Power and Greed

Have you ever wanted to know how the business of Broadway came to be? Read this book. Spencer Waller has concisely and provocatively charted the windy road map of the American commercial theatre from its humble immigrant beginnings to today. With a cast of real-life characters as brilliant, clumsy, inspired, flawed and passionate as anything you might see on a stage, Waller navigates the riveting tale of powerful business brokers’ inevitable descent from best intentions to conspiracy and, finally, bold-faced collusion. Yes, this is a tale of our time.

Kevin McCollum, Tony Award-winning producer of In the Heights, Avenue Q, and Rent

Americans have a funny relationship with competition: on the one hand, they cheer for the underdog, they admire the entrepreneur, and they prize open opportunity for all; on the other hand, that very freedom has led, repeatedly, to the rise of powerful cartels and monopolies. Professor Waller’s book tells the tale of the titanic figures whose clashes led to 21st-century American theater—ambitious people who wanted to dominate the business, but whose efforts were constantly thwarted by newcomers and, when things got rough, by the United States government itself. It was through the antitrust laws that the early rough-and-tumble was ultimately tamed. As theater expanded from New York’s Broadway to the rest of the country, and even jumped across the “Pond” to influence London, powerful actors such as Abe Erlanger, the Frohman brothers, the Shubert brothers, and Marcus Loew (to name just a few) each sought in their turn to dominate the market. Professor Waller, a noted antitrust expert himself, explains how their actions suppressed competition and innovation, even while theater spread throughout the country. This is a great book for anyone who has ever tried to buy a concert ticket through Live Nation, or who enjoys the magic of live theater, or who wants to understand why the antitrust laws, and free competition, matter.

Diane Wood, Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School

In show business (it’s been said) you can’t make a living, but you can make a killing. In Power and Greed, Spencer Waller draws on his dual background as an antitrust expert and former federal prosecutor to deliver a fascinating, eye-opening, occasionally startling account of the many ways that cartels and corporations have tried to grab that loot for themselves, and the tools that artists and audiences have wielded to fight back. With its high stakes, larger-than-life characters, and episodes of gleeful criminality, this book is as dramatic as the plays that it describes. It’s an essential read for understanding the big business of American entertainment—both how we got here and where we might go next.

Jeremy McCarter, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hamilton: The Revolution