Maxwell Back for a Curtain Call?

Robert Maxwell’s life and mysterious death exceed anyone’s definition of high drama, but a former associate nonetheless hopes to stage “Maxwell, the Musical,” an updated operetta in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan.

“You can’t love a crook, but you can be fascinated by a crook,” said Evan Steadman, producer of the planned $1.66-million musical, which he hopes to open in February.

“If you knew Judas Iscariot, you might very well be tempted to put on a musical,” said Steadman, 54.

Maxwell bought Steadman’s exhibitions business in 1988 for about $25 million.

The Czechoslovak-born Maxwell, 68, died Nov. 5, 1991, while cruising off the Canary Islands. The cause of his death, and the whereabouts of money from his employees’ pension funds, remain unknown.

The rise and fall of Robert Maxwell, according to Steadman, who met Maxwell in 1968, “was hilariously funny if it didn’t personally affect you. . . . I despise the man for what he did. I have a fascination; I have a horror.”