Rocco Landesman

Rocco Landesman (born July 20, 1947) is a long-time Broadway theatre producer. He served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from August 2009 to December 2012. He is a part owner of Jujamcyn Theaters. Early life Landesman was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the nephew of writer, publisher and nightclub owner Jay Landesman and songwriter Fran Landesman. Rocco studied at Colby College and then the University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA English Literature 1969), and the Yale School of Drama (MFA Dramatic Literature and Criticism 1972, DFA 1976). At the Yale School of Drama, he became a protégé and friend of Robert Brustein. He also got to know novelist Jerzy Kosinski and worked with Kosinski on two of his novels, Being There and The Devil Tree. Landesman helped Kosinski, not a native speaker of English, with his English syntax and writing. While at Yale Landesman was also involved in managing a private mutual fund and a racehorse he had bought. Career After graduating from Yale, Landesman stayed there for four years as an Assistant Professor. In 1977, Landesman left to focus more time on his private investment fund, which he ran for many years. He also got involved in Broadway theater and was heavily involved in the genesis and development of Big River, a musical based on Huckleberry Finn. Landesman's involvement included persuading Roger Miller to write the music for the show. The show, which premiered on Broadway in 1985, ultimately won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ran for over 1,000 performances on Broadway over two and a half years. This success attracted the attention of James H. Binger who shared two passions with Landesman: Broadway theater and horseracing. Binger owned the Jujamcyn Theatre group of five theatres, four of which were then dark. Binger and Landesman made a deal for Landesman to become President of Jujamcyn in 1987 with the inclusion of an option for Landesman to purchase Jujamcyn upon Binger's death. After taking the helm at Jujamcyn he shifted its business model away from the historical focus of renting of theatre facilities to shows and into a more active posture as a combination of a theater owner and a developer of new plays. Other theater owners have followed this pattern. After joining Jujamcyn Landesman has produced Broadway shows, most notably Angels in America (1993 and 1994 Tony, Best Play) and The Producers (2001 Tony, Best Musical).