People to Know - Rocco Landesman

Last weekend at the Missouri Thespian Conference a high school teacher was telling me a story of how she was one of the first high schools to get the rights to Les Miz. On obtaining the right she decided to right Cameron Mackintosh and he wrote back. She went on to talk about no matter how big you get don’t forget the little guy. Which brings me to my next person in the “People to Know” series, Rocco Landesman. As I said previously I wrote Mr. Landesman when he arrived in Washington DC and welcomed him and asked if he could meet with me. To my surprise he responded and we met last week.

Rocco was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri and after completing his undergrad he went to Yale to earn a doctorate in Dramatic Literature. He taught at Yale after completing his doctorate before going on to start and run a private investment firm. In 1987 he was appointed President of Jujamcyn which operates several Broadway Theaters. In 2005 he bought the company all while producing Broadway Shows.

He has produced Big River, Angles in America and The Producers just to name a few. In May of 2009 Barack Obama nominated Mr. Landesman to become the next Chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts to which he was appointed in August. His career has been a comprised of many commercial, philanthropic and pure artistic endeavors. He is known to be outspoken and very aggressive in his business. I can say from the few times I have talked to him and heard him speak that he is down to earth and very smart. I think we can look forward to having a new champion of the arts in a very powerful position.