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.

Catch Up WithThese People

Recently my favorite Director / Choreographer team joined up for a new production, Catch Me If You Can. It is a musical adaption of the movie that started Tom Hanks.

Who is that team? Jack O'Brien and Jerry Mitchell. I was thinking back to why they are my favorite, and when I first started to follow them. I actually learned about them from a report I had to write about them in college. Yes, it was just a one-page summary on each of them, but it made me learn who they are and taught me a lesson about how important it is to know people before you “know” them.


Peter Sargent made us write those one-page reports in Lighting Design class. We were assigned people in whom I assumed we might have interest one day. Well, I can’t tell you how many times Jack and Jerry (I say that like we are friends0 have come up in conversations over the years.


Knowing people in the business is so important. I always ask how many students know who Cameron Mackintosh is when I teach at the Missouri State Thespian Conference. I have learned to not be shocked when no one raises a hand.


I encourage you all to poke around the Internet Broadway Database and learn the names of the greats and see what they have worked on. It will make you a better student of our business.