Drodzy Moi, 

wspominałem Wam kiedyś o tej sprawie, ale dopiero wczoraj znalazłem wywiad z Kubiakiem, zamieszczony
12 kwietnia, 1992 roku, w NY Timesie. 

W połowie 1992 roku do Nowego Jorku zawitał pierwszy, polski musical typu Broadway. Chciałem ponownie zobaczyć ten sympatyczny show, ale nie zdążyłem przed jego klęską. 

12 kwietnia  tegoż roku  NYTimes zamieścił artykuł Stephen Engelberg "Free-Market Capitalism, Applied to the Stage"  kreślący sylwetkę producenta show'u Kubiaka. Odnalazłszy w szufladzie tamten tekst z NYTimes'a postanowiłem przesłać go Wam w całości. Tekst ten ma - moim zdaniem - urok powstawania nowego w starych, spruchniałych ramach, których nikt nie chce naprawić, bo albo nie wie że tak trzeba, albo nie jest mu to po drodze:  

By STEPHEN ENGELBERG, WARSAW
  
       - The producer of "Metro," the first Polish musical to reach Broadway, Mr. Kubiak is a Runyonesque character who could only have prospered in the let's- make-a-deal capitalism of Eastern Europe. 

       From his 18th-floor office in the Marriott Hotel, Mr. Kubiak looks upon a Warsaw dotted with his properties and well-connected friends. He owns a newspaper and runs four theaters, two of the city's best cinemas and a chain of bookstores. He is also earning a reputation as a political kingmaker. A major financial backer of the Liberal Democratic Party, which held power in Poland through most of 1991, he says he helped underwrite President Lech Walesa's 1990 campaign. Lately, he has been forging links to the new coalition Government headed by Prime Minister Jan Olszewski. -
                                                              
       Jak widzsz swą opowieść autor zaczyna parafraza pierwszego zdania  wielu baśni "za górami za lasami żył sobie..."

       ...a na pewno nie bylo to TU!, u NAS!. 

       - Mr. Kubiak proudly boats that his $5 million in "Metro" which opens Thursday at Minskoff Theater makes him the first businessman from Eastern Europe to sink money into America.

      This like opening a big factory in the middle of Manhattan, "he says. Peering throgh half-closed eyes, his face framed by an unruly shock of longish hair, Mr. Kubiak speaks in rapid-fire patter of dreams for leaving his mark on Broadway and his native land.

       "I want to be the Cameron Mackintosh of Poland," Mr. Kubiak said of the producer of "Miss Saigon" and other highly profitable musicals. "Everyone thinks that culture loses money, but I was the first in Poland to realize that culture can make money. There's no business like show business."  

       "Metro" is his first stage vehicle. Its cast was recruited nearly two years ago from talent shows throughout Poland. The young performers, mostly amateurs, were trained for months by Janusz Jozefowicz, an actor and choreographer who is the show's director. Since opening a year ago in Warsaw, "Metro" has been playing regularly to soldout houses, and while the original cast learned an English-language version for New York, a second group was prepared to continue performances in Warsaw.

       The show is often described as a cross between "A Chorus Line"  and "Hair." It tells the story of a group of young people who try a musical, are rebuffed and then organize their own production in a subway. Whett their musical becomes a success, they must decide whether to sell out to commercial interests and transfer it to a theater or stay underground.

       Little is drawn from Polish experience; Warsaw doesn't have A subway. The score, by Janusz Stoklosa, echoes standard pop more than traditional Polish melodies. Mr. Kubiak insists that the themes reflect the concerns of newly capitalist Eastern Europe, even if the esthetic does not. - 

       I o to chodzi, my nie jacy tacy, my tez mamy naszą Hameryke ze "złotymi klamkami". 

       - The musical was conceived in characteristically impulsive fashion. Mr. Kubiak was im Poland on business in 1986 and saw a television production showcasing Mr. Jozefowicz's work. Two' months later, they met and, formed the friendship and partnership thac eventually led to "Metro."

       The 47-year-old Mr. Kubiak was born near the town of Brest-Litovsk. His Jewish parents survived World War II with false papers that said they were gentiles. As a result, they were sent to a Nazi-run slave labor camp instead of a concentration camp.

       Mr. Kubiak, who grew up in Warsaw, says he was exiled from Poland in 1968 after participating in student unrest at Warsaw University. Hundreds of thousands of Jews left that year in the face of a Government sponsored anti-Semitic campaign. Mr. Kubiak, whose return was banned until the mid80's, went to Sweden as a refugee and completed his education. Immediately after graduating, he entered business for himself, selling Western machine tools to Poland in the boom 1970's, when the country was flush with borrowed Western money. He also developed sidelines in exporting Polish timber and arranging loans for state-run Polish companies.

       Although the timber business was controlled by the state, Mr. Kubiak said he persuaded some officials to mislabel the best wood and sell it him as if it were of low quality." You had to find out how to cheat the bureaucrats, he recalled. "That was the whole war".  -

       Jakbym czytał Erenburga; wspaniałe rozmnożenie. Zastanawiam się jak możliwe było nie dostrzec faktu, że Mr. Kubiak otwiera fortkę prowadzącą prosto do dowodów o popełnieniu przestępstwa. O ile pamiętam w tamtym czasie w kraju nikt się nad tym nie zastanawiał, a tego typu myślenie budowało mit autora wypowiedzianej "mysli, nie mysli".  Pamiętam zabawne gadanie świetnego Kisiela i jego pomniejszych na tematy różne, pamiętam pełną męki twarz pierwszego premiera nie mogącego z siebie wydusić prostej prośby przed kamerami amerykańskiej telewizji, nadal widzę "piłkę nożną"  kopaną krótkimi nogami krótkiego szefa drugiego gabinetu. Każde odstępstwo od prawa obwarunkowane było u nas zawsze klauzulą
"dla dobra kraju".

I wszyscy tańczyli w zgiełku "szczęścia w dobrobycie", dla dobra kraju.

       - Poland's transition to a market economy bas only expanded his opportunities. In one deal, he took advantage of tax holidays Poland offered to foreign joint ventures. Just before the deadline for setting up these ventures expired last year, he registered 100 shell companies, which he is now offering for sale at a handsomeprofit.

       "What can I do," he said when asked about criticism of the deal. "I am a player. They wrote the law. I did what 
I did."

       Mr. Kubiak is among the first of Poland's new generation of entrepreneurs to undertrolled by the state, Mr. Kubiak said he stand the powerful nexus between politics and money. From the beginning, he was a strong supporter of the Liberal Party, which preaches free-market principles.

       Last year, Mr. Kubiak donated office space in Warsaw's Marriott Hotel to the Liberals. During this period, a leader of the party, Privatization Minister, Janusz Lewandowski, named him special negotiator in the sale of a state-run television tube factory. Mr. Kubiak said he netted $250,000 for his role in saving the $35 million deal.

       As the Liberals' political star waned, Mr. Kubiak cultivated other alliances. He contributed money to a foundation that paid the salaries and office expenses of the Civic Committee, a political group then headed by Mr. Olszewski, After the fall elections, Mr. Olszweski emerged as Prime Minister.

       Mr. Kubiak's business gambits are frequently a topic of conversation among foreign consultants in Warsaw and have been the focus of critical articles in newspapers that oppose the Liberals. But for all of Mr. Kubiak's prominence in Poland as a business and Political figure, it is "Metro" that could put him on the world map., He shows a visitor an article in an American theater magazine that quotes him as saying: "We realized that if we are a hit, we won't just be on Broadway, we'll be Broadway, We'll be changing it. People will come to us for ideas." Mr. Kubiak says: "You call that chutzpah? Without chutzpah you can't get anywhere." - 

       Zastanawiam sie dlaczego w tamtym czasie nikt nie przedrukował w kraju tego artykułu? Rozumiem, że przed komercyjną klęską spektaklu na Broadway'u wielu ludzi w Polsce nie chciało się chwalić "przyszłym sukcesem rodaka w Hameryce",  wolało poczekać aż mu się noga powinie.

Nie rozumiem jednak dlaczego po szybkiej klęsce przedsiewzięcia nikt się nie zainteresował faktami podanymi z 18 pietra warszawskiego Marriotta.Dziennikarze, politycy, prawnicy i  awanturnicy nabrali wody w usta.

Dlaczego? 

Wy byliście w kraju, może mi więc wyjaśnicie w czym rzecz? Wtedy zapewne będziecie mieli rację mówiąc że "irytuje" Was gdy "polonusy" zabierają głos na temat tego co? i jak! w kraju. 

Sciska, Wasz...

JA