Challenging to manage and rife with financial risk, live theater productions reflect the artful collaboration of producers, investors, creative talent and trades people. Whether on Broadway or a regional production, success requires the right complement of creative vision and business acumen.
Pryor Cashman’s preeminent Media & Entertainment Group has a long-standing theater tradition. With our headquarters at Broadway and 42nd Street, New York’s theater district is our backyard. We advise Broadway, off-Broadway, regional, touring, foreign and non-profit productions on everything from finance to performance contracts to intellectual property protection.
What We Do
We work with producers, investors, directors, choreographers, playwrights, composers, lyricists, musicians, designers, music publishers and performers to hammer out finance arrangements, employment agreements, performance contracts and licensing and endorsement deals while protecting their ownership of creative content by securing copyright protection for their artistic works.
Our attorneys assist clients with the many legal and business aspects of theater production, including:
- Securing domestic and international intellectual property rights
- Obtaining theatrical syndication financing
- Handling agreements with designers, crew and talent
- Facilitating contracts with venues and marketing partnerships
- Structuring development transactions
- Resolving disputes through negotiation, settlement and litigation
Through our long-established network of producers, directors, choreographers, performers and investors, we introduce clients to new ventures and potential funding sources. Experienced on all sides of entertainment financing, production and distribution, we are well equipped to develop and structure investment vehicles for talent and financiers.
Beyond the Stage
The entertainment industry has become more and more integrated, with increasing crossover between genres - Broadway hits find new life in Hollywood, superstar musicians compose new musicals, and independent films, television shows, comic books and novels are adapted for the stage.
Our attorneys have extensive experience in negotiating stage rights agreements including agreements for acquiring stage rights in films, books and other underlying properties, life story rights, option agreements between playwrights and producers, and collaboration agreements among composers, playwrights and directors.
We negotiate contracts on behalf of producers and creative personnel relating to the services of composers, lyricists, playwrights, directors, designers and performers. We also provide financial advice, including preparation and review of offering papers and investment agreements, for theatrical productions. We negotiate agreements for subsidiary rights with motion picture studios and with companies that produce stock and amateur productions, foreign productions and tours.
Our immigration lawyers assist theater and production companies and individual artists in obtaining the necessary visas and work authorizations to perform in the United States.
Resolving Disputes
Conflicts in theater often result in costly labor disputes, work stoppages and even litigation. Our attorneys are prepared with solutions - negotiating settlements, arbitrating disputes, pursuing compensation for contract breaches and litigating, when necessary.
We also resolve disputes and provide labor advice for one of the major theatrical unions, The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. The firm represented Tony Award-winning stage director Joe Mantello in a landmark case that established the copyrightability of stage directions and has been involved in other litigations, including two involving the Broadway musical "Urinetown." In another highly publicized dispute, the firm successfully represented Tony Award winning director Julie Taymor in her arbitration against the producers of the musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark" for her director and collaborator royalties.
The firm also represents the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and regularly resolves business disputes between artists and their managers, agents and others.
Our passion for the theater extends to our volunteer work. A number of our attorneys serve on the boards of non-profit theaters throughout the country and provide pro bono legal services to several of them.
