A settlement has been reached in the case between Rebecca Broadway producer Ben Sprecher and his former publicist, Marc Thibodeau, ending a six-year, multi-case courtroom battle over the collapse of the multi-million dollar musical thriller.
Thibodeau confirmed all litigation on the matter had come to an end last month. Details of the settlement between Sprecher and Thibodeau are confidential. Louise Forlenza, Sprecher鈥檚 producing partner on Rebecca, dropped her separate suit against Thibodeau last summer.
In 2013, Sprecher and Forlenza , alleging that Thibodeau sent "disturbing and malicious emails" to a potential "Angel investor" alerting them of reported fraud among Rebecca's investors.
Thibodeau, who leads New York-based company The Publicity Office, was initially sued for $10 million, though a ruled that he was not liable on the count of defamation and ordered to pay a total of $90,000 in damages. The new settlement brings to a close a follow-up personal suit regarding repercussions on Sprecher's subsequent projects.
The musical, based on the Daphne du Maurier gothic thriller (later turned into an Oscar-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock), had its world premiere in 2006 at Vereinigte B眉hnen Wien in Vienna. In 2008, Sprecher and Forlenza announced plans to bring the production to New York, igniting a series of events including multiple delays, cast shakeups, and the arrest Mark Hotton, a stockbroker charged with fabricating investors.
The scandal surrounding the demise of the on-again off-again Broadway musical made national headlines鈥攅clipsing the plot of du Maurier's source material.
