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.

New Year’s Resolution / Tomorrow

I hope you all had a great holiday and happy New Year’s. Mine was exciting to say the least. Many life lessons learned that night that will be shared in later posts.

I have been slacking with the blog this last month so my first resolution for the new year is to be better about writing and writing in advance.

Other resolutions are to read more, (the classic) go to the gym more, volunteer more and produce something. I will update you on the progress throughout the year.

Tomorrow is an exciting day for me. I will be meeting (briefly) with NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. As I have said before I write letters to people when I know they are new to the DC area. That is how I got a meeting with Broadway Producer and new Managing Director of Arena Stage, Edgar Dobie. But I also write them to any employee that I know to be new hoping to always expand my network and build relationships. Not long after Chairman Landesman moved to DC I wrote him a letter welcoming him to the area and let him know how excited I was for him to be in DC. After thinking I wouldn’t hear from him, which is what I expected, I got a call from his office. Well, tomorrow I am having that meeting. I have no idea what we will discuss but I look forward to it. Some people look up to basketball stars, I look up to Broadway Producers.

People to Know - David Merrick

David Merrick, whom I actually have heard of because he is a famous producer (but I didn’t really know more than his name), used to be plastered all over the Great White Way. But there was much I didn’t know, like the fact he is from St. Louis. Hmm. Rocco Landesman, David Merrick . . . Jared Neff. I digress. He was born in St. Louis and attended Washington University and then studied law at Saint Louis University.

Merrick was famous for his publicity stunts. When I was given the assignment I was told of the story where Merrick got seven people to come see his show Subways Are For Sleeping and give him quotes about how much they loved it. The seven people had the same names as the seven most well know reviewers in New York City. 7 Out of 7 Are Ecstatically Unanimous About Subways Are For Sleeping the full page ad read. The ad actually helped the musical stay open for about 6 months, and it turned out he actually had the idea for the stunt years earlier but could never find someone with the name Brooks Atkinson, so he had to wait until Atkinson retired from the New York Times to carry out the stunt.

When director Gower Champion, the original director of 42nd Street, died on the morning of August 25th, 1980, Merrick, who produced the show, kept his death a secret to everyone involved in the production and the press so that he could announce it later that night at the curtain call of the opening night performance.

Although Merrick was known to be extremely hard to work with, he won 11 Tony Awards and often was the sole producer of his shows. Some his most famous shows were the original production of Gypsy with Ethel Merman and Hello Dolly with Carol Channing. He produced so many shows that he was often his own competition for the Tony Award. Merrick passed away in 2000 and leaves us with many great shows and even better stories.

A New Conversation on the Arts

Rocco Landesman was recently appointed as the Chairman of the NEA. Mr. Landesman spoke at my graduation of the 14 week Commercial Theatre Institute. He was impressive and I was grateful he was chosen to speak. He was different than most of the speakers at CTI because he didn’t tell stories about producing or give advice about getting into the business, but spoke about the Arts and how important they are. I think we are lucky to have Rocco in DC and I look forward to seeing what changes he can bring to the NEA. I posted his statement to America from the NEA website below.

“Hello, I am Rocco Landesman. I am honored to serve the country in my new role as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Endowment is dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.

We’re at an exciting time in our nation’s history. Now, more than ever, the arts matter in America. The arts are central to our nation’s civic, economic, and cultural vitality. The arts reflect who we are and what we stand for – freedom of expression, imagination, and vision.

Arts education is indispensible to raising America’s next generation of creative, innovative thinkers. We will continue to work with our partners to help bring quality arts programs to neighborhoods and communities across the country.

I look forward to a new conversation on the arts in America.

Thank you.”