All articles by Jason Robert Brown
Interesting things happen in the state of Texas, featuring Hannah Cruz, Ben Levi Ross, the editorial and graphics departments at the New York Times, Mstislav Rostropovich playing Penderecki,…
Jason Robert Brown and Stephen Sondheim: Live in Concert (Live from Town Hall/ 2019)
Album available from Concord Theatricals Recordings " stream and buy vinyl here: https://found.ee/JRBSte…
Jason Robert Brown in concert!
I'll tell you what I hear.
I hear my band in college, with a big Earth, Wind & Fire-style horn section, playing a riff that I eventually turned into "The River Won't Flow." 1988, I was e…
I have played a few concerts in my life where I felt something shift, like every concert afterward would be informed by what had happened onstage that night. The general structure of my conc…
I got asked if I would come watch a run-through of a new musical because the producers were considering replacing the musical director and wondered if I would be open to taking over. The cat…
The world I travel in is filled with gay men and women, trans people, and folks who inhabit basically every millimeter of the gender-and-sexuality spectrum. They are my collaborators, my fr…
It seems unlikely, I know, but I lived in Los Angeles for almost a decade and I really loved it, and one of the things I loved was my relationship with some of the local theater companies. …
I've spent a lot of time in Las Vegas over the years " I was the music supervisor for six industrial shows for State Farm Insurance that played at the Thomas & Mack Arena " and I actuall…
Sometimes I ask what it is that the world needs from me, how can I be of service to this complicated and conflicted planet, and sometimes the answer comes with bracing clarity. On June 14, I…
SCOTT BAKULA, HANNAH CRUZ, BEN LEVI ROSSÂ AND THE ORIGINAL CAST AND ORCHESTRA OF THE CONNECTOR TO REUNITE FOR A ONE-NIGHT ONLYÂ CONCERT BENEFITTING THE COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS
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Once I finish a show, it stays finished! Done! Close the book, put it away, here the Maestro laid down his pen.
Except sometimes.
I mean, there's always one line that I never... Read more..
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When I did the first concert in my SubCulture residency in December 2014, I knew I was starting a new phase in my musical life, but I didn't realize that I was actually closing a chapter as …
Creating Ethan's first published story, featuring Bruno Mars, Kathleen Marshall, Donald Fagen, the Wood Knight, the Shippensburg Greyhounds, a Yeti playing the bass, Stefan Fatsis, Miles, an…
I had been warned that the crowd at the early show was likely to be kind of subdued. Monday night in Pittsburgh, mostly subscribers, older folks, nothing bad but good to know in advance. To …
Let's start this story by referring to the picture below this paragraph. That video still represents the real beginning of my career in the New York theater. See that dark-haired kid on the …
Let's explore Robin's song "I'm Watching You," featuring Steve Reich, cool digital art, explicit dissonance, my immodest dog, the President and Vice-President in the comforting embrace of a …
Exploring "See Yourself," the big "I want" song, featuring Mike Nichols, an ode to Randy Landau, the versions of the song I would have written in Bizarro World, a Yeti with a five-string bas…
I don't know about how it works in your house, but in our little corner of show business, the first Tuesday of September feels like someone shot a starter pistol in Times Square and suddenly…
Analyzing the opening number, "The Whole World Changed," featuring Yehudi Menuhin, Philip Glass, cameos from two of my previous scores, our next Commander-in-Chief cast in resin, a Yeti with…
Analyzing the opening number, "The Whole World Changed," featuring Yehudi Menuhin, Philip Glass, cameos from two of my previous scores, our next Commander-in-Chief cast in resin, a Yeti with…
Last week, I started a new video series called "The Deep Dive," where I'm delve into the writing process of The Connector in obsessive, microscopic detail. Here's Issue #1, where I spend ab…
What I wrote before I wrote what I wrote. With special guest appearances by Everest The Yeti, Maurizio Pollini, and Sting.
Cast album and sheet music can be found here: https://found.ee/The…
THE CONNECTOR Deep Dive Issue #1: Cluster
JRB discusses the first measure of the show in excruciating detail, along with some fun tidbits that get us up to m. 28 of the opening number.
All o…
For over fifty years, the 92nd St. Y on the Upper East Side of Manhattan has hosted virtually every luminary of the musical theater through its Lyrics and Lyricists series. I am so proud to…
Often in these pages I have spoken about seeing Closer Than Ever at the Cherry Lane Theater in 1989 and the powerful effect it had on me. Among the many repercussions of that evening was my …
Some things involving Hal Prince really only make sense in the context of Hal Prince, so I won't take up your time attempting to explain why we did our first production of Prince of Broadway…
The world has changed a lot since my last concert in London, in 2019, and I've changed a lot with it. For reasons both obvious and not, I've gone from doing 20 to 30 concerts a year to doing…
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The post TWO MORE WEEKS OF THE CONNECTOR (and other news) appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.
What, you may ask, is "popular demand"? "Popular demand" is when we've been selling so many tickets for The Connector in its world pr... Read more..
The post "THE CONNECTOR" EXTENDS TO MARCH…
Sometimes you get so excited about the fact that tickets are on sale for your new show that you turn on a camera and talk about it for thirteen minutes.
Read more..
The post LAUNCHING "THE …
I figure I'm just gonna talk for twelve minutes about something that means the world to me. Two weeks until rehearsals start for my first show with Daisy Prince in over twenty years. THE CON…
It's been 12 years since my last trip to Indianapolis and things have sure changed. The Cabaret's new purpose-built venue is a wonder, a great room for making and listening to music, with a …
Georgia and I were honored with this year's Inspire Award by the folks at the Foundation for New American Musicals, and we decided to bring some friends along to help us celebrate (and sing …
So sometimes what happens is you hear this song on the Internet, sung by this very young writer, and you think, "Wow, she's pretty amazing," so you follow her on Twitter (back when you used …
ImprovisationI L... Read more..
The post SET LIST: MUSIC WITH THE DIGIFIDDLER, BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY, PITTSFIELD MA, 8/31-9/1/23 appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.
Pittsfield, MA " August 31 & September 1, I'm on the stage at Mr. Finn's Cabaret at Barrington Stage Company, playing every song I've ever written, in chronological order! I'll be sharin…
It's surely one of the less expected things on my résumé, but for a brief period of time in 2003, I put on a cowboy hat and boots every night and led the band of the Broadway musical, Urba…
Real big news: As of today, right now, this very instant, you can stream and/or download the 2023 Broadway cast album of PARADE! Produced by myself and Jeffrey Lesser, with B... Read more..
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On February 21, 2023, the night of the first preview of the new Broadway production of Parade (a musical about the Leo Frank case that premiered in 1998), audience members waiting to enter t…
A gorgeous autumnal Sunday in suburban New Jersey with my magnificent band and truly one of the most amazing singers in the world. Not only did we get to play extended versions of some of ou…
An amazing weekend with the folks at Red Mountain Theater in Birmingham AL. I'm always surprised that I have this long, rich relationship with a theater in the Deep South, but Keith Cromwell…
JRB, Danielle Lee Greaves, Tasha Michelle doing another of JRB's crazy patter songs.
Sunday night, 9/11/22 at 54 Below!
To my utter astonishment, as of right now, you can turn on Netflix and see the film adaptation of my musical 13! Directed by Tamra Davis, produced by Neil Meron, with a screenplay by Robert …
Shoshana Bean and I have been yodeling, complaining, cracking each other up and messing up lyrics together for about fifteen years now. We sang together at a wedding, we sang together at a b…
Nineteen years after I started writing 13 with Dan Elish, I have the flabbergasting joy of presenting to you… the trailer for the Netflix motion picture "13: The Musical," which begins air…
When Mr. Saturday Night opened on April 29 at the Nederlander, it marked the first time I've had a new full score on Broadway since Honeymoon In Vegas closed in 2015. Certainly there's been …
JRB, Anastasia Talley and Cheeyang Ng in rehearsal for JRB's concert at 54 Below, May 2022.
One of my kids' camp counselors needed to interview a composer for her school, so I got volunteered. I ended up kind of liking what I had to say, so I thought I'd post it here in case it giv…
Not that long ago, I did 30 to 40 concerts a year, traveling all over the country, racking up frequent flier miles and staying in weird hotels and eating a lot of late dinners by myself. Thi…
