‘Beauty Shop’ Partners Sue Producer, Alleging Fraud

Five limited partners in the production of “Beauty Shop,” a comedy that has played several engagements at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre over the past 19 months, have filed a suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the show’s writer-director-producer, Shelly Garrett. Named in the suit with Garrett are 25 others identified only as “Does.”

The five plaintiffs have charged Garrett and the other defendants with fraud, breach of fiduciary duties and a failure to provide proper accounting. The plaintiffs are Rhonda Duncan, Syed-Mushta A. Jafry, Tireyn McDaniel, Frances Williams and Kenneth Williams.

Garrett, in Chicago with “Beauty Shop” (the production played the 4,000-plus-seat Arie Crown Theatre last weekend), declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs’ counsel, Gene Harter, said his clients took the legal action because they have seen no return on their investment, although the show has been an acknowledged popular success playing to consistently packed houses. And while rights to the play were acquired by Castle Rock Entertainment as the basis of a show called “New Attitudes,” a potential ABC television series, the suit states that “said monies have not been paid and/or accounted to plaintiffs.”

“They all basically tell the same story,” Harter said of his clients. “The play appears to be successful, but they don’t get any money back. And when they tried to contact Mr. Garrett, they felt they were not getting satisfactory answers. Investors are entitled to know how their investment is going.”

The suit alleges that “the substantial profits . . . have been used by defendants to purchase lavish silk suits, procure the unnecessary services of bodyguards, purchase a custom-made limousine, purchase real estate for the defendant’s private use.” Harter added that Garrett has ignored requests for financial disclosure and an accounting of the plaintiffs’ investment in the show.

Attorney Matthew J. Fairshter, who drafted the lawsuit with Harter, said that Garrett had been making regular financial reports until February of this year. Since then, he said, the plaintiffs have been thwarted in their efforts to examine the books.

Harter said he had made an appointment to see the books at Garrett’s office July 10, but found it closed when he arrived. A July 11 letter he said he sent Garrett on his clients’ behalf remained unanswered.

In it, Harter had requested full financial disclosure as well as the names of all other investors (all of whom bought shares worth $500 each, in varying lots and under what Harter said appear to be slightly varying agreements).

“According to Section 15634 of the California Corporation Code,” Harter said, “Garrett is required to give the investors a list of all limited and general partners--including addresses and shares of profits. Investors are also entitled to a complete accounting of all income, receipts and expenditures, and copies of all federal and state tax returns filed by the partnership. The general partner (Garrett) must do this under the limited partnership act. So far, he has not responded to these demands.”

The suit further alleges that Garrett used “the profits, personnel and rights of the limited partnership to start up a second theatrical company in direct violation of the limited partnership agreement” for the production of another play, “The Living-Room,” which recently closed at the Coronet Theatre.

“(Garrett) doesn’t answer phone calls, he doesn’t answer letters,” said plaintiff Rhonda Duncan who, according to the suit, invested $2,000 in “Beauty Shop.”

Plaintiff Frances Williams, who invested $5,000 with her husband Kenneth, added: “When we asked him about his sale of the rights to television, he told us we had bought into the play, not into the TV rights. He offered to buy my shares back at 5.5% interest. I told him that, at that rate, I could have left the money in the bank.”

“Beauty Shop” is scheduled to go on a national tour after a brief return to Los Angeles, according to associate producer Suzanne Myers. That, she said from Chicago, has not changed, though she declined to say where the show may open next.