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[0:00] Brendon Henderson: 42nd Street in Manhattan is a dazzling sight. Towering buildings that stretch over the congested city streets, each one adorned with flashing lights that can make even a run-of-the-mill McDonald's look like a must-stop destination. But behind each building's spectacular facade, there's an entirely different story. By October of 2012, Spider-Man Turn Up the Dark had turned the Foxwoods Theatre on Broadway into a chaotic cacophony of wailing ambulance sirens, domesticated rock music, and audience members passionately comparing themselves to guinea pigs. This never-ending flurry of activity served as a striking juxtaposition to its next-door neighbor, the new 42 Studios. Being the premiere rehearsal spot for Broadway's newest shows, the building had become a beacon of hope and adventurous optimism.

This was the feeling that flooded the room on October 1st, 2012, as the warm beams of sunlight reflected off the Manhattan skyscrapers to illuminate the rehearsal space for Broadway's daring new endeavor, Rebecca the Musical. With the cast and crew assembled, a nervous energy took hold. This was the first time they had all been together following an ever-growing list of postponements, and everyone was more than ready for the process to begin. And yet, what should have been a dream of a celebration quickly turned into a reality of dread. Producer Ben Sprecher stood before the cast and crew with a tremor in his voice, and a tear in his eye, to announce that rehearsals were cancelled. Indefinitely.

The announcement shocked the cast, many of whom had uprooted their entire lives and left other jobs just to be in Rebecca. Suddenly, they were unemployed with nothing lined up. Maxim de Winter actor Ryan Silverman's mind started racing. He and his wife were new parents, and his contract with Rebecca meant he was forced to cancel a year's worth of symphony concerts just to appear in the show. As Sprecher fled the room, his producing partner Louise Florenza was left behind to finish his remarks. The entire spectrum of emotions were released. According to Silverman, some people sat in stunned disbelief, while others became red-faced in frustration. But everyone still had the same question. What the hell happened?

[3:29] Brendon Henderson: What the hell is going on? This was the confused cry from the Shubert Organization in a crowded meeting room on Friday, September 28th, 2012. It's not cheap to put on a Broadway show, and given the economic climate of the time, mixed with first-time Broadway producers Ben Sprecher and Louise Florenza, Rebecca the Musical was having an increasingly difficult time securing the last $4 million it needed to be fully capitalized. In other words, having enough money to stage the show. Earlier that year, a group of four wealthy British investors promised to provide the remaining money needed. Since the barrier of entry for investing in a show is so high, the world of Broadway investors is one where everybody knows everybody.

Thus, when these four investors swept in, many were perplexed because they were names they had never heard of before. The situation became even more suspicious when, just three days from the start of rehearsal, the production was dealing with the fallout of two huge problems. The elusive lead investor had been deemed dead, under bizarre circumstances. Just as bizarrely, an investor who had read of this fellow's demise in the New York Times, and who had pledged the show $2 million to replace that investment, had just been scared off by a series of eerie emails sent by two mysterious sources. The walls are about to cave in on Mr. Sprecher and the Rebecca Broadway production. The only reason to invest in Rebecca would be for a tax write-off, or to get caught up in a federal trial.

[5:17] Brendon Henderson: It was this chaos that had led federal defense attorney Ronald G. Russo here, to a meeting at Schubert Alley, with his client, producer and longtime family friend, Ben Sprecher. In his nearly 40-year career, Russo had never seen a case like this. Sure, Broadway had always lent itself towards the dramatic, but this was on a different level. What the hell is going on? It was the question that dominated the meeting. What was the true story involving the deceased phantom investor and his three peculiar associates? Who sent the foreboding emails that made the angel investor back out? How could a show six years in the making, on which so many people depended on for their livelihoods, come crashing down in just a single day? It was Russo's job to find out.

[6:24] Brendon Henderson: If someone had a problem they needed to clean up, the no-nonsense lawyer from Brooklyn was the one to do it. Russo graduated from St. John's University School of Law in 1973, eventually making a name for himself as a federal prosecutor, and being named the Chief of Official Corruption and Special Prosecutions. It was here that Russo was introduced to the world of white-collar crime. White-collar crime is typically a financial crime. It's typically committed without violence. I've had double murder cases too, but that's not my meat and potatoes. By 1982, Russo had been prosecuting cases for nearly five years, and as was fairly typical at the time, he chose to open his own law firm. Only now, instead of going after the white-collar criminals, he would navigate to the other side of the courtroom to defend them.

This is where he would stay for the next 30 years, until September of 2012, when he received a phone call from producer and family friend, Ben Sprecher. Ben's message was distraught. Following the death of the show's lead investor, three close associates had become wary, and had withdrawn their investments from his most recent project, Rebecca the Musical. So Ben called me and said, can you do anything? Can you sue these people and get them to pay me? Can we enforce the contract that they have to invest in Rebecca? And I said to him, quite whimsically, Ben, I don't do that. There are lawyers at my firm if you want me to put you in touch with them, but why don't you give me a call when the FBI comes?

Jokingly. Twenty-five days later, FBI agents entered Ben Sprecher's office. The reason? It appeared that Rebecca had been murdered by a million-dollar fraudster, and producer Sprecher was suspected of having played a role.

[8:33] Brendon Henderson: Given the chaos that would come to ensue, it's difficult to imagine that things weren't always so dramatic for Rebecca. In the late 1990s, lyricist Michael Kunze was riding high off the success of three original musicals he had created with his musical partner, Sylvester LeVay. Kunze's career began as a music producer in Los Angeles. Given all the musical talent he met with on a daily basis, it seemed almost inevitable that he would meet LeVay in the 1970s. It wasn't long until Kunze realized that not only was LeVay great company, he was also a fabulous composer. The two would team up and find great success in the burgeoning disco scene, dominating the Billboard Top 100 two decades earlier, in November and December of 1975, with their hit song, Fly Robin Fly.

And yet, despite having churned out hit after hit, the job of a music producer proved to be a lonely one for Kunze. The endless hours in the studio away from his family had left him creatively and emotionally bankrupt. Kunze reached his breaking point in the early 1980s, when he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to cancel all his producing contracts and essentially run away with the circus, becoming a German translator for hit musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. After translating shows like Evita, Lloyd Webber's frequent collaborator Hal Prince encouraged Kunze to stop doing adaptations and to finally write something of his own. Rediscovering his creative spark, Kunze teamed up once again with composer LeVay to create their 1992 smash, Elisabeth Das Musical, a dramatic take on the life and death of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

The piece proved important for highlighting the two central themes that would come to dominate Kunze's work, a strong central character growing up, and claiming their emotional independence. Given his affinity for these themes, it seemed only natural that one of Kunze's favorite books growing up was Daphne du Maurier's gothic thriller, Rebecca.

[10:37] Brendon Henderson: The Selznick Studios successor to Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, brought to the screen with all the warmth and emotion that made millions of readers acclaim Daphne du Maurier's bestseller as the most exciting love story of our time. The fascinating Max de Winter lives on the screen in the person of Laurence Olivier. Why, it's Max de Winter. How do you know? The shy, unsophisticated young girl who dared to follow in the footsteps of the beautiful Rebecca is portrayed by lovely Joan Fontaine. How could I ask you to love me when I knew you loved Rebecca still? Du Maurier was a master storyteller, with her books typically centering on female protagonists. In the late 1930s, the writing process for her newest novel was not going smoothly, with du Maurier tearing up her first 15,000 words in disgust.

Conversely, her editor had a vastly different experience, being completely enraptured by what she had written thus far. The story of Rebecca is one riddled with twists and turns that masterfully walks the line between high suspense and high romance, going from Cinderella story to true crime thriller in a single flip of the page. The story follows a young, nameless woman who falls in love with a mysterious man well outside her social class, named Maxim de Winter. All that's known initially is that he's a withdrawn widower mourning the loss of his wife Rebecca. The young woman eventually reciprocates Maxim's advances, and they wed. Despite the new couple's initial happiness, everything changes once they return to Maxim's mysterious estate of Manderley.

The phantom-like presence of Maxim's deceased wife Rebecca is inescapable to the young nameless woman, who feels she can never compete with her utter perfection, a feeling that's only amplified once she meets the eerie housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers.

[13:19] Brendon Henderson: Initially, the reason for Rebecca's death is believed to be an accidental drowning, but as the story progresses, the circumstances become murky. Page by page, it's revealed that no one is as innocent as they appear to be. Maxim, in particular. When it comes to Rebecca's death, the widower is slowly revealed to be the prime suspect. In addition to his sudden violent outbursts, the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, suddenly becomes unhinged due to a blind jealousy and obsessive mourning for Rebecca. This leads Maxim's new nameless bride on a journey of fighting to protect Maxim, as well as to find her own identity, separate from that of his former wife. It's believed that the story drew closely to the same feelings of jealousy du Maurier felt in her own life, feelings that she would never be able to compare with her husband's first true love, Joan Ricardo, especially after finding out that he had kept her old love letters, all of which bore a beautiful, sweeping R. The book became an immediate bestseller when it was released in 1938, spawning a movie adaptation two years later.

The Picture, which starred Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson, marked a spectacular American debut for film director Alfred Hitchcock, ultimately winning two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Picture, the only Hitchcock film ever to do so. After finding the book,

[14:23] Brendon Henderson: Following a reorganization of his home library, Kunze was once again reminded of the love he felt for the highly romantic story. He wanted to bring it to the stage. Upon expressing this desire, many of Kunze's colleagues scoffed at the idea. You can't do a crime story on stage. But to him, Rebecca was more than just a crime story. It was a high drama romance, documenting a young woman's embrace of her true strength and self-worth. Kunze journeyed to du Maurier's home of Cornwall, England, in an attempt to acquire the rights to Rebecca from her son, Christian Frederick Browning. Other writers had made a similar trip, only to come home empty-handed, and it seemed as though Kunze was about to suffer a similar fate. It was only after attending a performance of Elizabeth in Vienna that Christian sensed his mother's story would be in safe hands.

[15:28] Brendon Henderson: Nearly 20 years later, du Maurier herself couldn't have conjured up a mystery like the one Ron Russo now faced. The collapse of Rebecca's Broadway transfer took with it the hopes, dreams, and security for the cast and crew who had prepared to invest their lives towards it. With as disastrous an effect as that, it was never an option for Russo to not find the person responsible. But before he could do that, he needed a list of suspects. The Angel Investor's one request had been to remain anonymous, and the production had done a good job of keeping his identity and personal information confidential. There had been no known leaks, meaning it was more than likely that the emails had come from somebody working on the inside.

Was it the director, Francesca Zambello? The business liaison, Mark Houghton? Or maybe Sprecher had been double-crossed by his producing partner, Louise Forlenza? There were so many possibilities. But it just didn't make sense to Russo. Why would someone willingly attempt to sabotage the show they were working on? Could someone have been paid off? Was it a case of blind ego? Or could it have been that this Angel Investor had been a ploy in a much larger scheme? Could it be that the person pulling the strings was the same person behind the mysterious death of the show's first investor? Despite the possible suspects, there was still one person that many people were suspicious of above all else. Russo's own client and family friend, Ben Sprecher.

[17:14] Brendon Henderson: When it came to Broadway, Ben Sprecher was ready to be a somebody. The son of a pharmacist and a high school teacher, Sprecher mirrored countless other ambitious dreamers when he moved to New York in the 1970s, with the dream of becoming a Broadway producer. By the early 1990s, he was the manager and owner of three off-Broadway houses, but he always knew that if he really wanted to make it in the big leagues, he needed to make the jump towards Broadway. This was proving to be much more difficult than he had anticipated. The barrier of entry for becoming a lead Broadway producer is incredibly high, with those who are most successful typically either being independently wealthy outside of the theater world, or having a big enough pool of wealthy investors that they can call on.

Sprecher had neither, leading many in the industry to cast him out as someone who didn't have the clout to be viewed as a serious force to be reckoned with. To them, he was just another theater owner with dreams of grandeur. But Sprecher knew he had potential. He could see it, and he was ready to make the others see it as well. All he needed was a really great show, and in the mid-2000s, she found him.

[18:39] Brendon Henderson: The Viennese air was abuzz with anticipation in September of 2006, as Rebecca prepared for its opening night. The story had been given new life, in a stunning stage production infinitely beyond what Kunze could have imagined during the first London workshop two years prior. In initial readings, the show was charming in its modesty. Kunze and LaVey had crafted a handful of lavish, sweeping musical compositions, but the show's true strength came from its heart. Underneath Rebecca's beautiful melodies was a creator who had a genuine connection and reverence for the story. The overwhelming potential of the show gripped the imagination of director Francesca Zambello, so much so that following the first reading, she pulled Michael Kunze aside and said, Zambello is a type of theatrical hybrid, possessing a blend of old-school professionalism and an enthusiastic inventive eclecticness.

As the show prepped for its opening night, the decision to bring Zambello on board as a director had proved to be an inspired one, as she faithfully elevated the gothic universe of Daphne du Maurier to meet the high stakes required for the stage. The show glimmered in the fairy dust of the 1980s megamusical, having been infused with the high-stakes drama and theatrical spectacle that had made shows by the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber commercial juggernauts. This influence was on full display during the show's climax, that was guaranteed to leave audiences speechless.

[20:20] Brendon Henderson: In the book and the film, the ending sees Maxim's dreamlike estate of Manderley burnt to the ground by an unhinged Mrs. Danvers. The book took a more reserved approach in this depiction, using the phrase, whereas the Hitchcock film decided to really milk the grand finale for a shocking, flame-infested crescendo. The musical would double down on this spectacle, setting a colossal central spiral staircase on fire, with Kunze and LeVay's pounding and frantic music layered over top, building and building until the flames became too much, forcing the gigantic staircase to collapse into the stage in real time. The majesty of the finale was enough to make the phantom chandelier blush, and left the opening night crowd speechless.

Specifically, an up-and-coming producer named Florenza, so much so that the very next day she phoned her business partner, Ben Sprecher, and told him, Three weeks later, Sprecher was in the Raymond Theatre himself, experiencing the same overwhelming feelings as Florenza and many other stunned patrons. Sprecher couldn't believe that other producers and theatre owners weren't chomping at the bits to produce this in New York. In Sprecher's eyes, he had finally found the keys to his mandolin. But in that blind confidence towards the show's future success, he had no way of seeing the crimson sky that was rolling in from behind.

[22:30] Brendon Henderson: Ron Russo cruised down the Southern State Parkway on Saturday, September 29th, wondering how Rebecca could have fallen so far off the tracks. All he had to work off was a string of emails, a few investor subscription agreements, and a dead investor who, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be as much of a ghost as Rebecca herself. At the same time, a steady stream of shocking and oftentimes accusatory information was being released by Patrick Healy of the New York Times and Michael Riedel of the New York Post. The two journalists were engaged in a rivalry of revelation, as the pair competed to see who could crack the next layer of the Rebecca mystery, one-upping each other with a new astounding headline each day.

Though the writing may have been different, the question was still the same. Who was this mysterious, dead investor? And did he even exist? The deeper Healy and Riedel dug into the story, the more perplexing it became. Despite the investor contributing a substantial amount to the production, producers Ben Sprecher and Luis Forlenza had never met the man in person, having only ever corresponded with him via email. To the reporters and many people in the industry, all signs were pointing towards this investor being a made-up specter. The gossip reached a fever pitch as everyone tried to figure out who would invent a fake investor and why. Naturally, all fingers began to point towards the only person who desperately needed the credibility of a big-name investor in order to attract others. Producer Ben Sprecher.

[24:22] Brendon Henderson: With the ever-growing list of postponements for Rebecca, he and Forlenza were getting accustomed to the icy breeze of doors being repeatedly slammed in their faces. Many veteran investors felt that a gothic mystery novel wouldn't become a blockbuster. But it was exactly this premise that made the producers so sure of its success, especially after winning the rights for the show's English translation in the late 2000s. The duo was riding high that first year. The two upstarts with no Broadway experience were somehow able to beat out established theater professionals like Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 2009, enthusiasm towards the project was rising, with publicist Mark Thibodeau releasing a flurry of backstage updates about exciting new additions to the creative team, including God of Carnage translator Christopher Hampton.

To direct, Sprecher and Forlenza recruited Michael Blakemore. It was an impressive get, considering he was the only person ever to win two Tony Awards for Best Direction in the same season. One for the play, Copenhagen, and one for the musical, Kiss Me Kate. Francesca Zambello would agree to come on board as a co-director. The exact reason for this varies depending on who's asked. To the producers, they believed Zambello had done such a masterful job of bringing the show to life in Vienna that it only made sense to have her bring it to Broadway. However, they also needed Blakemore to help the show move more ticket sales. However, Zambello remembered it differently, stating that she had been the one they were counting on to drive more ticket sales.

According to Zambello, she agreed to come on board after the producers approached her stating their need for a big-name director. The contrasting storylines highlight the relationship between Zambello and the producers, which had always been tumultuous, drenched in suspicion and an underlying animosity that had spawned from a production of Little House on the Prairie the musical in 2008. The musical had opened to rave reviews and almost immediately got offered the chance to transfer directly to Broadway. But, much to the aggravation of Zambello, the offer was rejected. Sprecher claimed that the reason he turned down the offer was because the show had always been intended to be a traveling show. Zambello, on the other hand, speculated it was because of another reason.

[27:14] Brendon Henderson: Russo slowly navigated the pocket-sized parking lot of the Olympic Diner. There was no denying that the theory of Sprecher creating a fake investor could have been entirely plausible. However, Russo had become a pretty good judge of character. After spending so many years defending clients who were clearly guilty, he could also tell when they were innocent. While the papers had Sprecher as the only suspect, Russo was interested in learning more about another, the show's business liaison, Mark Houghton. Following their explosive meeting in Shubert Alley, Russo asked Sprecher to give Houghton a call. Taking over the phone, Russo told Houghton that he'd like to meet with him. Working with criminals for as long as he had, Russo was expecting Houghton to attempt to somehow weasel himself out of a meeting.

What he wasn't expecting was the enthusiastic response he got back. Okay, let's get breakfast! So, the self-proclaimed home of the world's best salad dressing, the Olympic Diner had become a favorite spot for Houghton. The shabby 1980s exterior offering.

[28:46] Brendon Henderson: Shortly after securing the rights in 2008, Sprecher and Ferlenza decided the best first step would be to give the show a test run on the West End in 2011, and a Toronto run in October of 2012.

[29:06] Brendon Henderson: The fear of the magical show being lost in translation was a constant one for lyricist Michael Kunze. His last work to receive the Broadway transfer treatment was a musical called Dance of the Vampires, an all-in-all dreadful experience which, in Kunze's words, had saw his book be mutilated without his knowledge.

[29:40] Brendon Henderson: Kunze felt betrayed, and the failure of Dance was one he wasn't prepared to make again, meaning this time he would be all-in on the process of Rebecca, to ensure nothing would get by him.

[29:53] Brendon Henderson: He had originally written an English libretto as a reference piece for American director Francesca Zambello, and Kunze was immensely proud of the work that he and translator Christopher Hampton had created. The language might have been different, but the heart of the story was still the same.

[30:14] Brendon Henderson: By the time the show's first reading in London took place, Kunze and LeVay felt confident in the decision they made to entrust Rebecca to Sprecher and Ferlenza. They had a large list of talented stars interested, a stellar creative team, and, most importantly, they had a theatre to stage the show.

[30:26] Brendon Henderson: The Shaftesbury Theatre in London might have been immaculate, but it still required a major overhaul to bring the extravagant world of Rebecca to life.

[30:44] Brendon Henderson: The team knew that the most technically complex moment was going to come from the grand staircase of Manderley's fiery descent into the stage.

[30:56] Brendon Henderson: To make the moment work artistically, a crew needed to dig underneath the theatre to create a trap door large enough for the stairs to sink into.

[31:11] Brendon Henderson: Once exploratory excavations began to see if the site was safe, teams were perplexed to see their test hole flooded with water in a matter of seconds.

[31:27] Brendon Henderson: In the production's first perplexing twist, it was revealed that the excavation crews had unearthed a hidden ancient stream, untouched by the hands of time for generations.

[31:44] Brendon Henderson: The unforeseen discovery turned the show's central set piece into a central headache.

[31:51] Brendon Henderson: Should the crew continue the excavation, not only would they be in danger of flooding the entire theatre, they would also be forced to cease all operations were they to uncover any ancient artifacts.

[32:09] Brendon Henderson: Sprecher and Ferlenza had two options for how to proceed, either nix the staircase or nix the show.

[32:17] Brendon Henderson: In a somewhat bewildering move, Sprecher announced in December of 2012 that Rebecca would no longer open in the West End.

[32:26] Brendon Henderson: To him, the $3 million staircase collapse at the end was too pivotal to the show's success that cutting or downsizing it would have completely robbed the show of its artistic integrity.

[32:39] Brendon Henderson: But when the Shuberts offered him the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway, and a $500,000 investment, he suddenly wasn't so attached to the staircase anymore.

[32:49] Brendon Henderson: The Shuberts investment, mixed with a planned $5 million contribution from a real estate developer named Norton Herrick, filled Sprecher with enough confidence that by July of 2011, he announced that Rebecca would be opening in the spring of 2012 on Broadway, potentially bringing some much-needed competition to the second half of a season that had been high in drama, but sparse in new musicals.

[33:07] Brendon Henderson: Come November, everything seemed to be going better than expected.

[33:16] Brendon Henderson: Rebecca leaned even more into its goal of becoming the next Phantom of the Opera, going so far as casting Sierra Boggess and Tam Mutu, alumnus from the sequel musical Love Never Dies, as Ai and Maxim D'Winter, and taking up residence in the Broadhurst Theatre, which was directly next door to The Majestic, which had housed the high drama romance for roughly 24 years.

[33:35] Brendon Henderson: The smooth sailing towards an April 2012 opening hit an unexpected financial iceberg in December.

[33:47] Brendon Henderson: Despite having spent $250,000 to draft subscription documents that appealed to Norton Herrick's requests, for reasons still unknown, he got cold feet and decided at the last minute to scale down his investment from seven figures to six.

[34:12] Brendon Henderson: The news was a major setback.

[34:15] Brendon Henderson: By this point, the production had already spent $1.4 million on preliminary production costs and set construction, and the economy was still reeling from the Great Recession.

[34:26] Brendon Henderson: Soon enough, Sprecher and Ferlenza once again found themselves short of their $12 million goal.

[34:34] Brendon Henderson: In January of 2012, the duo were left with no choice. They had to postpone the show again.

[34:41] Brendon Henderson: The announcement of a new opening in fall of 2012 knocked it out of Tony contention for the 2011-2012 season, which was increasingly picking up speed.

[34:52] Brendon Henderson: It was an extremely frustrating blow for the original creative team.

[34:56] Brendon Henderson: The sets were made and in storage, the 130-person cast and crew was established, and they were ready to bring the show to life in America, only to keep getting sidelined by the lack of funding.

[35:08] Brendon Henderson: The situation was exceptionally aggravating for co-director Francesca Zambello, as her resentment and suspicion towards Sprecher rose with each passing day.

[35:22] Brendon Henderson: It was this financial shortcoming that had led Ferlenza to the hotel one February morning in 2012, to sit across from the man she was now hoping would be the key to opening the gates of Manderley.

[35:35] Brendon Henderson: Ferlenza was a well-connected accountant, and it was through the friend of one of her clients that she was introduced to Mark Hotton.

[35:54] Brendon Henderson: The world of theater wasn't completely foreign to the former stockbroker, who said he had friends that had invested in shows on the West End and who had managed to come out unscathed.

[36:04] Brendon Henderson: Ultimately, Sprecher and Ferlenza would agree to bring Hotton on, agreeing to pay him 8% commission on any amounts of money he brought in over $250,000 and a $7,500 fee that would be endorsed by his company, Trinity Management.

[36:21] Brendon Henderson: It wouldn't be long until the bet on Hotton would lead them to the jackpot when he revealed that he had not just one, but a group of four British investors lined up.

[36:30] Brendon Henderson: The amount they'd be willing to give? $4.5 million.

[36:36] Brendon Henderson: After a few email exchanges and phone calls with the prospective investors, the duo were ecstatic to receive four signed subscription agreements agreeing to invest in the show.

[36:47] Brendon Henderson: Rebecca could officially open.

[36:50] Brendon Henderson: Three investors named Roger Thomas, Julian Spencer, and Walter Timmons agreed to provide a combined $2.5 million, while their lead associate would chip in $2 million himself.

[37:03] Brendon Henderson: The astronomical amount would come from a wealthy South African businessman.

[37:08] Brendon Henderson: His name? Paul Abrams.

[37:13] Brendon Henderson: As the silverware in the Olympic diner clanged throughout the place, Russo couldn't figure Mark Hotton out.

[37:22] Brendon Henderson: As the man seated across from him shoved his hash browns and eggs into his mouth, Russo was taken aback at how nonchalant Hotton was.

[37:31] Brendon Henderson: After everything that had happened during the last week of September 2012, and the disastrous effects it had had on the show, how could he seem so unbothered?

[37:41] Brendon Henderson: Watching him in the Olympic diner alongside an uneasy Sprecher and a rigid private detective Tom Kelly, Russo wasn't so sure what to believe anymore.

[37:51] Brendon Henderson: Common sense would tell him that Hotton had obviously played some role in the financing falling through.

[37:57] Brendon Henderson: But if that was actually the case, why had Hotton so willingly suggested meeting for breakfast?

[38:03] Brendon Henderson: What type of sociopath would throw himself right into the lion's mouth if he was a fraud?

[38:09] Brendon Henderson: Though Sprecher and Ferlenza continued to reassure everyone on the team that they had the money from the four British investors, by April of 2012, after multiple postponements and losses of funding, the creative team had no reason to view their promises as anything other than empty.

[38:24] Brendon Henderson: The uncertainty of the show ultimately proved to be too much for lead actors Sierra Boggess and Tam Mutu, ultimately deciding to leave the production that same month.

[38:34] Brendon Henderson: Hotton himself flew to London to meet with Abrams in person, as a way to put the finishing touches on the deal.

[38:41] Brendon Henderson: The next month, Rebecca's opening date of November 18th, 2012 was officially announced, and the tickets went on sale three weeks later.

[39:01] Brendon Henderson: While the producers were expecting an enthusiastic response, they weren't expecting to reach an advance of roughly $1 million so quickly.

[39:09] Brendon Henderson: People were ready to experience Rebecca on the Great White Way.

[39:14] Brendon Henderson: Around this same time, the show's longtime publicist Mark Thibodeau would sign an official agreement agreeing to go on salary and contract that September as Rebecca's publicist.

[39:26] Brendon Henderson: Thibodeau was a well-regarded publicist amongst Broadway elites, being a member of the Broadway press teams for 1987's Les Mis, 1988's Phantom of the Opera, and 2003's Wicked.

[39:38] Brendon Henderson: Thibodeau started representing Rebecca in the beginning of 2008, sticking by the show's side through the numerous postponements and recastings.

[39:47] Brendon Henderson: Come June 20th of 2012, things were looking up as the last piece of the show's puzzle was solved, with the announcement that actress Jill Pace and actor Ryan Silverman would be cast as the new I and Maxim D'Winter, respectively.

[40:03] Brendon Henderson: After all the chaos the production had seen for the past four years, it seemed that maybe, just maybe, Rebecca was finally on track to open on Broadway.

[40:17] Brendon Henderson: July was a relatively calm month.

[40:26] Brendon Henderson: Zambello and Blakemore discussed the best way to translate the majesty of the German production in a way that was digestible for U.S. audiences.

[40:33] Brendon Henderson: Pace and Silverman were hard at work trying to solve how to bring a more human side to the lead lovers, and Michael Kunze continued to refine the piece remotely, from exotic locations like London, Hamburg, and Vienna.

[40:47] Brendon Henderson: While everything was moving along efficiently on the creative front, by the end of the month Sprecher and Ferlenza were getting increasingly concerned.

[40:56] Brendon Henderson: It had been roughly five months since Paul Abrams and his three associates had agreed to fill the 4.5 million hole in funding, and the most the producers had gotten were a few email exchanges, a signed subscription agreement, an introduction to Abrams' niece a few months prior, and stories of an African safari he and Hotton had taken while he had visited him in London.

[41:18] Brendon Henderson: What they didn't have was a finalized money transfer, and rehearsals were set to begin in two months.

[41:26] Brendon Henderson: Suspicions surrounding the three investors started to grow. Possessing a background in not-for-profit theater, co-director Francesca Zambello knew how difficult it was to bring investors on board to a show, typically needing to be invested spiritually and artistically long before they invest financially.

[41:44] Brendon Henderson: To have an investor agree to put up $2 million out of nowhere rubbed her the wrong way.

[41:50] Brendon Henderson: If that kind of investor really existed, other people would have known that investor.

[41:58] Brendon Henderson: Sprecher upped the pressure on Hotton to get the group to release the funds, and in the last week of that month, Hotton responded with a forwarded email from the assistant of lead investor Paul Abrams.

[42:12] Brendon Henderson: In a dramatic turn of events, the consequential investor had fallen gravely ill.

[42:18] Brendon Henderson: Abrams, and the show itself, were now clinging on for dear life.