They are charged with two counts of fraud and one count of forgery. Their trial began Monday in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto.

The two co-founded Livent, one of the major Broadway theater companies in the 1990s, that produced hit shows such as "Ragtime" and "Showboat."

Prosecutor Robert Hubbard said he will call seven former Livent employees to testify that their former bosses falsified financial statements and had their accounting software modified to inflate income.

In one case, the pair took a kickback from an engineer for work he did not do, prosecutors say.

Authorities allege that the manipulation of the books helped to build $100 million shareholder value that was lost when the fraud was revealed after a new management team headed by former Walt Disney Co. President Michael Ovitz discovered the irregularities.

Drabinsky and Gottlieb were fired and Livent filed for bankruptcy protection in 1998.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission called it a "pervasive eight-year fraudulent accounting scheme."

The two are also charged in the U.S but they've fought extradition and that case remains on hold.

Livent owned or controlled theaters in New York, Chicago, Toronto and Vancouver. Its other productions included "Barrymore," "Phantom of the Opera," and "Fosse."

Its Broadway productions have won numerous Tony Awards.