Jason Robert Brown

I have, in my time, been somewhat controversial (by the fairly boring standards of Broadway composers), and so I knew trouble was in the air when Melinda Saber asked: What do you think of this year’s Tony noms? but I did watch the show tonight, and I did say I would try to answer whatever you all asked, so rather than just doing my usual pontificating (since I always manage to offend someone I like when I do that), I decided I would respond by making three observations:  1) The awards are set up in such a way that a lotRead More »

I’m back from my French Woods reunion, where I learned the somewhat astonishing fact that in twenty years, none of us got fat, none of us went bald, and none of us lost our voices. Also, we all seem to have hooked up with pretty hip people and had absolutely adorable children. There must have been something in the water up there. It was really cool and really weird to be in a room with fifteen people I was in a room with in 1985. I felt simultaneously ancient and very young. Anyway, the point is I’m back to answerRead More »

Thank you all so much for writing back, please keep it up!  I think this website works best when it’s a collaboration between me and the readers, and this blog is the most obvious example of that.  All right, back to the questions! Mindy Cimini writes: I had the pleasure of seeing “Wicked” when it was in town and besides being enthralled by the show as a whole, I also noticed they had a travelling rhythm section.  Immediately, I thought, “I want to do that.”  Before that little ephiphany, I’d conducted/played in a little 5 person combo for a show my school did andRead More »

Talking about my first years in New York City. (Also, is anyone reading these? Drop me a comment or something, for Christ’s sake, I feel like I’m howling into a vacuum out here.) Benjamin Goldstein writes: I’m moving to Toronto soon to sort of pursue things in a piano bar/first CD sort of way and I was wondering if you had any pearls of wisdom to bestow. I only ask because it’s my understanding that you sort of went that route yourself. JRB responds: When I was twenty years old, I came to New York and started playing at allRead More »

Today: studying voice, writing musicals, why I’m not a real jazz pianist, why I’m not a novelist, and why I’m not helpful. Sara Ptak writes: I am an aspiring singer/actor/etc., mostly singer. For most of my summers as a child I went to arts camps, Interlochen and Northwestern and I “studied” music theatre and did as many shows as I possibly could in every place that I could, and in my senior year of high school, I decided that I needed to study classical music so that I could really understand the voice, and so that I could really understand music and how it works andRead More »