THEATER : The Longshot Who Hit It Big Time : Rocco Landesman tossed the dice in 1985, hitting it big with ‘Big River’ and starting a long winning streak. His latest bet: ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe,’ which heads to Broadway after a successful turn in L.A.

It was early summer in 1987 and things were not going well for Jujamcyn Theaters. The smallest of Broadway’s three theater chains had more houses empty than full and losses were mounting.

“I thought,” says owner James Binger, “that our management could be improved.”

Binger had his eye on Rocco Landesman, a former Yale professor of dramatic literature and criticism whose first try at producing was the Tony-winning musical “Big River,” then playing at Binger’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre. So Binger placed a call to Robert Brustein, the scholar and critic who had hired Landesman at Yale, and asked his opinion about Landesman running Jujamcyn.

“I said Binger had to be prepared to lose some money for the first few years, because Rocco was going to be a gambler,” Brustein says today. “But ultimately his risks would pay off.”

Brustein was wrong about the wait. Landesman, 47, who had been running a mutual fund for friends and colleagues, managed to turn Jujamcyn around within the first year. Binger says the company has been profitable ever since.

“Big River” was just the start of Landesman’s winning streak. Since Landesman took over as president of Jujamcyn in September, 1987, the company has housed such shows as “M. Butterfly” and “Guys and Dolls,” “The Who’s Tommy” and “Angels in America.” And on many of them, Jujamcyn has been a producer as well as landlord.

Brustein was right, however, about the gambling. The bearded, red-haired Landesman may hold a doctorate from Yale School of Drama but he’s also an admitted habitue of New York’s Belmont racetrack, where he bets horses alongside people with names like Mr. Dirt and the Shah.

Broadway producing has about the same odds as horse racing, Landesman figures: “About 15% of shows and horses earn their keep.”

Landesman is now betting on “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” a lively revue of music by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Originated by Jujamcyn, it started at the company’s Royal George Theatre in Chicago, just closed at the Ahmanson-at-the-Doolittle in Hollywood and opens on Broadway in early March.

“It has a Jujamcyn imprint on it very strongly,” Landesman says. “ ‘Smokey Joe’s’ is as good an example as there is of our developing and originating our own shows rather than simply booking other people’s.”

Many of those shows have been plucked from nonprofit theaters, particularly Southern California companies. “Big River” was developed at La Jolla Playhouse before landing on Broadway, and longtime Jujamcyn tenant “Tommy” began there. “Into the Woods” was developed at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, while both “Jelly’s Last Jam” and “Angels in America” were sent eastward by the Mark Taper Forum.

Besides expanding Jujamcyn’s purview to include theater ownership or presentation rights in several other cities, Landesman has enlarged its creative base. At home, its 44th Street office suite is shared by prominent director Jerry Zaks as well as such important independent theater producers as Margo Lion (“Jelly’s Last Jam”) and Elizabeth Williams (“Crazy for You”). And at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, producer Scott Rudin is sending on both ideas and money.

“Rocco Landesman came out of theater,” says Frank Rich, former theater critic at the New York Times. “All other things being equal, he has a much better chance of convincing a major playwright, director or producer to work with him. He speaks their language, recognizes good material and goes after it. He doesn’t wait for another blockbuster to open in England.”

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Landesman operates his growing empire from producer David Merrick’s old office above Broadway’s St. James Theatre. With its baseball souvenirs, antiques, paintings, and framed cartoons, the office is as idiosyncratic as its owner, who says, as if it weren’t apparent, that he decorated the place himself.

Prominent, for instance, is a framed quotation from former Yankees center fielder Mickey Rivers that Landesman calls his “credo.” The quotation says:

“There ain’t no sense worryin’ about things you got control over ‘cause if you got control over them, there ain’t no sense worryin’. And there ain’t no sense worryin’ about things you got no control over ‘cause if you got no control over them, ain’t no sense worryin’.”

“You do the best you can,” Landesman says, “and do what you can do. I think if you spend your time anxiously worrying about how you might fail or what your competitors are doing, you’re not going to have as much fun and you’re not going to do as good a job.”

He’s probably right, but comments like that only embellish the ever-growing Landesman legend. Gordon Davidson, Center Theatre Group artistic director-producer, for instance, recalls knowing of Landesman even before they met: “He was infamous. He’s always had this marvelous, interesting reputation of being slightly offbeat, intelligent, a gambler, part showman, part scholar.”

He also comes of colorful stock. Landesman’s grandfather painted murals for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, and his father was a riverboat gambler, philosopher, artist and antiques dealer. In the ‘50s, his parents and aunt and uncle launched St. Louis’ fabled Crystal Palace, a cabaret that brought people like Mike Nichols, Elaine May and Lenny Bruce not only to St. Louis but, often, to bunking at the Landesmans’.

Landesman did some acting in college but was soon drawn to writing. Longtime pal Rick Steiner, a world-class poker player who frequently backs Jujamcyn shows, still remembers how Isaac Bashevis Singer once stopped their writing class to say of Landesman, “This man has talent.”

Editor of Yale’s theater review as a graduate student, Landesman taught dramatic literature and criticism there until leaving in 1978. Saying his metabolism was too fast for college teaching, he concentrated on running a mutual fund and owning race horses.

Then, in the early ‘80s, Landesman headed back to theater. He and his wife, Heidi Landesman, a set designer he met at Yale, started talking about a musical of Landesman’s favorite novel, Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” with music by his favorite songwriter, Roger Miller. Former Yale classmate William Hauptman agreed to do the book, and Brustein, who had moved to Harvard, was interested in producing it at his Cambridge-based American Repertory Theatre.

Des McAnuff, the man Landesman convinced to direct the show, recalls that the fledgling producer was aggressive about pursuing him and Miller both. When Miller proved elusive, Brustein says that he suggested other composers “but Rocco said he’d go out and get (Miller) to do it. He lived and drank with him for a week, then came back with five or six songs.”

After opening in Cambridge, “Big River” was further developed at the La Jolla Playhouse, where McAnuff is artistic director, then went on to Broadway in the spring of 1985. Besides winning seven Tony Awards, it played more than 1,000 performances, closing in September, 1987.

Acquaintance James Binger, meanwhile, was worrying about his company’s five Broadway theaters. Their smaller size and often less-desirable locations rarely made them first choice for big-budget productions. (Jujamcyn’s major competitors are the Shuberts, with 16 1/2 Broadway theaters--the Irving Berlin estate owns the other half of the Music Box Theatre--and the Nederlanders, which own or operate 10.)

Binger took Landesman to lunch and offered him a job. “The theater business was changing,” Binger says today. “Theater owners used to just move (shows) in and out, and it appeared that the way theaters would be filled in the future would be quite different. We needed somebody with his flair and ability to put shows together.”

It also didn’t hurt that Landesman is considerably younger than the men running the Shubert and Nederlander operations, a bonus in wooing younger artists like McAnuff. Landesman and McAnuff both have also long been partners in the Dodgers, a group of friends who have produced plays or otherwise worked together for years. Jujamcyn didn’t produce the Dodgers’ “Tommy,” but Landesman’s longstanding relationship with the group helped Jujamcyn land that show and the Dodgers’ “Guys and Dolls” revival.

Jujamcyn, which is named for Binger’s children, Judy, James and Cynthia, hasn’t won every time out, of course. “Carrie,” for instance, lasted just five performances on Broadway in 1988, losing its entire $6-million investment, including $500,000 from Jujamcyn. And although David Henry Hwang’s “M. Butterfly,” which also opened in 1988, was the longest running non-musical play of its time, the playwright’s “Face Value” closed in March, 1993, after its Boston tryout and just eight New York previews.

Landesman says that without the losses, there would be no thrill in winning, and “Face Value” partner Scott Rudin concurs: “Everybody who’s going to be in the theater better have the soul of a gambler someplace,” says the film and theater producer. “Working in the theater is a tremendous struggle to break even, much less be profitable. You have to be willing to throw the dice.”

Poker champion Steiner likes to tell the story of going to Las Vegas with Landesman in the early ‘80s where the men were playing craps. Landesman put his money down, betting against the shooter who, it turned out, was himself. And, says Steiner, “since Rocco always lands on his feet, he bet against himself and crapped out.”

This is a man who knows how lemons make lemonade. In 1989, he lost a bid to house Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Heidi Chronicles” at Jujamcyn’s Ritz Theatre, a particularly bad blow since the title character was named after Landesman’s wife. But, he explains, losing that play is what got the Walter Kerr Theatre built.

“We wanted Wendy to go into the Ritz. She went up and looked at it, with its walls of Pepto-Bismol pink and got very sick. We figured rather than have important playwrights throw up, we should do something about the theater so they’d want to play there. After she rejected it and settled on the Plymouth, we did a major renovation--actually, a restoration--of the theater.”

That renovation indirectly snared Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer and Tony winning “Angels in America,” a show Landesman is clearly proud of housing and investing in. Or as he puts it: “The reason I come into the office in the morning is for the chance to occasionally be able to do something like ‘Angels in America.’ ”

The Taper’s Davidson says playwright Kushner chose the Walter Kerr partly because of its intimacy. Everyone involved knew that the 945-seat Kerr wouldn’t gross as much as a larger house, says Davidson, “but from the minute the decision was made, Rocco made sure the play was served. (Jujamcyn) was there with the extra money when ‘Angels’ exceeded original estimates--they thought they’d be able to do both parts for $2.2 million--and came through with a $1.4-million loan.”

“Angels” ended its 83-week Broadway run last month, recouping all but $660,000 of its cost. But Landesman notes that “Angels” investors will recoup additional money from the sale of the show’s movie rights--director Robert Altman has already begun casting the film--and from future theatrical royalties.

Landesman was in Southern California the other day checking out “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” before it heads off to Broadway. Although a frequent lunchtime diner at Roy Rogers and Wendy’s, he seemed agreeable enough hosting a lunch meeting on the patio of Beverly Hills’ posh Peninsula Hotel.

Warning a reporter that he doesn’t say much at meetings, Landesman proved true to his word. The show’s other producers rehashed the previous night’s performance with creators Leiber and Stoller while the theater executive sat back, arms folded across his chest, listening.

This time around, he mostly deferred to Jujamcyn’s creative director Jack Viertel , the one-time Los Angeles Herald Examiner theater critic who came up with the notion of “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” when he was still dramaturge at the Taper. Viertel and Landesman weren’t keen on an original musical Leiber and Stoller had offered earlier, Landesman says, “and Jack thought let’s just do the music straight out. It’s great music. Better hasn’t been written.”

So Jujamcyn started developing it. Otis Sallid directed and choreographed the Chicago production, but Landesman says they wanted somebody with more Broadway experience to shape it for New York. “Guys and Dolls” director Jerry Zaks, with whom Jujamcyn has a loose but ongoing affiliation, went to Chicago to see it, and says Landesman, “fell in love with the music. He never would have done it if he didn’t love the show and music, but if he hadn’t been in the next office, we probably never would have been able to get him.”

There’s also Landesman’s informal working relationship with filmmaker Rudin. Rudin, Jujamcyn and others are planning a 1996 Broadway revival of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” starring Nathan Lane and directed by Zaks. They also put up development money for Paul Rudnick’s play “The Naked Truth,” which the playwright-screenwriter has been reworking after an earlier production at New York’s WPA Theatre.

“Serious drama is now almost exclusively for resident theaters,” Landesman says. “Broadway is a kind of shop window.”

Many plays these days have been landing Off Broadway, where costs are lower, and Landesman is working to fill Broadway houses again with drama as well as musicals. Terrence McNally’s Off Broadway hit “Love! Valour! Compassion!” has already begun previews at the Walter Kerr, transferring from the nonprofit Manhattan Theatre Club under a special Broadway Alliance contract. (Offering concessions from unions, guilds, producers and others, Alliance contracts set caps on everything from royalties to ticket prices.)

“Love! Valour! Compassion!,” which opens on Feb. 14, will be just one of several new Jujamcyn tenants. “Guys and Dolls” closed Jan. 8 at the Martin Beck Theatre after nearly two years, with Ken Ludwig’s new play, “Moon Over Buffalo,” expected to open there in April, probably starring Carol Burnett. “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” is set for the Virginia in March, while Landesman expects both “Grease” and “Tommy” to run until at least next fall.

That would mean a full house again, but Landesman knows nothing is forever. Jujamcyn’s $2 million to $3 million investment each season includes development money, he says, and they’re always talking to producers about future projects.

Some of those producers, of course, are just down the hall. Williams is shepherding a musical of “Dr. Zhivago,” for instance, directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. Playwright Trevor Griffiths is writing the book and Lucy Simon the music, says Williams, who hopes to do a workshop by fall.

Producer Margo Lion and Heidi Landesman are co-producing “Temptation,” a musical about evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson with book by Marsha Norman, music by Van Dyke Parks and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, set for a reading this spring.

Viertel is writing the book and composer Skip Kennon the music for “Time and Again.” The Old Globe’s artistic director Jack O’Brien is expected to direct, which Landesman says could result in a pre-Broadway production there.

Landesman is also expanding Jujamcyn’s reach with out-of-town venues. Expanding westward helps him “realize some of my imperialistic ambitions” quips Landesman, who has been acquiring either theaters or presentation rights at theaters outside New York. Besides gaining ownership interest in Chicago’s Royal George, for instance, Jujamcyn acquired presentation rights at Minneapolis’ newly-renovated Orpheum Theatre, reopening it last fall with “Miss Saigon.”

Jujamcyn last year acquired Broadway presentation rights for large theaters in Green Bay, Wis., and Portland, Ore., Landesman says. He says he has no expansion plans pending for Southern California, but Jujamcyn is now looking at the Mexico City and Montreal markets.

Some of those theaters might be used to start shows. But Landesman says it seems more likely they would house touring productions of both Jujamcyn shows and the Andrew Lloyd Webber-style blockbusters his theaters are too small to snare on Broadway.

The producer, who co-owns minor league baseball teams in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Columbia, S.C., originally told Jujamcyn chairman Binger the only job he could imagine leaving Jujamcyn for is commissioner of baseball. He would also be tempted by the chance to run a major league baseball team, Landesman adds.

Meanwhile, Landesman also has an option to buy Jujamcyn.

“Ultimately, I’d like to put together a group to buy Jujamcyn, no question about that, so I can have an ownership position in it,” Landesman says. “I feel I have been running it as if I were the owner, but when it’s your own money on the table, you’re even that much more engaged.”