All the world’s a stage, and those who teach the players want to get paid.
A famed British voice coach who caters to A-listers like Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman claims she’s delivered big revenue for a Manhattan studio — which failed to pay her share of the profits, then plunged a dagger into her Hollywood reputation.
Patsy Rodenburg, a “world-renowned” teacher who was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth and once worked with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company, says she’s generated “at least” $1.3 million in revenue for Michael Howard Studios since 2018— but has barely seen a dime in her own pocket, according to a lawsuit.
She was supposed to get 50 percent of the income for “all programming” she participated in, Rodenburg said in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit against the studio and its owner, Gabrielle Berberich.
Rodenburg first began working at the West 25th Street studio in 2015, establishing The Patsy Rodenburg Center for Voice and Speech and eventually developing a three-year master voice teacher program there offering to certify students as “Rodenburg Registered Teachers.”
But she questioned where her pay was, and quit the studio in December, only to have Berberich allegedly paint her as having “unbridled greed and indifference to her students,” Rodenburg charged in court papers.
Berberich told students Rodenburg had gotten her money, a claim which ruined the coach’s reputation, she argued.
“Ms. Rodenburg was paid nothing, even though contractually she was entitled to half of the studio’s income from her course,” she said in the litigation, which seeks unspecified damages.