Play put Rubicon in a difficult legal situation

By Colleen Cason, ccason@VenturaCountyStar.com
July 21, 2005

The Rubicon Theatre Company had cast the actors for its production of "Tuesdays with Morrie."

The troupe named a director, created a set and alerted the media.

Indeed, in the weeks before the play's scheduled June 16 opening curtain, the Ventura company had everything in place.

Everything, that is, but the legal right to stage the Jeffrey Hatcher-Mitch Albom play, according to representatives of playwright Albom and the William Morris Agency.

Only through an unusual, last-minute agreement between the 207-seat Rubicon and New York-based entertainment powerhouse William Morris did the play run legally through its final curtain Sunday.

But that pact -- powered together two days before the premiere -- contained a rare provision: The Rubicon was forbidden from publicizing the production.

In trying to control media coverage and still fill the seats in the East Main Street venue, varying stories emerged from the troupe about how the respected, seven-year-old regional theater found itself in this precarious position.

Staging a production without the rights would make the company subject to civil litigation, according to Donald Farber, a New York attorney specializing in theatrical law.

Karyl Lynn Burns, the Rubicon's co-founder, said she thought permission had been secured three months before the opening of the autobiographical play about Detroit columnist Albom's weekly visits with his dying mentor. She learned the troupe did not have the rights during a telephone conversation with a William Morris agent a few days before the show was to open, Burns said.

"We absolutely believed we had the rights," she said.

When asked by The Star to show "Morrie" production-related contracts, Burns declined.

Burns explained in a conversation with The Star's editor, Joe Howry, in June that William Morris had pulled the rights at the eleventh hour because a national touring company was in negotiations to stage the play in Los Angeles with "Barney Miller" star Hal Linden in the lead role.

Jack Tantleff, who handled the matter for the William Morris Agency, would not comment on the record about its dealings with the Rubicon on this production.

Burns, a veteran of local repertory, said the process of obtaining the rights to "Morrie" was unlike that for other Rubicon productions.

"We thought it was a more casual agreement," she said.

Casual is not a word Paul Hough, director of production for the American Heartland Theatre in Kansas City, would use to describe the contract his troupe inked for its just-finished run of "Tuesdays with Morrie".

That contract, said Hough, gave Albom approval over the choice of actors and of certain crew members.

Albom did approve the casting and was in frequent contact with Hough, even returning phone calls during station breaks of Albom's radio show.

The Rubicon had no contact with Albom during casting or rehearsals, Burns said.

And that is telling, said Albom's literary agent, David Black. "Mitch didn't know anything about this (the Rubicon) production before it opened."

"His contracts always specify he has these kinds of approvals, and he always exercises them," Black said.

Theatrical contracts vary widely, according to attorney Farber, and they do often contain clauses forcing smaller theaters to yield their rights if a national company hits town.

The Indiana Repertory Theatre encountered just this situation with "Tuesdays with Morrie", according to Jane Robison, the company's executive director.

Robison received tentative approval to stage "Morrie" at the 600-seat Indianapolis theater. But when she sought a contract for the rights in April of this year, she was told her run -- scheduled to close at the end of December 2005 -- would compete with the Broadway Across America national tour coming into a larger Indianapolis venue on Jan. 17, 2006.

She was forced to substitute another play but had received several months notice.

In her 20 years in the theater business, Robison said, she had never heard of a company having its rights yanked within days of opening.

By all accounts, the no-publicity deal struck between William Morris and the Rubicon also is unusual.

To hold up her end of this bargain, Burns approached Star Editor Howry and asked him not to send a reviewer to the play. The Star reviews most Rubicon productions.

"Karyl Lynn told me the shutdown of this production could bankrupt the Rubicon," Howry said of a discussion held in his office the day before the play's June 18 premiere.

Because the theater is a Ventura County cultural resource, Howry agreed not to review the play.

Burns later declined to give the estimated monetary loss to the troupe had "Morrie" gone dark.

In addition, The Star is a sponsor of the Rubicon. The newspaper provides advertising space to the troupe in exchange for promotional tie-ins, according to Monica White, The Star's director of marketing.

Despite the no-publicity pledge, ads for the Rubicon's production of "Morrie" ran in the Star 19 times during the play's run, White said.

Burns, who is rehearsing her one-woman show "Shirley Valentine," scheduled to open Aug. 18, said she forgot to cancel the ads.

She did write a script for actor Harold Gould to deliver to audiences after several performances of "Morrie."

The character actor, who appeared in the film "Freaky Friday" and on the TV sitcom "Rhoda," encouraged theatergoers to spread the news about the production by word of mouth, according to patron Arlene Broslow.

As Broslow recalls Gould's words, he said the Rubicon had bought the rights and met all legal requirements, but a national touring company eyeing a Los Angeles run wanted this staging of "Morrie" shuttered days before its opening. He then explained the no-publicity pact.

"We in the audience were dumbfounded," Broslow said. "As good as this production was, the people who held the rights were going to shut it down before it even opened."

Despite the lack of reviews, the play drew larger audiences than projected, according to Burns.

Claire Bowman, chairwoman of the Rubicon's board of directors, is grateful to William Morris for allowing the production to be seen by county theatergoers.

"Because of incorrect assumptions on our part, a delicate situation arose," Bowman said in a written statement.

"The rights holders responded in the spirit of the play to allow us the opportunity to present what was a moving, beautiful and comforting experience for several thousand local audience members," she added.

Known for its hardball dealings on behalf its roster of A-list clients, William Morris is cast against type in this scenario -- actually showing its softer side.

"They were generous in finding a compromise," Burns said.

Her sentiments were echoed by Albom's agent, Black.

"What happened here is like the play 'Tuesdays with Morrie" itself. It's about people being decent to each other."