Jason Robert Brown

(The first part of this epic can be read here.) I’ve been avoiding finishing this story, it occurs to me, because I can’t assign blame as easily as I’d like. I think I’ve learned over these last twelve years that some projects just aren’t going to play out well, and The Moneyman was ultimately one of those. Nonetheless, I’ve been holding a massive grudge for a long time and it’s weird writing it down and feeling it dissipate. According to my notes, I wrote the first song for what was then called The Predator’s Ball on January 18, 1996, andRead More »

Standing (l to r): Kathryn Foley (Kendra); Elizabeth Gillies (Lucy); Hannah Freeman (Patrice); Evan Daves (Simon); Malcolm Morano (Brett); Eamon Foley (Richie); Danielle Freed (Molly); Sascha Peralta-Ramos (Cassie); Ariana Grande (Charlotte); JJ Singleton (Malcolm); Alex Greenzeig (Eddie); Aaron Simon Gross (Archie); On the floor: Douglas Fabian (Evan). Photo courtesy Vanessa Brown We spent two weeks in January reading the newest draft of “13” at Ripley-Grier Studios in Manhattan with a wonderful group of actors. I had so much fun with the cast that I just wanted to let you see them all together. This is the fourth time we’ve castRead More »

So saith Kenneth Jones here. Hormonal, But Not Atonal: Goodspeed Will Present Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish’s 13 By Kenneth Jones 30 Jan 2008 Tickets go on sale Feb. 24 for the spring East Coast premiere of 13, the new Jason Robert Brown-Dan Elish musical that will play Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre. Performances will begin May 9 at the intimate Chester, CT, venue where Goodspeed incubates new works. The design team for the project was announced Jan. 28. Casting of the teen-age band members and performers is ongoing. 13, as the title suggests, concerns “coming of age, teenRead More »

You’ve been asking lots of good questions, so I’ve been sending emails, calling, dropping by unannounced, anything I can do to get some confirmation of the rumors I’m hearing about what I’m doing in 2008. Unfortunately, I can’t get me to return a phone call, and I haven’t written myself back. No one else is willing to talk on the record either, so the stories below will just have to be considered unsubstantiated gossip until such time as I can corner myself and get me to ‘fess up. “13”: Well, if word on the street is to be believed, there’sRead More »

Steven Suskin’s review here. PARADE [First Night CASTCD 99] Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade is the latest failed Broadway musical to find its way to a smaller, simpler and more economical version. Rob Ashford, the Southern-born director-choreographer who served as Pat Birch’s assistant on the original production in December 1998, seems to have personally shepherded the piece to the estimable Donmar Warehouse. Smaller, simpler and more economical this production was; a company of 51 actors and musicians was reduced to a mere 24. The scenic production at the intimate Donmar was, necessarily, a fragment of the grand pageantRead More »