Critics also charged that Drabinsky failed to live up to his pledge of bringing a disciplined style of corporate management to Broadway. In reality, Drabinsky was anything but disciplined in managing Livent’s finances. Because he demanded that the company’s live productions be motion-picture perfect, most of Livent’s shows,particularly those that were box-office successes, incurred huge cost overruns. By 1998, Livent was buckling under the huge load of debt Drabinsky had incurred to finance the company’s lavish productions. In early 1998, Roy Furman, a Wall Street investment banker and close friend, persuaded Drabinsky to accept a $20 million investment from former Disney executive Michael Ovitz to alleviate Livent’s financial problems. A condition of Ovitz investment was that he be granted sufficient common stock voting rights to allow him to control the company’s board of directors.