Jason Robert Brown

Brian Kellow’s review available here. I don’t have much problem with his criticism of my “onstage persona” (which is not all that different from my offstage persona, truth be told), but I do find it odd that the one part of my patter he chooses to quote as an example of what “doesn’t always play well onstage” is actually the line that got the biggest, warmest laugh of the night, followed by applause. Go figure. He says lots of nice things about me anyway. OPERA NEWS April 2007, vol 71, no 10 On the Beat Brown strikes sparks in aRead More »

I’m in the house today making rehearsal tapes for the cast members of the really exciting production of Songs for a New World that we’re doing next month, and it put me in mind of the origins of some of this material. It’s a fascinating process for me now, listening to these songs, because they have layers and layers of events embedded in them. Not just the when-I-wrote-them, but the rehearsals at the WPA in 1995, the parties at Hal and Judy’s house, the production in Nyack in 1997 (with Beth Leavel as Woman 2!), a college in Minnesota, aRead More »

I got an email on December 11, 1999. Jason, Hi. We’ve met once or twice, but I’m not sure you’ll remember me. I’m Georgia Stitt, a music director/pianist. I music directed “After The Fair” this summer and “Stars In Your Eyes” this fall. Anyway, I’m writing because I’m really, really interested in finding out about the tour of “Parade.” Have you guys hired your music staff yet? I would LOVE to go out on the road — potentially as the MD or AMD or even a keyboard player. I have heard you play several times (starting with the NAMT presentationRead More »

Jeremy Gerard’s review here. Jason Robert Brown Brings Tin Pan Alley to Midtown Jazz Bastion By Jeremy Gerard April 5 (Bloomberg) / At Birdland last night, composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown had the crowd doing something many of his fans might find surprising: laughing. Brown won a Tony award for Parade a lynching tale that has to be one of the darkest musicals ever written. In concert, he’s very funny in a charming, self-deprecating way. And as he, accompanied by bassist Randy Landau and guitarist Gary Sieger, amply demonstrated, he knows how to rock. Brown drew heavily on aRead More »

Just a reminder: This very newsletter can come right to your e-mail inbox if you just subscribe using the handy-dandy box on the home page of this site! Hey! What are you doing this week? I mean, outside of the seders and the Easter egg decorating, what are you doing? Can’t quite figure out how to spend your voluminous free time? Just sitting around watching reruns of “Cops” all day long? Still trying to adjust to Daylight Saving Time? Me too. Alas, party’s over, I have to go to work this week, but what will make it sweeter is ifRead More »