A Roundabout Way to Power

“I’m not a lunatic,” Todd Haimes says more than once in the course of an hourlong chat. The defensive posture is not an idle one. His fortunes of late have resembled the zigs and zags of the stock market.

As the artistic director of New York’s bullish nonprofit Roundabout Theater Company, the producer accepted two Tony Awards in June, for best revival of a play (“A View From the Bridge”) and best revival of a musical (“Cabaret”). Indeed, the acclaimed “Cabaret” not only won a total of four Tonys, but was also the hottest ticket on Broadway, with A-list celebrities being turned away regularly from the intimate Kit Kat Klub on West 43rd Street where the show was playing.

Then disaster struck in the form of an accident at the Conde Nast Building construction site in Times Square, directly adjacent to the Kit Kat Klub, which paralyzed businesses in the surrounding area, closing down not only “Cabaret” but also Roundabout’s two other shows at the theater’s 45th and Broadway complex. Making matters worse, simultaneously, the theater’s box office became one of the targets of a wide-ranging state investigation into ticket scalping or “ice”--the practice of illegally overcharging ticket brokers for seats to hot shows. While that investigation continues (Haimes has denied any knowledge of improper practices), “Cabaret” has since resumed playing to standing-room-only audiences, but not before losing more than $2 million.

Topping off the wild ride of the last two months, on Sept. 3, Livent, the beleaguered corporate theater giant that has produced such mega-musicals as “Show Boat” and “Ragtime,” announced that Haimes would become, effective immediately, its new artistic director. Even with a five-year contract with Livent--which spent more than $250 million last year--he is continuing to head Roundabout--with its $18-million annual budget--for at least another year.

Given the emotional whiplash of the last couple of months, one might expect to find him curled up in a fetal position in a corner of Roundabout’s executive offices three floors above the bustle of Times Square. Instead Haimes, 42, appears remarkably calm and focused amid the unimaginable clutter of his office, and a certain ironic glimmer occasionally sneaks into his eyes. According to those who know him well, he is a shy, modest man, self-effacing and uneasy with the spotlight that is now being trained upon him.

“In many ways, I’m constantly a bundle of insecurities waiting for disaster to strike, though I must say I never expected a building would fall down on ‘Cabaret’--that brought a new level of disaster I’d never thought about,” he says amiably. “But in other ways, I truly am challenged by challenges, and I think of Livent as this extraordinary challenge for me, and it does scare and excite me.”

This attitude has worked well for Haimes. Fifteen years ago, armed with a master’s degree in business from Yale, he joined a nearly defunct Roundabout as a fiscal manager and--against all odds--restored the company to fiscal health and nurtured it to become one of the largest nonprofit theaters in the country.

“Todd has a very positive approach to, and solutions for, resolving huge challenges,” says Christian C. Yegen, chairman of the Roundabout’s board, who hired him. “By the same token, he pulls no punches.”

During Haimes’ tenure, Roundabout has made two major geographical moves, expanded to two stages, quadrupled its budget to $18 million (80% of which comes from ticket sales) and more than tripled its number of subscribers, to 35,000. While he continued to primarily focus on revivals of dramatic and musical classics, he expanded the programming to include new works. Since he assumed the title of artistic director in 1989, Roundabout productions have been nominated for 51 Tony awards.

Says Andre Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, who is co-producing the new musical “Parade” with Livent: “Todd’s a combo platter, a businessman with sensitivity for talented people. He’s honorable and decent and smart, all the things you would want as a director for a company.”

Haimes will need that talent and more in helping to turn around Livent, founded in 1989 by Garth Drabinsky, a flamboyant Canadian impresario who grew the company from a single theater in Toronto to a string of theatrical venues across North America, with Ford Centers for the Performing Arts in Toronto, New York and Chicago and an ambitious roster of plays and musicals. The lineup includes this season’s Broadway-bound “Fosse: A Celebration in Song and Dance” (opening at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on Oct. 14) and “Parade,” the new Harold Prince musical premiering in November at Lincoln Center.

Drabinsky’s free-spending ways, however, backfired in June when the publicly traded corporation, reeling from losses exceeding $50 million during a 15-month period in 1997 and the first three months of 1998, was taken over by investment banker Roy Furman--now Livent chief executive officer--and Hollywood veteran Michael Ovitz, who, by dint of a $20-million investment, became Livent’s majority stockholder.

Livent’s financial health was revealed to be even more precarious on Aug. 10, when the corporation released a statement that its fiscal officers had discovered “serious accounting irregularities” that might result in further losses. The development was blamed on Drabinsky, who under the new management held titles of vice chairman and chief creative director, and his closest financial advisor, Myron Gottlieb, both of whom were immediately suspended. (Through a spokesperson, Drabinsky and Gottlieb deny all accusations of wrongdoing.)

Until an investigation of the irregularities can be completed, trading in Livent stock has been suspended. Meanwhile, stockholders have filed a class-action suit against Livent. So when Haimes was appointed artistic director just three weeks later, it was a surprise move no doubt intended to help smooth the roiling waters.

Both Furman and Ovitz say that Haimes quickly emerged as the most desirable choice: a prudent cost-cutter with an excellent reputation in the theater world, a macro-manager interested in the big picture, and an agile juggler who can balance a number of projects at one time. Last season, Roundabout produced nine productions at three different venues, two of which later moved into larger Broadway houses. Ovitz, who was actively involved in recruiting Haimes, says that when he attended “Cabaret,” he was “blown away” by the production.

“Todd has great taste, and he’s also fiscally very responsible,” Ovitz says. “The very limited budget that he worked with at Roundabout didn’t hamper his creativity.”

Furman was equally impressed: “There has been inordinate growth at Roundabout, which demonstrated to us that Todd has a great ability to grow. . . . There is no correlative between Livent and an institutional theater, but they are at least similar in that both organizations are geared to produce numerous shows over a period of time, and Todd’s command of a very broad array of talent and product was appropriate for Livent.”

Furman adds that he was also impressed with the way Haimes handled the crisis caused by the construction accident. “Todd stayed well-reasoned and calm and responded with humor,” he says. “He didn’t become hysterical.”

That well-reasoned calm is likely to be tested even more at Livent as Haimes acclimates himself to the corporate culture after spending an entire career in the not-for-profit world. Indeed, he got a quick taste of how a seemingly offhand remark can have serious repercussions when he unwittingly walked into the firestorm surrounding Drabinsky’s dismissal while being interviewed by a reporter for the Toronto Star. In an article published on Sept. 5, Haimes is quoted as saying that he was first contacted by Furman about possibly leaving his job at the Roundabout on Aug. 5--the day after Livent’s auditors were said to have begun uncovering the accounting irregularities that led to Drabinsky’s suspension on Aug. 10. A spokesperson for Drabinsky, who has been uncharacteristically silent since the suspension, seized on the article to accuse the Livent management of having a hidden agenda, implying that they had made a decision to get rid of Drabinsky even before the extent of the accounting irregularities were known.

Haimes now says that the meeting on Aug. 5 in Furman’s office never included any discussion of a possible job with Livent, directly or indirectly, and that the question of whether he’d ever be willing to leave Roundabout was not broached until a second meeting in the week after the suspensions. (Mitch Potter, the Toronto Star writer who interviewed Haimes, says that the comments are on tape and suggests that the backpedaling occurred once the contentions in the article were pounced on by Drabinsky’s supporters.)

When asked directly if he was misquoted in the article, Haimes says, “Um, yeah. At that first meeting we just talked in general about theater. I left that first meeting really never thinking I’d ever see Roy again.” The upshot is that now, for an interview with the usually accessible Haimes, a corporate publicist insists on sitting in. “Gee, usually nobody used to care what I said before,” Haimes jokes.

“He’s not about to get eaten alive, he’s too smart and savvy for that,” says theater director Michael Mayer, who is something of a Haimes protege. “He’s shy, and some people may mistake that for timidity, but he’s a man of incredible purpose and drive.”

Although Haimes’ decision to join Livent happened quickly, the artistic director said that his initial response was “no” because of his depth of commitment to the Roundabout. He says that three things changed his mind, after a series of conversations with Furman and Ovitz.

“First, I came to understand that the job meant that I could artistically shape this large institution,” he says, “and that was an opportunity that comes along very rarely in your life, particularly in theater, which is largely a boutique industry. Second, I was completely convinced that these people were in it for the long term, that the corporation was financially stable. And third, I have to say that the opportunity to work with Mike Ovitz was compelling to me. He’s probably worked with more artists than anyone else on the planet, which is great in a business that relies on access. And he’s really committed to this being a place that pushes the artistic envelope, as well as being financially successful, and so am I.”

While both Ovitz and Furman refused to discuss the company’s finances until after the investigation into the company’s past is completed, Ovitz did say they would not have hired Haimes without promising him the resources to do the job. Said Ovitz: “I want to make Livent a very talent-friendly place--dramas, comedies, musicals, big and small. A place that allows a lot of artistic creativity and supports that vision. Todd is already in discussions with a lot of people.”

Haimes said he still would not have taken the position had Livent not agreed to allow him to help make the transition for Roundabout as seamless and painless as possible. Scott Ellis, a well-known Broadway director (“1776”) and a longtime friend of Haimes, has stepped in as associate artistic director to help with Roundabout administrative duties until a successor can be found. “To be completely blunt, I wouldn’t leave a job where I’m basically happy and incredibly secure to go to something I didn’t believe in.”

In fact, Haimes gets very emotional when he speaks about leaving the Roundabout in a year’s time. After all, he was only 26 when he came to the theater, which was founded in 1976 in a supermarket basement to present stage classics. The son of a well-to-do Manhattan Jewish lawyer, Haimes says his first ambition was to be a doctor, but the science requirements defeated him. He never dreamed of going into the theater until he worked backstage in a school production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” while at Manhattan’s prestigious Horace Mann High School.

To satisfy his parents, he applied to the Yale Business School after graduating with an English degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he met his wife, Alison, who is now a neuro-radiologist. The couple have two young children. But Haimes says he chose to go to Yale because it has one of the best theater departments in the country, and he took courses there, too. Shortly after earning his degree, he worked in a Connecticut regional theater.

“I came into the institutional theater in the early ‘80s, when they were having severe financial problems, so my business background combined with my theater background was a very good combination.”

While his entire career has been spent in the nonprofit arena, Haimes does not see his sudden and unexpected initiation into corporate culture to be a quantum leap, even if it is to an organization as beholden to the bottom line as Livent.

“Deep down inside I believe that the philosophy of both institutions, Roundabout and Livent, is going to be the same,” Haimes says. “As articulated to me by Ovitz and Furman, they want Livent to be a home for artists and to do the best work within that environment. Obviously, there is a goal to make money. But I have to tell you--and this is supposed to be heresy--I’ve always thought it was a goal to make money in the not-for-profit theater. While there’s something wrong for an individual to benefit personally, I think you have to be financially successful. The idea of going out of business with dignity and glory is ridiculous.”

Lincoln Center’s Bishop says that Haimes’ struggle to make Roundabout solvent in the early years may have not only made him more fiscally prudent but also more commercially oriented than most not-for-profit creative heads. “He had to sell tickets on a fairly big scale; that’s what got them out of their hole and attracted funding,” Bishop says. “A lot of us didn’t grow up with that pressure. In the not-for-profit world, you don’t always have to pick plays that you think will make a lot of money.”

Haimes is aware that Livent will have financial exigencies that could determine his choices, which can be characterized as eclectic. Roundabout’s upcoming season reflects his taste: a musical revival of “Little Me,” starring Martin Short; new plays from Harold Pinter (“Ashes to Ashes”), Richard Greenberg (the South Coast Repertory production of “Hurrah at Last!”), Beth Henley (“The Impossible Marriage” with Holly Hunter) and Paula Vogel (“The Mineola Twins”); and a revival of “The Lion in Winter,” starring Laurence Fishburne.

“I don’t really have a personal aesthetic; I like what I think will make good theater,” Haimes says. Asked which of the projects he would feel comfortable bringing to Livent, the producer responds that it depends on the size of the theater, but that “Little Me,” “Lion in Winter” and “The Impossible Marriage” could all be feasible Livent projects. In fact, Livent and Roundabout are currently in negotiations for the corporation to get a “first-look” option in exchange for an undisclosed contribution to the not-for-profit theater.

While initiating and nurturing new work will be uncharted and admittedly daunting territory for Haimes, he says that his goal for Livent is to make it an institution that will serve “artists at all levels of their creative development.”

“My general approach has always been to get the best people around and try to create a collaborative environment in which they can do their best work.”

Haimes has inspired a fierce loyalty among artists he has worked with, including Pinter, actors Natasha Richardson and Jason Robards and directors such as Sam Mendes and Ellis. “He has an amazing capacity for trusting people who work for him,” Ellis says. “He’s hands-off in the best possible sense. He not only gave me the opportunity to direct my first Broadway show [“She Loves Me”], he totally left me alone. He takes chances with artists and they pay off for him.”

As ambitious as Haimes’ plans may be, Livent’s straitened circumstances may keep him in stewardship over projects initiated by Drabinsky, which include “The Sweet Smell of Success,” directed by Nicholas Hytner with music by Marvin Hamlisch; a revival of “Pal Joey” with a revised book by Terrence McNally; and “The Seussical,” with a score by Lynne Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (“Ragtime”). The producer says he admires those shows and hopes he can have an impact on their development. But he also expects to begin bringing artists and projects to Livent over the next six months.

“Mike and Roy are both passionately interested in the activity level increasing in the near future,” says Haimes, who adds that he has been reassured of the fiscal state of Livent and has a “general picture” of its status. “I’m fairly confident this company will be thriving a couple of years from now.”

The jump to Livent also means that Haimes for the first time will have a chance at bucks for himself. “My wife has always supported my theater habit,” he says with a laugh. “But money has never been a priority of mine as long as I was relatively comfortable. It’s such a hard business, that if you don’t truly have a passion for it, you can’t be successful, even if you want to be.”

When the interview ends, the artistic director makes a point of walking his guest to the elevator at the end of a hallway in Roundabout’s hive of offices. “I don’t think they trust me [to be alone with a reporter],” he says with a laugh, well out of earshot of the corporate publicist who remains behind. He reiterates again that he was not backpedaling on the Toronto Star interview but that he had simply been confused as to the dates. “No matter how many times you say it, you still feel guilty,” he adds.

When it is suggested that playing in the corporate commercial arena is likely to offer more challenges to his personal value system, Haimes responds thoughtfully, “I don’t think I’m going to dramatically change at this point in my life. Look, I’m not kidding myself. I know I’ll have to prove myself all over again at Livent. I’m not a showman, and I’ve sort of come to terms with the fact that I’ve got to do it my way, not in a dramatic way, but in the only way I’m comfortable. If that’s successful, then good. If not, then, then Livent will be disappointed.”

He pauses before going back to the maelstrom of activity now surrounding him. “And I won’t just be disappointed,” he says with a laugh, “I’ll be fired.”