Youth Ascendent
It’s official: Jordan Roth will succeed Rocco Landesman as President of Jujamcyn Theaters. Jordan is now one of the three most important producers on Broadway, joining Shubert’s Philip J. Smith and Nederlander’s James M. Nederlander. The difference is that those guys are 78 and 87 years old respectively; Jordan is 33.
Jordan’s just a few months older than I am, and we both started out as brash 23-year-old impresarios in downtown NYC. I remember being impressed with his first big hit: The Donkey Show, a disco-themed adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was the kind of work I aspired to produce - artistically ambitious yet accessible enough for commercial viability. It also was a show that could only have been produced by someone from my generation.
It’s hard not to see Jordan’s ascension as a symbolic, torch-passing event. At the risk of offending my Baby Boomer colleagues, let’s hope it’s the beginning of a trend!
My generation has been much maligned, but I have great confidence in what our leadership can bring to the cultural sector. Most significantly, you can count on us to tear down countless walls that once served a purpose but now only serve to fragment and factionalize: “high” and “low” art, commercial and non-profit, tradition and innovation. (The Donkey Show is actually a pretty good metaphor.)
Of course there’s still much we can learn from those who’ve come before. But we also don’t need any 61-year-old princes, twiddling their thumbs and going gray while they wait for their chance to rule.
Tags: Jordan Roth, Jujamcyn, Rocco Landesman, youth
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