Carlos Rottemberg celebrates 50 years in the theatre: success as an exception to the rule and the secret to managing the ego of artists

Carlos Rottemberg and the theatre, a love of half a century (Christian Heit)

Legend has it – that is, he himself – that Carlos Rottemberg He chose to join his life to that of the show when he was eight years old and saw for the first time The Sound of Music in a movie theater in Lavalle. It took his mother a while to convince him to accompany her from Mataderos to the center to see a play that didn’t appeal to him, but the promise of sharing a pizza after the show made him give in. As soon as he appeared Julie Andrews On stage, he burst into tears. “I want to be that”he told Juana. Nobody knew exactly what he meant. The fact is that in one month he saw the film 14 times. His curiosity about cinema mutated into theatre. And the rest is more or less well-known history.

Over the last 50 years, his name has been linked to some of the most representative milestones of national entertainment. Today, he owns 7 buildings, 16 theatres and 8991 seats, as stated on the official Multiteatro website, almost an inventory of his artistic production, like those counters that are constantly updated. The half century is approaching with the arrogance of its round number. And the golden anniversary sounds like an excuse to stroll through the life of a man who saw everything and lived almost everything. And yet, keeps the capacity for wonder intact every time embarks on a productionwhen he notices a setting that subjugates him, or gives him back play to that initiatory journey led by Julie Andrews.

“That childhood passion did not really change me,” the producer explains, and attempts an explanation. “It is something that happens spontaneously. I never took it as a joband to this day I don’t feel like that. I always said ‘I’m going to the theatre’, never ‘I’m going to the office’, in the same way that a spectator goes to see a performance.”

Carlos Rottemberg discovered his calling at the age of 8

The memory, then, travels to the child spectator, to that winter Friday in 1965, when the son of Juana and Miguel, still a leather worker in the family business in Mataderos, expressed his desire to do something related to the theatre. “It helps me a lot to be clear about where I come from, where I am going and how I see it for the future,” he says, with gratitude for his parents’ understanding and with pride in his neighbourhood. “In 50 years I never managed to be the Señor RottembergI always was Carlos. And after 50 years, far from getting angry, I take it as an asset.”

The present and the past are mixed in a fascinating story. “I am grateful to this profession that treated me well from the first day,” he says, and invites us to enter the 17-year-old Carlitos, fresh out of school, who had never met a real artist. “My first contacts were with Beatriz Bonnet y Juan Carlos Dual”, he reveals. A grand presentation, with two heavyweights of the time and a test – that of working with artists, with their egos, and their moods – that he was going to learn to overcome with ease.

Juan Carlos Calabró, Carlos Rottemberg and their son Tomás, taking their first steps in the industry

”It was easy for me for two reasons. One is that I am an admirer of talent, but I am not a fan. And the other is that I always knew that I had to go home to take care of my children. I continue to prioritize the family, which is the most basic thing,” he says like a magician revealing his tricks. Instead, he appeals to codes to avoid revealing the name of a friend whom he dared to advise. “I told a great figure that no matter how many rating points you have on TV, or the number of followers on social networks, or the clicks your article may have, none of them will give you a hand when you enter an operating room. That is given to you by family and friends. You need everything else, but don’t be confused, because that is what will allow you to reach old age accompanied.”.

The rating, followers or clicks in theater are translated into slipsthe ticket sales count per performance that Rottemberg will say how much he cares about. “Of course I am interested in following it, it is a company, there are many theaters. One of my obstinacy was to follow the old manual of the old entrepreneurs of making the company grow with the same income that the company generates,” he says with the strength of a motto and with the endorsement of someone who has sold more than 22 million tickets. “Our theaters are supported by this money. I am a 100 percent privatebut at the same time a staunch defender of the investment in culture that the State must make“he explains, distancing himself from that businessman who takes benefits from the state.

With his son Tomás and his friend Luis Brandoni, with whom he worked on countless works

—Another thing actors deal with is success and failure. And the producer?

—There are people who are afraid of the word success, who link it only to economics, or who think it is politically incorrect. I defend it, I look for it and I explain it: Do you know someone who undergoes an operation and does not want the doctor to be successful? The same with the builder of your house, the pilot of an airplane, or yourself as a parent. Success is not just about selling theater tickets, and it doesn’t have to be embarrassing either, because when properly understood, it is wonderful..

—And the failure?

—I feel reassured when I see that the Multitheaters produce a 30 percent success rate even though there are 70 percent that don’t work. Do you know how many Broadway musicals are successful? We know 7 or 8 that work… and what about the other 40? In this industry the exception is success, but it supports failures, which on the other hand we hide under the carpet and have few witnesses. For example, we are celebrating 33 years of Witches… Do you know how many failures he endured? Witches? Or Pinti with Creole sauceo Knock, Knockor the seasons we did with Alberto Olmedo in Mar del Plata, or Juan Carlos Calabró with the explosion of Johny Tolengo… This is self-reinforcing when it works, because it is the public that decides, it is the owner of the cultural heritage.

—Is there competition between you?

—I’ll answer you with what I said at every meeting while I was president of the Argentine Association of Theatre and Musical Entrepreneurs. The important thing is that a play does well, no matter which company it’s from. This profession is a merry-go-round, and the important thing is that it keeps turning because the ring is always changing hands. If it doesn’t work for you, but it does for the theatre down the block, you know that at some point it could happen to you.

Carlos Rottemberg with his great friend Enrique Pinti

When the conversation enters the fascinating terrain of proper names, in addition to a walk through nostalgia, it is a cue to ask Rottemberg if he has particular regard for a particular work. At the risk of ingratitude, he accepts the invitation and points out two key moments in this story. “One that comes to mind is when we premiered Made in Lanúscon Louis Brandoni, Patricio Contreras, Marta Bianchi and Leonor Manso“We had restored democracy and it gave me great pleasure to see people leaving the theatre with a sense of satisfaction and a desire to return.”

The other connects him with the present, and with the family, his great refuge. “Today, School of Rock y Matilda “They mark a milestone,” he says regarding the musicals that had an impact on Corrientes Street and in which his younger children had a lot to do with, the result of his relationship with Karina Perez Moretto. Matilda, unintentionally, brought him the eponymous play. And this provoked the productive jealousy of Nicholas, the older brother to top it off, who proposed the recent story that starred Jack Black in the cinema. “They are the factotums of the musicals, and now they are choosing the next one,” he reveals without giving further information.

The legacy doesn’t stop: Matilda and Nicolás, Carlos Rottemberg’s youngest children and their favorite musicals

The family traces it back to his father Miguel, who passed away this year, and his mother Sara, who still witnesses his adventures. And the courage – Carlitos chooses another word – they had to sign his emancipation so he could work independently as a minor. Out of respect for that freedom, and letting intuition play its role, he did not impose his will on him. Tomás to accompany him in his family business. His eldest son, from his relationship with Linda Peretz, one hundred percent artistic lineage, first tried college until he decided to follow in dad’s footsteps.Today I can say with real pleasure that I am accompanying him. And I like it much more when people tell me that I am Tomás’s father than when they say that he is the one. son of”.

Rottemberg’s words, authoritative and sincere, as evidenced by fifty years of convictions for the theatre and for life.