Jamie Rocco
Encyclopedia
James Rocco http://jamesrocco.com/ is currently the Vice President and Producing Artistic Director at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
http://www.ordway.org/ and is responsible for producing, presenting and booking theatrical rogramming on the Main Stage and the adjacent McKnight Theatre. He is a member of The Broadway League http://www.broadwayleague.com, Elephant Eye Theatricals http://www.elephanteye.com/press.php, Five Cent Productions http://www.fivecentproductions.com/Home.html and the Independent Producers' Network http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/whoswho/biography/15853.html, where he has participated as a producing partner on Legally Blonde
, The Color Purple
, Curtains
and Edward Scissorhands
.
His new CD "It's Between Us" is available at amazon.com, CD Baby, and ITunes.
-nominated documentary, The World We Create and directed the television and video Musical, Born of a Dream.
/ArtSphere http://www.artsphere.org/, he created the stage and television spectacular, Galaxy Express 999
. Based on the popular manga
, which features a train that flies through outer space, the show played a successful run in Tokyo followed by a televised broadcast
to millions of viewers throughout Japan.
of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma http://www.lyrictheatreokc.com/, where he initiated and assisted in a three-year re-organization plan for Lyric's financial recovery and in planning a move to larger and more prominent facility. While at Lyric he produced Broadway Sings for the Heartland, the first benefit to support victims of the Oklahoma City bombing
. Broadway Sings starred Ed Harris
, Sandy Duncan
, Ben Vereen
and 100 theatre stars from across the United States.
to organizations including The University of Central Florida
(Dr. Roberta Sloan, Dean) and the US Air Force
(Retired General John Brooks.) He advised in all aspects of long-range planning, budgeting, marketing, producing and shepherded the Air Force extravaganza Born of A Dream, from conception to the Kodak Theatre
in Los Angeles and later to DVD
.
's Henry, Sweet Henry) at The Lambs Theatre. He has since worked at the finest venues around the world e.g. Carnegie Hall
, The Kennedy Center, Art Sphere Tokyo, Nissay Theatre
Tokyo, Nakano Sun Plaza
, Théâtre du Châtelet
, The 5th Avenue, The Houston Grand Opera
, The National Theatre
in both theatricals and concerts with the likes of Ed Harris
, Roseanne, Eartha Kitt
, Mickey Rooney
, Barbara Cook
, Herbie Hancock
, The Duke Ellington
Band, Dee Dee Bridgewater
and many others. Some additional credits include: Broadway: The Wizard of Oz
(Musical Staging and Choreography), Cats
(playing Rum Tum Tugger
); Jesus Christ Superstar
(playing Judas
), White Christmas
, Yankee Doodle (world premiere), What A Glorious Feeling (world premiere), The Bad Seed
, As Bees In Honey Drown
, A Little Night Music
, Smokey Joe's Cafe
(multiple awards) Guys & Dolls (multiple awards), The Rocky Horror Show
, On The Town, Violet
, and 50 more. Rocco has also appeared in films, including 1972's Child's Play
, based on the Tony Award winning play of the same name.
Band and Herbie Hancock
and can be heard on numerous recordings including as a background vocalist on the Frank Sinatra album "Watertown
".
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is located in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota and hosts a variety of performing arts, such as touring Broadway musicals, orchestra, opera, and cultural performers. It serves as a home to several local arts organizations, including the Minnesota Opera, The Saint...
http://www.ordway.org/ and is responsible for producing, presenting and booking theatrical rogramming on the Main Stage and the adjacent McKnight Theatre. He is a member of The Broadway League http://www.broadwayleague.com, Elephant Eye Theatricals http://www.elephanteye.com/press.php, Five Cent Productions http://www.fivecentproductions.com/Home.html and the Independent Producers' Network http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/whoswho/biography/15853.html, where he has participated as a producing partner on Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde (musical)
Legally Blonde is a musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin and book by Heather Hach. The story is based on the novel Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown and the 2001 film of the same name. It tells the story of Elle Woods, a sorority girl who enrolls at Harvard Law School to...
, The Color Purple
The Color Purple (musical)
The Color Purple is a Broadway musical based upon the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It features music and lyrics written by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, with a book by Marsha Norman. It ran on Broadway in 2005 and has been touring throughout the US...
, Curtains
Curtains (musical)
Curtains is a musical with a book by Rupert Holmes, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander, with additional lyrics by Kander and Holmes....
and Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
.
His new CD "It's Between Us" is available at amazon.com, CD Baby, and ITunes.
National Alliance for Musical Theatre
Rocco serves on the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's http://namt.org/ New Works committee and commissioned the holiday musical A Country Christmas Carol as well as participating in the creation of the off-Broadway cult hits Nite Club Confidential and Streakin'!Documentaries and television
Rocco was the Executive Producer and Co-Director of the Regional EmmyEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-nominated documentary, The World We Create and directed the television and video Musical, Born of a Dream.
Theatre in Tokyo
In Tokyo, for MitsubishiMitsubishi
The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
/ArtSphere http://www.artsphere.org/, he created the stage and television spectacular, Galaxy Express 999
Galaxy Express 999
is a manga written and drawn by Leiji Matsumoto, as well as various anime films and TV series based on it. It is set in a space-faring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer their minds into mechanical bodies, thus achieving practical immortality.The manga won the...
. Based on the popular manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, which features a train that flies through outer space, the show played a successful run in Tokyo followed by a televised broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
to millions of viewers throughout Japan.
The Lyric Theatre
Prior to arriving at Ordway Center, Rocco was Producing Artistic DirectorArtistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...
of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma http://www.lyrictheatreokc.com/, where he initiated and assisted in a three-year re-organization plan for Lyric's financial recovery and in planning a move to larger and more prominent facility. While at Lyric he produced Broadway Sings for the Heartland, the first benefit to support victims of the Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
. Broadway Sings starred Ed Harris
Ed Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
, Sandy Duncan
Sandy Duncan
Sandra Kay "Sandy" Duncan is an American singer, dancer and actress of stage and television, recognized through a blonde, pixie cut hairstyle and perky demeanor...
, Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.- Early years :...
and 100 theatre stars from across the United States.
Theatre consulting
From 2000 through 2005 Rocco worked extensively as a freelance consultantConsultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
to organizations including The University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as UCF, is a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida, United States...
(Dr. Roberta Sloan, Dean) and the US Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
(Retired General John Brooks.) He advised in all aspects of long-range planning, budgeting, marketing, producing and shepherded the Air Force extravaganza Born of A Dream, from conception to the Kodak Theatre
Kodak Theatre
The Kodak Theatre is a live theatre in the Hollywood and Highland shopping mall and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles...
in Los Angeles and later to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
History of shows
Rocco produced and directed his first show in NYC (a revival of Bob MerrillBob Merrill
Bob Merrill was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter.Merrill was born Henry Merrill Levan in Atlantic City, New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following a stint with the Army during World War II, he moved to Hollywood, where he worked as a...
's Henry, Sweet Henry) at The Lambs Theatre. He has since worked at the finest venues around the world e.g. Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, The Kennedy Center, Art Sphere Tokyo, Nissay Theatre
Nissay Theatre
The is a theatre in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Originally constructed in 1963, it has staged various program of musicals and operas....
Tokyo, Nakano Sun Plaza
Nakano Sun Plaza
is a hotel in Nakano, Tokyo. The hotel includes a concert hall, the Nakano Sun Plaza Hall.- Nakano Sun Plaza Hall :Built in 1973, this concert hall seats 2,222 people and attracts performers from around the world...
, Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet
The Théâtre du Châtelet is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.One of two theatres built on the site of a châtelet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and...
, The 5th Avenue, The Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
, The National Theatre
National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)
The National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C., and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....
in both theatricals and concerts with the likes of Ed Harris
Ed Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
, Roseanne, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
, Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, The Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
Band, Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...
and many others. Some additional credits include: Broadway: The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (adaptations)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, which has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland...
(Musical Staging and Choreography), Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
(playing Rum Tum Tugger
Rum Tum Tugger
Rum Tum Tugger is one of the many feline characters in the poetry book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, published in 1939, and in the musical Cats which was based on Eliot's book....
); Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
(playing Judas
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
), White Christmas
White Christmas
A white Christmas refers to the presence of snow on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere...
, Yankee Doodle (world premiere), What A Glorious Feeling (world premiere), The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed (play)
The Bad Seed was a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson adapted from the novel of that name by William March, and was in turn adapted by John Lee Mahin into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name directed by Mervyn Leroy. Staged by Reginald Denham, it opened...
, As Bees In Honey Drown
As Bees In Honey Drown
As Bees In Honey Drown is a satirical comedy by Douglas Carter Beane, an American playwright and screenwriter. The first showing of the play was in New York City in June, 1997. Four weeks later it moved to Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village, where it played for a year. It was also a...
, A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
, Smokey Joe's Cafe
Smokey Joe's Cafe
Smokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller...
(multiple awards) Guys & Dolls (multiple awards), The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
, On The Town, Violet
Violet (musical)
Violet is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Brian Crawley based on the short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts. It tells the story of a young disfigured woman who embarks on a journey by bus from her farm in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma...
, and 50 more. Rocco has also appeared in films, including 1972's Child's Play
Child's Play (1972 film)
Child's Play is a 1972 American drama-mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet. The screenplay by Leon Prochnik is based on the 1970 play of the same title by Robert Marasco. It has never been available on home video in the United States in any format....
, based on the Tony Award winning play of the same name.
Vocal history
In addition to numerous musical theatre performances, before becoming a full time producer/director, Rocco sang with The Duke EllingtonDuke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
Band and Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
and can be heard on numerous recordings including as a background vocalist on the Frank Sinatra album "Watertown
Watertown
-Places in the United States:*Watertown, California*Watertown, Connecticut*Watertown, Florida*Watertown, Massachusetts*Watertown, Michigan*Watertown Township, Clinton County, Michigan*Watertown Township, Tuscola County, Michigan...
".