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The news that Broadway producer Rocco Landesman has been nominated to become the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts brought to mind Landesman’s history in off-Loop theater. Back in 1994, Landesman’s Jujamcyn Theaters operation joined forces with erstwhile Chicago producer Bob Perkins to acquire the Royal George Theatre across the street from Steppenwolf. As then-Reader columnist Lewis Lazare reported, Landesman and Perkins envisioned the Royal George as “a busy venue for new work, commercial revivals, and the more challenging Broadway transfers.” The new regime made a splash with the Chicago premiere of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. (Asked by the New York Times to comment on Landesman’s nomination, Kushner proclaimed, “‘It’s potentially the best news the arts community in the United States has had since the birth of Walt Whitman.’”)
