Jason Robert Brown

A FUNNY thing happened to the modern musical on its way to the theater: it became serious – boy usually doesn’t get girl anymore – and the endings are not always neat and tidy. Has musical theater changed in any lasting way? Must an audience always leave a show humming?  The creators and directors of two musicals about to open in New York talked recently about the state of their art form. In their 30’s and early 40’s, they represent a younger generation in the theater.  Jason Robert Brown’s new sung-through show, "The Last Five Years," directed by Daisy Prince and starringRead More »

Jason Robert Brown is arguably the best of America’s bright new musical theatre composers. His talents can currently be seen at the Bridewell Theatre, who present the European premiere of his first show, Songs for a New World‚ until 15 September. What was the motivation for writing Songs for a New World? SFANW didn’t start out literally as a show. It was just songs that I’d written. I used to play in a piano bar in Greenwich Village and I knew that a few years before a show called Closer Than Ever had started there and eventually moved off-Broadway forRead More »

I am sure that Jason Robert Brown is as tired of references to his age as he is to his being labeled part of the current ‘Bratpack’ of musical theater writers. But I am afraid that I can’t resist: his accomplishments in the past decade have been incredible for an individual of any age, much less a writer barely into his thirties. As an arranger,Jason worked on A New Brain and Dinah Was. His orchestrations can be heard on john and jen and Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall. He music directed The Petrified Prince and When Pigs Fly. And,Read More »

InTheater asked a distinguished group of artists, producers, and critics to share their thoughts on theater at the turn of the millennium. Parade’s Harold Prince and Jason Robert Brown were among them. HAROLD PRINCE: Producing Results The Chelsea Theatre Center’s alliance with my office in producing the revised Candide in Brooklyn in 1973 was among the first successful marriages of not-for-profit and commercial theater. It was followed soon after by A Chorus Line. What was amazing in those days was how cynically such a marriage was viewed, particularly by the National Endowment for the Arts and the not-for-profit community. TimesRead More »

Interview for THE DRAMATIST magazine, November 1999 by Gregory Bossler Jason Robert Brown made his Broadway debut as a composer with Parade and received the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score. His first musical, Songs for a New World, debuted Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in 1995. For his work on that show and others in progress, Brown received the 1996 Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award. He also has worked as arranger for William Finn’s A New Brain (Lincoln Center), as orchestrator for Andrew Lippa’s john and jen (Lamb’s) and Yoko Ono’s New York Rock (WPA), and as musicalRead More »