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Merging his family lineages, Jordan Roth makes his own way

[June 15, 2016] By Chris Taylor

NEW YORK (Reuters) - All children may be a reflection of their parents, but Jordan Roth really took that idea to heart.

The son of real-estate king Steven Roth, the billionaire head of Vornado Realty, and Daryl Roth, famed producer of seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, has "completely merged" his parental lineages, by becoming a Broadway titan himself.

But coming from a famous family has its own challenges. You have to prove your own worth and make something from the gifts life has given you.

Roth seems to be doing just that, as president and majority owner of Jujamcyn Theaters, which oversees five storied Broadway theaters including the St. James, the Al Hirschfeld and the Walter Kerr. His theaters are currently staging hits like "The Book of Mormon," "Kinky Boots" and "Jersey Boys."

Roth sat down with Reuters for the latest installment in our new series Life Lessons to talk about putting his own stamp on the world.

Q: What did you learn growing up around so much success?

A: I think you see the work much more than the success. Up close, you witness the passion and the tenacity that success requires. That is the work ethic model I got from my parents.

Q: Was there a particular philosophy they passed on to you?

A: One of the best pieces of wisdom my father shared was with my husband-to-be, when he came to the office and asked for permission to join our family. He said, "Fight to have fun." I'm not sure he would have said that 20 or 30 years ago, when he was first building his business.

In life you are often told to fight for that dollar or fight for that deal - and those things have value, too. But he said you also have to be deliberate about finding joy, and that really stayed with me.

Q: Your first ventures on your own involved productions like "The Donkey Show" in 1999 and "The Rocky Horror Show" in 2000. What did you learn from becoming a financial success on your own?

A: There is a big difference between having some success and feeling successful. For me, feeling successful took a lot longer to come. I did feel like I had a whole lot to prove. Along the way, I learned that real success is much more about being calm than it is about being triumphant.

Q: So many wealthy families lose that wealth after a couple of generations. Why do you think that is?

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Producer Jordan Roth arrives for the American Theatre Wing's 68th annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York, June 8, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

A: I'm not sure I have a good answer for that. But the notion that wealth has been amassed, and your job is to just keep it, is not really the way we should be measuring success. Instead, think of it like opportunities have been created with that wealth - and your job is to create more opportunities for more people. That would be a true success.

Q: How do you decide where to devote your philanthropic dollars?

A: My husband and I support causes we feel closest to, so for the most part that is organizations working for the arts, for our city, and for LGBT equality. We are being honored by the Trevor Project, which is a hotline where young people in crisis can call anytime day or night and talk to a friend when they need it most. You have the ability to change the course of somebody's life with a single phone call.

Q: You have a 16-year-old son and a new baby boy on the way in July. Have you thought about the life lessons you want to pass along to them?

A: I think about that a lot, actually. I started taking notes for a file called "Baby Advice." There is one quote I like lot from the poet Mary Oliver, about instructions for living a great life: "Pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it."

If I can do that for our new baby, and he could do that for himself and the world, that would be a good thing.

(Editing by Lauren Young and Cynthia Osterman)

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