The judge in the case, Mary Lou Benotto, said the defendants' "creative success" was "spectacular" in plays produced by their company, Livent. It "reflected favourably on all of us in Canada." But into each life some rain must fall. So she found them guilty of fraud and forgery. Er, with respect, your honour, beg to differ. If there were a law against debasing theatre culture, I'd convict 'em on that and let the rest go.

Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb's company was a symptom in that era of high globalization, the 1990s: theatre as a vehicle for corporate grandiosity. Its first coup was getting the Canadian franchise for The Phantom of the Opera. They produced it from a template.