\'Rebecca\' Producer Hopes For Broadway Run in 2013

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Ben Sprecher

The New York producer of the scandal-plagued musical “Rebecca” said on Wednesday that he would try to open the show later this year on Broadway, where a planned production fell apart this fall when several investors were revealed to be concoctions of a rain-making middleman.

The “Rebecca” producer, Ben Sprecher, said in an interview that he was optimistic he would finally be able to raise all the money to mount the musical â€" in part because of the widespread publicity and notoriety surrounding the show after the fraud scheme was revealed.

“As a property ‘Rebecca' is more valuable today than it was six months ago, through no fault of our own,” Mr. Sprecher said. “It's just so much more visible now.”

The incentive for Mr. Sprecher to bring the show to Broadway is strong, not least because of the financial liability he faces if the show never arrives in New York.

Mr. Sprecher said he has negotiated an extension of his contractual rights to mount the show on Broadway â€" he now has until the end of 2013 â€" and has also amended the producing partnership agreement with his investors. Under the previous agreement, Mr. Sprecher's company had been liable for $7 million owed to investors and third parties involved with “Rebecca” because the show had not opened as planned; the new agreement, according to Mr. Sprecher's lawyer, Ronald G. Russo, gives Mr. S precher and his producing partner, Louise Forlenza, until the end of 2013 to open the show on Broadway and avoid having to refund investments to the show's backers.

Those backers are now in the process of approving the amended partnership agreement, Mr. Russo and Mr. Sprecher said on Wednesday; so far all of them have said they intend to do so, according to the two men. Several investors in “Rebecca” did not return phone and e-mail messages on Wednesday.

Mr. Sprecher said he was now trying to raise at least $4.5 million in additional money to stage the show on Broadway. That $4.5 million fell through in August and September after an extraordinary fraud scheme collapsed. Mr. Sprecher had been relying on a middleman, Mark C. Hotton, a former stockbroker from Long Island, to raise the $4.5 million last year for a planned Novem ber production on Broadway.

According to Mr. Sprecher, Mr. Hotton told him that he had four investors who would provide the money; Mr. Sprecher never met the four, however, and they turned out to be phantoms. Federal authorities began investigating the alleged fraud scheme after the New York Times reported in September that there was no evidence of the existence of one of Mr. Hotton's investors, Paul Abrams, who supposedly died of malaria in London in August.

Federal authorities arrested Mr. Hotton in October and charged him with scheming against the “Rebecca” producers by making up phantom investors in the show in return for fees and expenses. According to the criminal charges, Mr. Hotton collected $60,000 from the producers without bringing in any money to the show. Mr. Hotton faces a maximum prison term of 20 years for each of two counts of wire fraud if he is convicted.

Mr. Sprecher said that if “Rebecca” makes it to Broadway this fall, the prod uction would cost “a little more” than the original $12 million budget, given the costs associated with the show's delays. This marks his fourth attempt to mount “Rebecca” â€" an earlier plan in London fell through, followed by attempts to open on Broadway last spring and again two months ago. Despite these delays, Mr. Sprecher said that the production's director, Michael Blakemore, and creative team were still on board for a Broadway outing. Mr. Blakemore did not immediately reply to a phone message on Wednesday.