Jason Robert Brown

This doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while, I’ll completely get lost while I’m performing a number, and I have to make a decision very quickly about whether to move on and pretend it didn’t happen or stop and apologize. In this case, you’ll see, I did neither. After a similar experience at another show of mine, a friend asked me if all that stuff really goes through my head while I’m playing. The answer is: ALL THE TIME.

(Well, not exactly.) This year has been a non-stop celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday, and if you’re like me, the only shame is that it isn’t like that every year. As it is, I’m still luxuriating in the events from Steve’s 75th birthday, and I got to participate in one of those events in a substantial way. On March 19, 2005, Symphony Space in New York held an event called Wall-To-Wall Stephen Sondheim, which consisted of twelve hours (!) of Sondheim, with his music performed by pianists, singers, string quartets, choirs and orchestras, and several talks given throughout theRead More »

Sitting in the Mark Taper Forum, watching the 3rd preview of Parade, 26 September 2009. [Most of what I’m paying attention to on this particular night is music and sound stuff, so the majority of the notes are marked “T” (for Tom Murray, my stalwart musical director) or “JW” (for Jon Weston, the sound designer). “R” is for Rob Ashford, the director. I realize that much of this will be inscrutable to anyone other than me, but I’ve decided just to post it as is without any further explication.] JW Opening again – much faster pull down of volume JWRead More »

Mark Shenton’s full blog entry can be found here. Something extra for the weekend… by MARK SHENTON The Stage UK, 27 September 2010 On Friday, [I went] to the Garrick for the West End concert debut of Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown, who I’ve previously seen do shows at the New Players and Purcell Room; and on Sunday, to see an all-star concert to celebrate the work of another younger American composer Scott Alan at the New Players. It was ironic, Brown noted, that he was appearing at a West End theatre when he is yet to have a fullRead More »

I have never felt so lucky or had so much fun in my entire career as I did with this awesome band and the unbelievable Anika Noni Rose in London this week. Two sold-out shows at the Garrick Theatre (which is where I saw my first show in the West End ever, 15 years ago!) with a magnificently enthusiastic audience, all singing along and getting on their feet. When I was a kid and dreamed about being a rock star, I imagined it would feel exactly like this. I can’t thank Neil Eckersley and Paul Spicer enough for bringing usRead More »