Be Our Guest with James A Rocco

Musical Theatre Radio presents "Be Our Guest"

JAMES A. ROCCO is the visionary CEO of Thirty Saints Productions, creators of the Songbook Series and Broadway Songbook®. Thirty Saints Productions is a dynamic and innovative company that excels in creating original theatrical works for a diverse range of venues across the globe. In 2022, the company expanded its horizons, venturing into negotiating, consulting, and acquiring music licenses for popular jukebox musicals, solidifying its position as an industry leaders.

With Broadway Asia, Thirty Saints toured Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat® to Tokyo and led the artistic team for the US Air Force's 9/11 tribute video, There Are No Words, seen by millions of viewers. Thirty Saints is an investor in the current Broadway, National Tour, and Toronto productions of Come from Away and Magic Mike in London.

From 2005-2017, Rocco was the VP of Programming and Producing Artistic Director of Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, where he presented and booked the best of touring Broadway (August, Osage County, An American In Paris, Kinky Boots, Les Misérables) and produced or co-produced award-winning theatricals (In The Heights, Love, Janis, Cabaret, West Side Story.) As the Ordway's representative and member of the Broadway League and the IPN (Independent Producer's Network), he was a producing partner and investor in Fun Home, Legally Blonde, The Color Purple, Monty Python's Spamalot, and others, as well as serving on the IPN's Governance Committee.

In 2019, he was recognized by The Broadway League and The Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds for "30 years of dedication, craft, and contribution to the theater" at their annual Broadway Salutes ceremony.

A longtime member of NAMT (National Alliance for Musical Theatre), he served on the Alliance's New Works committee. Rocco commissioned the holiday musical A Country Christmas Carol and was part of the creative teams behind the off-Broadway cult hits Nite Club Confidential and Hooked on the 70s. His re-versioned stage production of Singin' in the Rain has been seen worldwide. Rocco was Producing Artistic Director of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and Interim Artistic Director of Stage One, a theatre dedicated to new musical development.

On Video, he was the Executive Producer and Co-Director of the Regional Emmy Nominated Documentary, The World We Create, and directed the television musical, Born of A Dream. For Mitsubishi/ArtSphere, he created the stage and television spectacular Galaxy Express 999.

Rocco's theatrical career started at three years old, as the youngest member of the (Art) Linkletter Totten Tots! He appeared in Oliver! with Ray Walston and Jules Munschin; Carousel as Enoch Snow Jr, with John Raitt; and as Sheppard in Sidney Lumet & David Merrick's Paramount motion picture thriller, Child's Play.

James directed and produced his first show in New York at 16 (Henry, Sweet Henry, at the Mercer Arts Center and the Lamb Theatre). As a performer, he appeared in the original Broadway production of Cats(as the Rum Tum Tugger), the International and TV Ashai Productions of Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies; sang back up for Frank Sinatra and was featured singer for Herbie Hancock and the Super Sounds. He played Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, The Witch in Into The Woods, appears on 10 Ben Bagley albums, and his CD, It's Between Us, produced the FMQB Top 40 hit, And The Night Stood Stillby Diane Warren. In 2021, Broadway World Minneapolis cited him as Vocalist of the Decade.