NME Festivals
The NME Guide
OK it's not exactly a 'reckless purchase', more a bad investment, but Paul Simon lost $3 million of his own money when he produced a musical called The Capeman in 1998. It's no surprise it flopped, the subject matter was hardly 'bums on seats': it was a play about a Puerto Rican teen who stabbed two white kids in 1959.