoratives, the fact remains that Drabinsky, a visionary risk-taker, has carved a unique place in the entertainment world.

The career of the flamboyant Garth Howard Drabinsky has been rife with controversy. First a successful entertainment lawyer who then became a movie producer, his first foray into live theater was producing Tom Stoppard's Travesties in 1977 in Toronto. In 1979, with Nat Taylor, he cofounded Cineplex Corporation, which grew into Cineplex Odeon, the second-largest North American film exhibition chain.

Drabinsky also launched the Live Entertainment Division of Cineplex Odeon, which renovated the 1920s Pantages Theatre in Toronto, where The Phantom of the Opera has been running for almost a decade. According to press reports, MCA Universal, a major Cineplex Odeon investor, became disturbed by the company's "aggressive accounting," the term in the trade for sailing close to the financial legal wind by juggling numbers. There was also reported conflict over Drabinsky's expansion at the expense of the bottom line, as well as his attempt to force MCA out. Following a boardroom dogfight, in 1988 Drabinsky and Gottlieb parted company with Cineplex Odeon but maintained possession of Live Entertainment, which became Livent Inc. Dream One was over; Dream Two had begun.

From one theater and the rights to Phantom, Drabinsky turned Livent into the mover and shaker that produced Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, Barrymore, and revivals of Show Boat and Candide, garnering eighteen Tony awards along the way. Livent also owns and/or manages theaters in Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, and New York, with plans for a new theater in the Pantages Place complex in Toronto as well as the restoration of Manhattan's historic Times Square Theater. There are three new musicals in development, and a revival of Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey.

As Drabinsky did with Cineplex Odeon, he turned Livent into a publicly traded company, which translates to a responsibility to shareholders that, apparently, became his fatal flaw. According to reports in the Toronto Star and the city's Globe and Mail, the company posted record profits in 1996 but had $63 million in write-downs of assets in the last two quarters, as well as a 1998 first-quarter loss of $23.6 million, the latter the result of sluggish Show Boat attendance.

In pursuit of new capital, the executive management at Livent underwent a change in April 1998. Michael Ovitz, former head of Disney, invested $20 million, becoming de facto head of the company. According to the New Yorker, Ovitz suggested that New York investment banker Roy Furman become chairman and CEO. Drabinsky was made vice chairman and chief creative director, and Gottlieb executive vice president of Livent's Canadian division. Four months later, Drabinsky and Gottlieb were out the door, accused, according to Maclean's, Canada's weekly magazine, of "having spent more than two years hiding Livent's financial problems from the board." In subsequent days, damaging reports leaked to the press alleged that the "irregularities" included a double set of books. Drabinsky and Gottlieb have denied any wrongdoing.

The arts community has not been as quick to condemn Drabinsky. Livent sponsored the 1997 cross-Canada farewell tour of National Ballet of Canada ballerina Karen Kain, an idea that was generated by Drabinsky himself. "It came from a generous place inside Garth," says Kain. "He didn't want me to step down without a big goodbye.

"There's no one in live theater today like Garth," she continues. "He gave us a gift with that tour--thirty-six more performances than we would have had that season. Garth has his flaws, but the man I know is not the one I'm reading about in the papers."

In a June interview in his office, Drabinsky explained that he first became excited about dance when he saw the movie version of West Side Story. "I'm interested in shows that make a statement about issues," he said, "that can enlighten or give insight into social conditions." He hoped that Fosse would inspire a whole new generation of choreographers to emulate the late master.

That Drabinsky was a hands-on producer there can be no doubt. "Garth's most valuable contribution is romancing and encouraging the right people for a project," says Fosse codirector Ann Reinking, "and he remains loyal to the people he's hired." From Drabinsky's creative team came a portrait of a man who involved himself in every detail. "He can be a pain in the ass," says Maltby, "but you ignore him at your peril and at the show's peril." Maltby also spoke in awe of Drabinsky's willingness to spend money on "the possibility of a show," singling out the high cost of notating Fosse's choreography and training dancers in his vocabulary.

But it is also clear that Drabinsky could become too eager a collaborator. Says Ragtime lyricist Lynn Ahrens, "He wants to be one of the creators, and we had to sometimes remind him to take a step back."

At the time of the Ovitz-Furman takeover, the Los Angeles Times published a story that predicted that Drabinsky's shelf life at Livent might be short, and speculation surfaced that the, new management wanted the real estate rather than the risks. As the Globe and Mail reported from a Drabinsky loyalist, "They may have found a toothpick and turned it into a log to crush Garth because they don't want him." In September, Todd Haimes, formerly head of Manhattan's nonprofit Roundabout Theater, was named artistic director of Livent.

For Drabinsky, it must be wormwood and gall to watch projects that he has nurtured from the cradle go on without him. But he battled childhood polio that left him partially crippled and survived a humiliating ouster from Cineplex Odeon--can the comeback kid come back yet again? Does Drabinsky have a third dream?