Jason Robert Brown

I couldn’t loathe the headline more, but here’s a tantalizing excerpt from an interview, at any rate. (There are instructions for downloading the entire magazine at the bottom of the link above.) First preview tomorrow night! The Next Andrew Lloyd Webber? 10th September 2007 by Roger Foss Musicals are everywhere. But where are the new writers? And why aren’t they more famous? Roger Foss asks US composer Jason Robert Brown as his Parade comes to London. ———————— Attacking the growth of “pretty ghastly” West End musical revivals last year, lyricist Tim Rice asked: “Where is a single young team orRead More »

Chris Goss writes: I am currently at the beginning of my career as a television writer. You spoke at my college several years back, California State University, Fullerton, and I found a tremendous amount of honesty in how you addressed both the performers and the audience. My question pertains to how success has changed you as an artist. As a young writer my goal is to achieve the seemingly impossible: actually get paid a wage to write something that more than my friends and family will read, watch and ultimately be affected by. That drive often layers directly into myRead More »

Come hear the opening of Songs for a New World with the National Symphony Orchestra on the West Lawn of the Capitol! Also, some Rodgers, some Copland, some Gershwin, some Light In The Piazza, some Dvorák, some John Williams, some Tchaikovsky, some Leroy Anderson, some Stravinsky, and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” That’s some good company I’m in! More info here! If you see it, let me know how it goes! J.

An interviewer actually chided me the other day for not updating my blog more often. I pointed out to him that I was a little busy rewriting Parade, but that genuinely seemed not to satisfy him. The first interview Alfred and I did together in London was a disaster. The interviewer started by implying that we were particularly fortunate to get another chance to do Parade because it wasn’t very good on Broadway. Things went downhill from there. But my strange encounters with the press aside, it’s been very exciting revisiting this show, especially working at the Donmar, which isRead More »

I’ve been asked by several readers what I know about the production of Songs for a New World now playing at Open Circle Theatre in Washington DC, a production which has a cast of twenty-four and contains an additional song than the published version. Luckily, Joel Markowitz of DC Theatre Scene got Suzanne Richard, the very persistent, very compassionate, and very talented director, to talk about how the production came about. You can read the full article here, and you’ll also see photos of the production. I give them my blessing and my best wishes for an extremely successful run.Read More »