Mark Kaufman serves as Executive Vice President, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures and in this role is charged with identifying titles and characters from the world-renowned Warner Bros. Entertainment library that might lend themselves to the stage and developing them into theatrical productions. Kaufman shares oversight of the division with Raymond Wu, who also holds the title of Executive Vice President, Theatre Ventures.
Theatre Ventures currently has over a dozen projects in various levels of development, including co-productions with award-winning Broadway, film and television producers. Among these projects is the highly anticipated musical adaptation of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” scheduled to open during the 2012-13 theatrical season.
Theatre Ventures’ previous productions include “Baby It’s You!,” the story of Florence Greenberg, the woman who discovered The Shirelles; “Lestat,” based on Anne Rice’s celebrated literary character, with original music from the legendary songwriting team of Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin; and “Casablanca – The Dance,” which had its world premiere in the Great Hall in Beijing in April 2005. During the 2010 holiday season, Theatre Ventures’ “Elf” premiered and broke box office records five weeks of its nine-week limited engagement. Additional productions of the show, based on the hit 2003 New Line Cinema release of the same name, are planned for the future.
Kaufman joins Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures from Unique Features and, before that, New Line Cinema. Kaufman supervised and oversaw the Broadway production of the Tony Award winning musical “Hairspray” as well as the Tony nominated musical “The Wedding Singer” for New Line, and most recently the stage production of “Elf.” Additionally, during his 16 years at New Line, Kaufman oversaw such films as “Secondhand Lions” and “Hairspray.” He served as executive producer on the hit comedies “Four Christmases” and “17 Again” as well as “My Sister’s Keeper.” He is also a produced writer, having created “Toothless” starring Kirstie Alley and Lynn Redgrave for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney and “Just A Walk In The Park” with George Eads and Jane Krakowski for ABC Family.