News Comment 10? (October 26)

Posted October 26, 2017 * Comments(2) |

This week someone was caught pulling a “Producers.”

Roland Scahill was sentenced to six months in prison for taking money from investors to back a fake play. This occurred between October 2014 and August 2015.

This story is probably one of the most interesting pieces of news I have read in the NY Times theatre section recently. It definitely falls under the “unusual” news value. Something like this doesn’t happen everyday and I found it very unique because it does follow (vaguely) the plot of The Producers.

I feel like this story could have benefited from being longer. The one time I would be interested to read a NY Times length story, its a short article. I want to know more about this. I want to know how, exactly, he got caught. From what I have gleaned about investing in a Broadway show you don’t speak to the stars or the organization that owns the theatre, you just talk to the person you give the money. I want to know what he did wrong in his planning.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/theater/ex-theater-agent-roland-scahill-sentenced.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftheater&action=click&contentCollection=theater&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0



2 Comments so far

  1.   fuglsang on October 31st, 2017

    I agree, Joey. What tripped up his scheme should have been include. Do you know if the writer, Sopan Deb, is a regular on the theater page, or might he be a crime reporter? Look for follow-ups in the coming weeks.

    One thing that is likely different is that he did not plan to actually produce a bad play that would fail.

  2.   fuglsang on October 31st, 2017

    This CNN story might help:

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/22/us/broadway-producer-fake-play/index.html

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