Rocco Landesman
Appearances
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
I thought, and still do, think that Roger Miller is the greatest songwriter in American history.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
I said, I'd like you to write a Broadway musical. He basically didn't know what I was talking about. Not only had he never written a Broadway musical, he'd never seen one. So he kind of pawned me off into his wife, Mary. And she said, well, write a letter. I wrote him a letter and didn't get a reply. And your credentials as a producer at this point were what? Basically nil.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
I had been a professor at the Yale School of Drama for a number of years. I had no producing credential of any kind. My credibility was zilch. So I read a letter and don't get a reply. I read another letter and don't get a reply. I read another one and months go by and nothing's happening. I keep writing.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
And finally, I got a note call actually from one of his managers who said, you seem to be pretty insistent about this and pretty serious. Why don't you meet with Roger and tell him what you have in mind?
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
It was one of the thrills of my life to be backstage with Roger Miller with his guitar and singing his songs. He didn't remember the lyrics to all of the songs, but I knew them all. So whenever he would come to a point where he couldn't remember a line, I knew it. And he said, so what's this about a musical? How does that work? I said, well, you have a book and you have a score.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
Someone writes the story and you have music and lyrics and you're going to do the music and lyrics. And he says, but there's a book, right? I said, yeah. He says, well, get me the book.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
There wasn't anything. That's the show that I'll always love the most. It's like your first child. It's special to me. And it was also a show that I created. I came up with the idea. I put the whole team together. And luckily, it worked. It was a hit. It won seven Tony Awards and Best Musical and ran over a thousand performances. I wouldn't have a career if it weren't for that show.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
It's a terrible investment, the Broadway theater. It's about like horse racing. I've owned racehorses and I've owned theaters and I've produced Broadway shows. 15 to 20% of the shows that are put on Broadway earn their money back. And it's the same with racehorses. 15 to 20% of the racehorses that race at the tracks earn their oats.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
Okay, so with such a terrible ROI for Broadway production... Why do people invest? They can't help themselves.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
There's been theater since the beginning of man, really. What is theater? What is going to theater and being in a theater? What is it? What happens? What transpires at that moment? It's the same as the oldest human endeavor of all, which is gossip. Theater is gossip. This is a crazy idea, I know, except that it's true. What do you do when you go to the theater? You overhear conversations.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
The problem is that it's very, very expensive. There's no economy of scale. And there's no economy of mechanization. It's handmade, live every night.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
It's staged, but people are talking to each other and you're listening to them. You're making assessments about their moral character, about their intentions, about what's going to happen. This guy's not trustworthy. She's ambitious and is concealing it. He's got designs on this.
Freakonomics Radio
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
There's nothing more human and more basic to what human beings do than observing people interact and talking about it among themselves, gossiping. So theater is the most fundamental art of all. That is Rocco Landesman.