Bio
Born in Dallas, Texas, Van is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with additional training at the Juilliard School under the direction of legendary producer John Housman. He began his career as an actor performing in film and television prior to joining the acting company of Casa Manana Musicals in 1980 where he worked in various capacities as an actor, director, production stage manager, development director and administrative director. He was named Executive Producer/General Manager in 1990 and held that position before moving to Pittsburgh in 1997 to become Executive Producer/CEO of the nationally recognized musical theatre company, Pittsburgh CLO, a position he held for 24 years until his retirement in 2022.
He is a Tony Awards® nominated, award winning Broadway producer and was a lead producer of the Paris, Broadway and London productions of An American in Paris. He has either produced or co-produced 40 Broadway productions which have collectively earned over 30 Tony Awards.® Broadway productions include: Purlie Victorious starring Leslie Odom Jr., The Piano Lesson with Samuel L. Jackson, American Buffalo starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss, Mr. Saturday Night starring Billy Crystal, The Lifespan of a Fact with Daniel Radcliff, American Son starring Kerry Washington, Emilio and Gloria Estefan’s On Your Feet!, The Elephant Man with Bradley Cooper, Farinelli and the King starring Mark Rylance, Evita with Ricky Martin, Catch Me If You Can, Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away and The Addams Family starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. He has produced national touring productions of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Camelot, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Phantom, Singin’ in the Rain, Chess, Grand Hotel, City of Angels, Evita, Brigadoon and he assisted the Disney organization in producing the national tour of Disney’s High School Musical. He co-founded the National High School Musical Theatre Awards® / Jimmy Awards® and co-produced a three-part documentary series about the program that aired in 2012 on hundreds of PBS member stations, including the top 50 national markets.
His directorial credits include Guys and Dolls with Victoria Clark, She Loves Me, West Side Story with Max Von Essen and Ali Ewoldt, Kopit & Yeston’s Phantom, On the Town, Sweeney Todd, South Pacific with Cathy Rigby, Nunsense, Shear Madness, Ruthless! and the regional premiere of Andrew Bovell’s Speaking in Tongues at Pittsburgh’s Quantum Theater. He directed the comedy, You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up which toured theatres across the country including the Denver Center and ACT in San Diego and he has directed original shows for Caesars Entertainment at the Rio, Paris and Bally’s Hotels in Las Vegas. Since 2009, he has directed The Jimmy Awards® at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre.
In his 40 years in the theatre he has worked with celebrities such as Anna Maria Albergetti, Ed Begley Jr., Tony Bennett, Betty Buckley, Cid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Nell Carter, Patrick Cassidy, Ray Charles, Carol Channing, Cyd Charisse, Natalie Cole, Tim Conway, Charles Durning, Morgan Fairchild, Jamie Farr, Sutton Foster, Ana Gasteyer, Malcolm Gets, Jeff Goldbum, Noel Harrison, Jerry Herman, Hal Holbrook, Artie Johnson, Van Johnson, Shirley Jones, Ruta Lee, Rich Little, Bob Newhart, Gavin MacLeod, Rue McClanahan, Johnny Mathis, Lilian Montivecci, Billy Porter, Tom Poston, Howard Keel, Debbie Reynolds, Don Rickles, Chita Rivera, Joan Rivers, Charles Shaughnessy, Jerry Seinfeld, Sally Struthers, and James Whitmore. He has consulted for the National Endowment for the Arts, is a former Theatre Panel chair for the Texas Commission on the Arts and served as adjunct professor for Carnegie Mellon’s Masters of Arts Management Program. He is currently a member of the Board of Governors of The Broadway League, serves on the Investment Committee of the Independent Presenters Network (IPN) and is a past president of The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT). He is a lifetime Tony Awards® voter.
