Garth Drabinsky, Broadway’s real-life Max Bialystock, is hanging around the stage door again.

Out on parole after serving three years in a Canadian clink for fraud and forgery in connection with the stunning collapse of his theatrical empire Livent, the Toronto-based impresario is making plans for a stage musical based on “Madame Sousatzka,” the Shirley MacLaine movie he produced in 1988.

I’m told he’s even gone so far as to book Toronto’s historic Elgin Theatre for the production.

My advice to the owners of the Elgin: Get the deposit in cash!

He’s also approached his old friend Richard Maltby Jr. about adapting the movie for the stage.

My advice to Maltby: Get your advance in cash!

Maltby conceived and staged “Fosse,” a revue of Bob Fosse dances, for Drabinsky in 1999. It won the Tony for Best Musical, but Drabinsky wasn’t around to collect the prize. He was on the lam in Toronto after being indicted in New York for misappropriating millions of dollars and cooking Livent’s books to hide enormous losses. As they sing in “The Producers”:

Prisoners of love, blue skies above. . .

I’m sure Drabinsky would love to have the marquee read, “Garth Drabinsky presents ‘Madame Sousatzka,” But given his penchant for bilking investors and keeping two sets of books, his name above the title of anything might be an impediment to raising money. And so, with some “associates” (for lack of a better word), he’s producing the show under the umbrella of a Canadian-based entertainment company called StageVentures.

Formed by Bernard Abrams, Stage Ventures has invested in the Broadway shows “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (hit), “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” (commercial flop, but not an embarrassing one), “Bonnie & Clyde” (flop, pure and simple) and “Wonderland” (disaster).

I’d love to know why StageVentures wants to partner up with Drabinsky, but Abrams didn’t return a voicemail message. Nor could I reach Drabinsky — or, as I like to call him, Prisoner 24601. Perhaps he was out doing community service?

Can’t keep our hearts in jail!

His criminal record notwithstanding, you really have to admire Drabinsky. The man is the Lazarus of Broadway, forever rising from the dead. Many thought he was down and out after he bankrupted his mighty Cineplex Odeon movie-theater chain in the 1980s. But he emerged from the tomb with the Toronto production of “The Phantom of the Opera,” from which he built Livent.

And he has his champions, especially among artists, whom he treated well and paid handsomely. Elaine Stritch told me that, when she was in Drabinsky’s “Show Boat” on Broadway 20 years ago, he paid her $10,000 a week to sing one song.

A couple of years ago, I was at the premiere of “Show Stopper,” filmmaker Barry Avrich’s riveting documentary about Drabinsky’s rise and fall. I was interviewed for the movie, and at one point I popped up on-screen. Snickering, I said I was sure Drabinsky had figured out a way to scam the prison cafeteria. Somebody whacked me on the head. I turned around and it was . . . Chita Rivera, who starred in Livent’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

Drabinsky has one hurdle to overcome: the Ontario Securities Commission, which, sources say, is trying to ban him from ever attempting to raise money again.

Why do I think he’s going to sail right over the OSC?

You can lock us up and lose the key,

But hearts in love are always free.

As Max Bialystock says: “Next stop, Broadway!”