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. SuchRead 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 endRead 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 inRead 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,Read More »

Back in the early 90s, when all the musicals seemed to be Cameron Mackintosh spectacles from across the ocean, every tenor in the musical theater tried to sound like an old British rock star. Hundreds of young men came in to auditions grinding out “Gethsemane” and “This Is The Moment,” yelping heroically on high B’sRead More »