Jessica R. Jenen
JRJ Productions President
JRJ ProductionsJessica R. Jenen, Producer and General Manager
Ms. Jenen is a three time Tony Award winning Broadway producer, and has been an international producer and theatrical manager for over thirty years. She is a proud member of the Board of Directors of the newly announced Broadway Producer’s Alliance, an organization that is dedicated to promoting collaboration, innovation, and communication within the Broadway producing community. She also served as Executive Producer of the 2024 Drama Desk Awards: Celebrating Artistic Abundance at Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, which featured Co-Hosts Sutton Foster & Aaron Tveit. Upcoming 2024-25 Broadway season: Sunset Boulevard; All In: Play About Love; The Last Five Years; Buena Vista Social Club. Previous Broadway credits include: Stereophonic (Tony winner for Best Play, and the most Tony nominated Play of all time, with 13 nominations).Tony nominated Gutenberg The Musical, which completed its profitable record-breaking run, starring Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells; The Who’s Tommy (Tony nomination); Previous: Parade (Tony Award), Company (Tony Award); An Evening with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin; Venus in Fur (Tony nomination), which was the most produced new play in America during the 2014 season. Additional Broadway credits include Into the Woods (Tony nomination), Life of Pi, winner of 5 Olivier Awards in London’s West End; New York, New York. National Tour: Into the Woods. As Executive Producer of THE BROADWAY COMPANY with producer Jon B. Platt: I’ll Eat You Last, The Heiress, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Death of a Salesman, Clybourne Park, and Nice Work If You Can Get It. In 2013 she formed JRJ Productions LLC, continuing to pursue commercial endeavors and functioning as Executive Producer, Executive Consultant and General Manager for commercial projects and not-for-profit theatrical institutions.
West End: A lead producer of the Olivier Award winning Get Up, Stand Up: The Bob Marley Musical, which completed its long run at the Lyric Theatre, West End, London. JRJ Productions is a proud backer of the following West End productions: Sunset Boulevard; Stranger Things: The First Shadow; A Little Life; Dr. Semmelweis; The Motive and the Cue; Patriots; A Streetcar Named Desire; Standing at the Sky’s Edge; The Shape of Things; Strange Loop; The Ocean at the End of the Lane; Accidental Death of an Anarchist; The Crucible, and the current sold out Macbeth starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo.
Ms. Jenen served as General Manager of the original musical Rock & Roll Man, Off Broadway at New World Stages. Former Vice President & Senior General Manager at Broadway International Group and Broadway Asia International, developing large scale theatrical projects for production throughout the global marketplace, including the Beijing premiere of Jay Chou’s The Secret, directed by John Rando, General Managing the Asian Tour & Paris production of An American in Paris, the Asian and Southeast Asian Tour of The Sound of Music, among other projects.
Consulting
Recent Executive Producing and/or General Management Consulting for the following companies and projects: Clear Day Productions on Here You Come Again: How Dolly Saved My Life in 12 Easy Songs, presented at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre and now touring in the UK; Caiola Productions; Rosalind Productions on multiple projects including Crumbs from the Table of Joy, produced by Keen Company; BMG; The King’s Wife with producer Jennifer Kranz; Dedication by Roger Peltzman, Borderline with Music & Lyrics by Benjamin Velez, Book by Aryanna Garber; Straight Up Berlin by Nadja & Matt Danciger; among others.
Producer for Knight Blanc on Chuck Mee’s acclaimed new play The Glory of the World, an Actors Theatre of Louisville production, presented at BAM; Executive Consultant for Broadway Worldwide Entertainment Media, developing Broadway product for TV distribution; Interim Executive Producer at Women’s Project Theater, taking on all senior artistic and managerial duties during a tumultuous leadership change, hiring new Artistic and Managing Directors, planning a full season of new plays, rebranding the institution and rebuilding the board; Consulting Producer at Maximum Entertainment Productions (MEP), the commercial theatre management and producing company, functioning as management consultant for MEP, partnering with Executive VP Eva Price on Off-Broadway’s sold out hit The Lion, as well as booking its national tour at regional LORT theatres; Executive Consultant at The Vineyard Theatre, implementation of a comprehensive fundraising plan and staffing reorganization.
Additional Producing Credits and Biography
Ms. Jenen was the originating producer of Venus in Fur as Executive Director of Classic Stage Company (CSC), the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre company where the play had its world premiere. During her seven seasons at CSC, she orchestrated a dramatic financial turnaround, quadrupling the annual operating budget, retiring cumulative debt totaling 30% of operating budget and securing nearly $1.5 million in operating surplus. Under Ms. Jenen’s leadership, the theatre’s subscription income and base were increased by over 800%. The Huffington Post described this resurgence, stating: “With the help of executive director Jessica Jenen, CSC has had the greatest renaissance of any off-Broadway theater company in this millennium, going from virtual obsolescence to consistent hit maker. What CSC has done is rather amazing.”
Additional producing credits at CSC include: Yasmina Reza’s A Spanish Play, directed by John Turturro, starring Zoe Caldwell; the world premiere of David Ives’ New Jerusalem, directed by Walter Bobbie and starring Jeremy Strong; Chekhov’s Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, with Denis O’Hare as Vanya, directed by Austin Pendleton; the world premiere of Unnatural Acts; The Seagull starring Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; The Tempest starring Mandy Patinkin; and Hamlet, Richard II, and Richard III all starring Michael Cumpsty. In 2008, Ms. Jenen produced the sold-out concert “Mandy Patinkin on Broadway” at the Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway.
As Associate General Manager at Jujamcyn Theaters, she oversaw the sold out smash hit Nine starring Antonio Banderas at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and supervised the managers of Jujamcyn’s five Broadway theatres. Ms. Jenen has numerous Broadway commercial management credits, including Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Swing!, Jane Eyre on Broadway and the original Off-Broadway and Chicago productions of Betty Rules.
She received a BA from Brandeis University and an MFA in Theatre Management from Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where she has served as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theatre. She currently serves as an Adjunct Lecturer for Brooklyn College’s Graduate Performing Arts Management Program, teaching Theatre Design & Planning. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Off Broadway League. She has also served as Adjunct Assistant Professor at Marymount Manhattan College, and as Co-Chair of the Broadway Salutes Committee for the Broadway League. WP Theater Board member, Executive Committee. Proud mother of Beckett and Emerson.