Jason Robert Brown

Ooh, I haven’t done one of these in a while! Jason Marks writes: Getting ready to musically direct 13 this fall, and just had callbacks last night. We had lots of terrific kids who are great actors and most who are fairly strong singers. However, the role of Evan Goldman is proving to be a tricky one to cast because of young voices, puberty and wide ranges. What exactly is Evan’s voice type? Should the boy who plays him have a voice that has already dropped? In listening to the original cast recording, the original boy almost seems to beRead More »

I am profoundly grateful for the music-making I’ve been able to do in the past six months: the SubCulture concerts, the Parade concert at Avery Fisher Hall in Feburary, the Trumpet of the Swan performances in Germany in March, and of course the run of Honeymoon In Vegas on Broadway earlier this year. Last night at the Royal Festival Hall felt like a wonderful culmination of this amazing period of time. I haven’t been back to London since the NYMT production of 13 in the West End in 2012. In the years since, I’ve had two shows open on Broadway,Read More »

For some of these SubCulture concerts, I start off with a Big Idea (like doing a two-piano concert with Tom Kitt), but I didn’t have a particularly Big Idea for this month’s concert, just some wonderful singers I love making music with. Shoshana Bean is almost never in New York, so I grabbed the opportunity to get her to SubCulture now before her UK tour or her starring role in Beaches in Chicago this summer. I’ve been singing with Shoshana for years now, and there has never been a time when she hasn’t blown me away with her talent –Read More »

Hail! Hail Fredonia! A great night in the beautiful Rosch Recital Hall at SUNY Fredonia.  Thanks to Ethos New Music Group, SOTA and especially Rob Deemer, head of the composition faculty, for making this happen.  I did a masterclass and lecture yesterday and then the concert tonight, all with wonderfully engaged, seriously talented students. L to R: Mark Montondo, Alanna Rose Henriquez, JRB, Sarah Mullen & Alex Kosmowski It All Fades Away (from The Bridges of Madison County) I Love Betsy (from Honeymoon In Vegas) Long Long Road (from Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes) I’m Not Afraid of Anything (from SongsRead More »