Jason Robert Brown

Ordinarily, the International Thespian Festival is a gathering of thousands of theater teens converging on a college campus in the Midwest to geek out about plays and musicals and connect with the rest of the theatrical community in a crazy immersive week of workshops, performances, classes, exhibitions and the occasional unsanctioned midnight Hedwig sing-along. Such fraternization and festivity was, alas, not a possibility this year, but the show does go on, as we say, and so a Virtual Festival was curated, and I was asked to address the assembled masses. So now, thanks to the magic of the Internet andRead More »

I’ve found it punishingly hard to write music during these last nine weeks (nine weeks!), but I did manage to do this, a tribute to the great Bucky Pizzarelli and all the extraordinary jazz musicians lost to the coronavirus. Many thanks to the folks at Local 802 for asking me to create something, and to Pete Donovan for putting the video together (and beautifully laying down the bass), as well as all the musicians who contributed: Jamie Eblen (drums), Monica Davis (violin and viola), Janet Axelrod (flute), Lynne Cohen (English horn), Elise Frawley (viola), Kyle Hoyt (French horn), Morris KainumaRead More »

First we canceled the March show. We had planned a really beautiful show with Ashley Perez Flanagan, Zonya Love Johnson and Marcus Paul James for March 16, but then the social distancing order came down and all the performing spaces had to close. And we knew that, for the foreseeable future, that was the end of that. There wasn’t much time to dwell on it, really – Georgia and I were too busy getting the girls’ distance-learning set up and making sure we had the groceries and supplies we needed, figuring out what we had in the bank and whetherRead More »

I’m a huge fan of Shawn Colvin, she’s an amazing singer, distinctive and exquisitely musical down to every inhale, and she’s a monster guitar player with the best right hand on the circuit, not to mention that she’s a fantastic writer. I’ve never met her, but I’ve always hoped that if I mentioned her in enough interviews, I’d one day get a phone call from a number in Austin TX and a voice would say, “Hey man, want to collaborate on an album?” SINCE THAT HASN’T HAPPENED, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. Ms. Colvin has beenRead More »

Monday night, April 27, at 8 PM EST, I’m proud to host the first online show of the JRB SubCulture Residency, featuring maybe the two greatest singers on the planet Earth: my muse and inspiration, Ms. SHOSHANA BEAN, and my tiny Grammy-winning genius, Ms. ARIANA GRANDE. We’ve put together a really special show for you, including not just those two amazing singers but also my incredible band, who have been recording tracks in their basements, closets and bathrooms, and my beautiful family, who have been roped in to sing a number as well as being cajoled to do various cinematographicRead More »