Sean Cercone (he/him)
Founder/CEO
Sean Cercone is the founder and CEO of Broadway Licensing and its family of imprints including Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, and Stage Rights, which creates, produces, and distributes live-stage theatrical content in over 90 countries. Representing work by the greatest collection of authors, composers, lyrists, and underlying rights holders in the world including, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lynn Nottage, Stephen King, Terrance McNally, Christopher Durang, Edward Albee, Tracy Letts, Suzan Lori-Parks, Marsha Norman, Alan Menken, Tom Kitt, Jimmy Buffet, Cher, Elvis, The Beatles, and The Bee-Gee’s, the Broadway Licensing collection of titles represents over 40 Tony and 48 Pulitzer Winning works. Cercone has leveraged his expertise in theatrical production, licensing, and content creation to diversify, strengthen, scale, and rapidly expand the portfolio into new sectors and markets around the world. Under Cercone’s leadership, the company has grown from a launch in 2017 to the leader in the theatrical licensing industry with the most licensed plays in North America. As part of that growth, in 2020, Cercone founded the Emmy Nominated streaming platform, Broadway On Demand, offering exclusive theatrical content, interactive events, and original programming which is planned to reach over 200 million households in 2023 with the goal of providing accessibility to theatre for all. Cercone’s expansion of Stage Works Productions is dedicated to the development of innovative live theatrical intellectual properties. He is currently developing ELVIS: The Musical with his collaborator David Abbinanti. Cercone and Abbinanti also created BEAT BUGS, The Musical based on the Emmy Award-winning Netflix series “Beat Bugs”, featuring music made famous by The Beatles and the newest adaptation of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER which has been seen around the globe.
Cercone’s background is steeped in theatre previously serving as Chief Business Officer for Theatrical Rights Worldwide. Cercone helped build TRW through the acquisition of marquee Broadway titles, including Jersey Boys and Million Dollar Quartet, and led the worldwide distribution of The Addams Family, Monty Python’s Spamalot, The Color Purple, Curtains, All Shook Up, and Memphis by achieving productions in 69 different countries. He additionally led the redevelopment of Ghost: The Musical (with Oscar-winning author Bruce Joel Rubin and Grammy Award winners Glen Ballard and Dave Stewart), Ring of Fire: Small Cast Version (w/ Tony Award winner Richard Maltby Jr.), and Big Fish: 12 Chair Version (with Tony and Grammy Nominee Andrew Lippa and Grammy Nominee John August.). Cercone is a proud member of the Broadway League and previously served as the Producing Artistic Director of The Carousel, Executive Producer of Theatre Building Chicago, and founded the West Virginia Shakespeare Festival. He has served on the board of the National Alliance of Musical Theaters, Co-Chaired the NAMT New Musical Theatre Festival, and served as Board President of the Cleveland Theatre Collective. Cercone was named to Crain’s Business Top 40 Under 40, holds an MFA in Theatre from West Virginia University, and is an avid Ironman.
Photo by Michael Kushner
