By early 1998, Livent owned five live production theaters in Canada and the United States, including a major Broadway theater in New York. The company's productions, mong them Fosse, Kiss of the Spider Woman. Ragtime, Show Boat, and The Phantom of the opera, had garnered a total of more than 20 Tony Awards. Show business insiders attributed Livent's rapid rise to prominence to Garth Drabinsky. After organizing Livent. Drabinsky quickly developed a keen sense of the types of shows that would appeal to the public. Even more important, he was able to identify and recruit talented directors, actors, set designers, and the array of other skilled Broadway shows. The single-minded and domineering Drabinsky micromanaged not only the creative realm of Livent's operations but every other major facet of the company's operations as well, although he relied heavily on his friend and confidant, Myron Gottlieb-who had an accounting background-to help him oversee the company's accounting and financial reporting functions.