The Superior Court authorized the rapid sale of the musical on Friday Waitress, produced by Just for Laughs, which would ensure the show could take place this summer in Montreal and Quebec.
• Read also: Bankruptcy of Just for Laughs: ComediHa! resumes production of Waitress
Immediately, the ComediHa! group, from Quebec, announced in a press release that it was the buyer in question. “Quebec greatly needs this great solidarity between producers, artists, artisans, broadcasters and stakeholders in the cultural and tourist sectors,” declared its CEO, Sylvain Parent-Bédard.
According to information released to the court, the production will be transferred to him free of charge, in exchange for a commitment from the latter to take over all of the producer’s operations, interrupted when Just for Laughs had recourse to the Bankruptcy and insolvency on March 5.
- Listen to the interview with Sylvain Parent-Bédard, president and founder of ComediHa!, via QUB:
Before judge David R. Collier, the executive president and chief financial officer of Just for Laughs, Alain Boucher, explained that the group had already invested $200,000 in the preparation of this show and that $400,000 in tickets had already been sold.
The buyer will not receive a dollar of these revenues ($400,000) – which would have already been spent for other purposes by Just for Laughs, we learned – but will receive future revenues that the production could earn before the expiration of its production license this fall.
Leaving the court, the new CEO Alain Boucher flatly refused to grant us an interview, claiming to have “no comments” to make, fleeing immediately, accompanied by his advisors.