Who

As president of the Rogers and Hammerstein organization, Ted Chapin is a powerful player on the Great White Way.

Background

The son of arts patrons Schuyler and Elizabeth Chapin—his mother's maiden name was Steinway, as in the piano—Chapin grew up in the theater world. By the time he graduated from Connecticut College in the early '70s, he already had five years of behind-the-scenes experience as a production/directorial assistant on the New York productions of Follies (with Stephen Sondheim), The Rothchilds, and The Unknown Soldier and His Wife. Following a stint as the musical director for the National Theater of the Deaf's production of Four Saints in Three Acts and as associate director of the National Theater Institute, Chapin joined Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1981. He's spent over two decades at the theater behemoth, where he's now the president.

Of note

The Rodgers and Hammerstein company owns the copyright on the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, as well as select shows by Broadway icons like Irving Berlin, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Andrew Lloyd Weber and Adam Guettel, whose The Light in the Piazza took home six Tonys in 2005. So if your theater wants to stage South Pacific, Oklahoma or Jesus Christ Superstar, you better be prepared to pony up hefty licensing fees to Rodgers and Hammerstein.

On the side

Chapin serves on the board of the American Theater Wing, is chairman of the "Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert" series, and is a member of the Tony Administration Committee.

In print

In 2003, Chapin published Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical 'Follies,' which recounted his time working as a gofer on the set of the original Sondheim production.

Personal

Chapin is married to Joanna and is the father of two daughters; the family lives on the Upper West Side.

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