What Goes Around

Karma's a bitch.

September 12, 2007 -- A state-of-the-art off-Broadway theater owned and operated by two of Broadway's top producers is riddled with debt and faces possible foreclosure and bankruptcy, The Post has learned.
The theater - 37 Arts, recently home to "In the Heights" - was supposed to revolutionize off-Broadway when it opened to much fanfare in 2005.
It was built by Jeffrey Seller and Kevin McCollum, the whiz kids behind "Rent" and "Avenue Q" and - when they're not quite so whizzy - last season's $10 million dud, "High Fidelity."
But the disaster that's 37 Arts is starting to make even "High Fidelity" seem like a sound investment.
According to documents obtained by The Post, the producers, along with their partner, Alan Schuster, have been hit with potentially crippling liens totaling nearly $20 million.

But several sources say the situation is much nastier and more perilous than McCollum is letting on. For one thing, he and Sellers are said to be at war with Schuster, a longtime off-Broadway theater owner.

Privately, they blame him for the debacle.

"They've had screaming matches with him," a source says, adding, "They're trying to figure out how to get rid of him."

Another source recalls attending a meeting at a makeshift office in the theater during which McCollum "ripped into Schuster."

Schuster, the sources add, is threatening to take the theater into bankruptcy.

He didn't return a call seeking comment. But he has resigned from the day-to-day running of the theater.

McCollum says Schuster will concentrate on the legal proceedings "full time."