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.

Traveling today!

On my way to the Missouri Thespian Conference today. Hope to learn something and hopefully share a little too. More to come once I have landed in St. Louis.

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.

Ask My Friends - Where Would You Work

Again with the Wednesday series “Ask My Friends.” My friend didn't get his post in on time so I thought I would repost our most popular, "Ask My Friends." This week we go back to my friend Clayton Smith's posting. Clayton is a young and upcoming theatre professional. He received his Journalism degree from University of Missouri, Columbia and is currently getting his Masters in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management from Columbia College Chicago. He is a very bright and really talented writer and marketer. I asked, “If you could work for any theatre in the country after graduate school, what theatre would you choose, and why?”

"Let’s face it; there is a correct answer to this question, and it is “In this economy?! I’ll take what I can get!” But hey, I’m an optimist, and I like to think that in one year, when I strap on my new Master of Arts Management degree, the theatre world will be my oyster. My cautious, just-off-a-hiring-freeze, “please God don’t let that happen to us again” oyster.

(Optimism ain’t what it used to be.)

If I could work anywhere in the world after graduation, it would be…are you ready for this?…St. Louis. Not theatre capital New York, not arts-heavy Chicago, not beautiful, brilliant, captor of my heart Vegas…St. Louis. And not only that, but I’d work for the St. Louis Rep. The REP, for God’s sake, when I could choose any theatre in the country.

Before you decide that life dreams also aren’t what they used to be, bear with me a second.

If you’re not familiar with St. Louis, you’re at least familiar with a city like it…a sizeable metro area with a lot to offer, but still struggling to find a solid identity. The city has been through a lot of changes in the last decade, and one of the most significant is the push for more arts. Independent theatres have sprung up like mushrooms, but they’re struggling. Like so many independent theatres, they produce art for art’s sake, and the would-be patrons, the ones who want to see quality shows selected for them as part of a target market, are being left behind.

On the other hand, St. Louis has the Fabulous Fox Theatre, an enormous, gorgeous Broadway touring house, the theatre that understands the commercial nature of the arts business and attracts crowds because its offerings are safe and familiar.

Then, in the middle, we have the St. Louis Repertory Theatre. Under the direction of artistic genius Steven Woolf, the Rep has managed to bridge the gap between the listless indies and the commercial monolith, offering line-ups that are just this side of mainstream, but doing so with so much talent and solid focus that even the art-wary citizens of the St. Louis area pack the house time and time again. In a city still trying to boost its artistic reputation, the St. Louis Rep is a bright red flag that screams, “Yes, by God, we are here, and we are quality!” It’s an accomplishment you gotta respect.

And that’s what’s important for me. I’m sure I could get a job at other theatres that would pay much better, and who knows, maybe I will…but nothing can replace the idea of working in a theatre that does high quality work to a public that is sometimes ungrateful or, at best, not understanding, a theatre that works diligently and tirelessly because the people there know that there is value in the work they are doing and believe that, with their help, the entire city can be so much more.

Great work with high ideals; sounds like quite the pearl to me."

Safe is Risky

Today I was watching TED, and Seth Godin, a marketing genius, said, "Safe is risky." One of his books, The Purple Cow, discusses how to make businesses stand out, how to do something different. We need to do this in theatre, too. We need to come up with some outside of the box ideas to market our shows (and maybe even to use to create our shows).

One of my crazy ideas is to do a show with monkeys. Yes, you read that correctly, a show with monkeys. You are thinking "WTF," right? Well, here is the idea. You take a straight play and train (or block) monkeys to walk around in costumes. Have people do the voice overs and watch a play performed. Now you are thinking, "How did he get here?" Well, I was thinking of some really untraditional casting. I thought, "How far could I go?" Then I went there. Monkeys.

Now you are starting to imagine plays being performed by monkeys. Yes, you are buying into the idea. Now for the title of the play . . . Inherit the Wind. Yes, I realize all the legal problems with doing this, but think of the potential. You get families that just want to see monkeys and some people who just want to see it for the sake of classical art.

I am sure there were a lot of people scared about the Muny in St. Louis using a real helicopter in Miss Saigon, but by doing that they did something risky and got a lot of attention, and I still talk about the performance of Miss Saigon I saw with a real helicopter.

The point is to think outside the box. Don’t be afraid to go too far. Your friends and colleagues can always bring you back in. But push yourself and see where you land.