Sean Cercone: Bringing Theater to the Masses

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Sean Cercone, founder and CEO of Broadway Licensing Global, understands the powerful reach of theater through performances in thousands of professional, regional, community and high school productions in the U.S. and around the world.

He's created, produced and distributed countless plays and musicals, including 40 Tony Award winners and 49 Pulitzer Prize winners in 90 countries.

Cercone, who was named to Crain's Business Top 40 Under 40 list, recently joined JaHan Wang, City National Bank's EVP of Entertainment Banking, for a conversation about his licensing business, starting a live streaming platform for theater productions, and the joy of working with creative people.

 

Converting Passion Into Business

Cercone grew up in New York's Hudson Valley in a family of immigrants who loved music and watched PBS Great Performances but couldn't afford theater tickets. A transformative experience occurred when he was 11 and won free tickets to “Sarafina!," a Broadway musical about apartheid in South Africa and the Soweto riots.

“It was so joyous and yet so impactful," Cercone said. “I realized in that moment that theater can change people's views, can educate people and has the power to make people do things."

Cercone said he was convinced “hook, line and sinker" from then on that theater was the format he could use to change the world.

After a brief detour into nursing school, Cercone immersed himself in theater in college and grad school, producing, directing, acting and writing. Mentors he met along the way eventually led him to the licensing side of the business at Theatrical Works Worldwide and then to start Broadway Licensing Global.

Cercone is passionate about expanding opportunities and access to live productions at thousands of theaters around the world.

“Studies find that live theater and involvement in the arts shows a major growth in empathy and communication and understanding in people, especially young people," Cercone said.

 

Making Theater on Demand

Cercone's involvement with theater takes multiple forms, including distribution, streaming and partnering with professional regional theaters and young writers to develop new shows.

His latest production, co-written with his writing partner David Abbinanti, “Elvis – The Musical Revolution," recently premiered at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. Cercone is also an associate producer on “Back to the Future" on Broadway.

“We take our work seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously," Cercone said. “If you have the right people, anything is possible."

Some of his most groundbreaking work occurred in 2020, just as live theater was being tested by the pandemic.

Cercone launched Broadway on Demand, a streaming service for live theater, in 2020. Friends in China warned him late in 2019 of the pandemic's possible threat to live performances. In response, his company began working remotely even before Broadway shut down. One team worked on managing cancellations, while the other developed the new streaming platform.

“It was a bunch of theater kids figuring it out and it worked," Cercone said. “We needed to protect the copyright of our authors when everything was going online. We protected authors with our platform."

Cercone said that the U.S. is behind the rest of the world in digitizing live performances. The goal is to expand audiences, which he believes is a positive outcome of digitization. Digital platforms can improve access for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, people with disabilities and older adults who may find it challenging to get to the theater.

For Cercone, change is a natural part of the theater's evolution. He's working to help embrace the theater's next big stage, wherever that may be.

"Thousands of years ago, the center of the theater universe was in Greece," he remarked. "Hundreds of years ago, the center of the theater universe was in London. Today, the center of the theater universe is Broadway. It has changed."

You can catch the rest of the conversation between Sean Cercone and JaHan Wang by listening to the full podcast above. Discover more about our Broadway Banking team by visitng here.