Van Kaplan Bio
Van Kaplan (Executive Producer)
Since 1946, Pittsburgh CLO has enjoyed an exceptional reputation as one of the country’s prestigious non-profit theaters, dedicated to the preservation, creation and promotion of live musical theater. As a leader in the musical theater industry, Pittsburgh CLO has been credited with launching the careers of numerous performers and counts among its many alumni Rob Marshall, Kathleen Marshall, Rob Ashford, Bernadette Peters, Shirley Jones and Susan Schulman. Under Mr. Kaplan’s leadership, the CLO continues to produce vibrant new productions of Broadway classics as well as provide a showcase for new works and new talent including The National Tour of Barry Manilow’s Copacabana, Lunch, the American Premiere of Dr. Dolittle and six musicals for the CLO’s Gallery of Heroes school series. In June 2007 the CLO assisted Disney Theatrical Productions in launching the National Tour of Disney’s High School Musical. As an investor and producing partner, the CLO has participated in the Broadway productions of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Bombay Dreams, The Color Purple, Flower Drum Song, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Deaf West’s production of Big River and the recent Broadway productions of Legally Blonde The Musical and Curtains. Pittsburgh CLO is also a partner in 5 Cent Productions and Elephant Eye Theatricals, a producing consortium that focuses on the creation and development of new musicals. Projects include: The Addams Family for Broadway in 2009-2010, Bruce Lee: Journey to the West for Broadway in 2010-2011. The CLO is also the subject of a film starring Jeff Goldblum entitled PITTSBURGH which was released on the STARZ network in August 2007.
As Executive Producer, Van Kaplan is responsible for the CLO’s Summer Season producing six musicals at the Benedum Center, A Musical Christmas Carol, the CLO Cabaret Theater, CLO National Touring, the CLO Academy of Musical Theater, the Gallery of Heroes school series, the nationally acclaimed Gene Kelly Awards, and the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award, whose recipients include Julie Andrews and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Construction Center for the Arts.
In his 28 years in the arts as a producer, director and actor, Mr. Kaplan has worked with celebrities such as Betty Buckley, Nell Carter, Carol Channing, Bill Cosby, Charles Durning, Sutton Foster, Ana Gasteyer, Jerry Herman, Hal Holbrook, Jeff Goldblum, Noel Harrison, Van Johnson, Shirley Jones, Stacy Keach, Rich Little, Tommy Tune, Howard Keel, Rue McClanahan, Johnny Mathis, Debbie Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Jerry Seinfeld, Charles Shaughnessy, Sally Struthers, Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, and James Whitmore. He produced the touring productions of Camelot, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Phantom, Singin’ in the Rain, Chess, Grand Hotel, City of Angels, Evita, Brigadoon and Nunsense II. Mr. Kaplan has also developed new musicals such as Sinclair Lewis’ Dodsworth starring Hal Linden and Dee Hoty and Grossinger’s with Gavin MacLeod.
His directorial credits include West Side Story, Kopit & Yeston’s Phantom, On the Town, Sweeney Todd with Candy Buckley, South Pacific with Cathy Rigby, Nunsense, Shear Madness, Ruthless, She Loves Me, Guys and Dolls with Georgia Engel and the regional premiere of Andrew Bovell’s Speaking in Tongues.
Mr. Kaplan has been a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, a Theatre Panel chair for the Texas Commission on the Arts and recently served as adjunct professor of Carnegie Mellon’s Masters of Arts Management Program. He is a member of The Broadway League, the IPN (Independent Presenters Network) and is a past president of NAMT (the National Alliance for Musical Theatre) of which the Pittsburgh CLO is a founding member.