176 stories by "Jason Robert Brown"
Audition story #1: On January 9, 2006, we had our first auditions for a workshop production of 13 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. A girl named Sara Niemietz came in " I had previousl…
In "Still Here," a biography by Alexandra Jacobs, Stritch comes across as a matchless talent and a hopeless neurotic.
In the summer of 1984, I signed up to be in the Rock Band program at French Woods. Every other kid in Rock Band that summer was a guitarist or a drummer; no one ever knew what to do with a k…
It feels like a cliché to write about a performer's "passion," such an overused word, and yet I can't think of any other way to discuss the experience of putting this show together with Ra�…
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Last night I went to Lincoln Center to see Grace McLean's thrilling musical, "In The Green." I have been a fan of Grace's for years, and she was my guest at a particularly wild SubCulture co…
I started writing Parade twenty-five years ago, in 1994, and today I happened to be doing some work in my storage unit when I found a couple of really fun pieces of history from that show. T…
Paul Mow had a dream of building a theater in the newly-revitalized Arts District of Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Michigan, and as usual for Paul, he pushed and pushed and made it come true. I …
Three years ago, I got a call from Michael McElroy of Broadway Inspirational Voices, asking me if I would participate in an outreach that BIV was doing with the Ronald McDonald House. I said…
What is the recipe for a Wayne Brady? You need a pound of generosity and, like, a ton of charm, and then fourteen gallons of talent, open up a can of fearlessness, and sprinkle at least four…
Man, oh man, do I love Doris Day's singing. It's elegant but earthy, with her rich creamy voice that burrows deep into the chords and finds the perfect place to nestle, cozying up against th…
Let's be honest: some people sing better than others. And some people sing better than pretty much anyone. And one of those people is Alysha Umphress. I've been waiting for the chance to sin…
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the American College Theater Festival, and I was honored to be asked to be the keynote entertainer at the Kennedy Center (in the same theater where I condu…
There is truly nothing more thrilling more me than stepping on to the stage of a historic theater and getting to add my own music to all the glorious sounds that preceded me. As I've now don…
A wonderful return to St. Louis after four years, to play at the beautiful Grandel in front of an amazing audience (including Broadway legend and STL native Ken Page!) " and featuring a grea…
Here's how it works: At about four in the afternoon on a relentlessly rainy late winter day, your doorbell rings and you open the front door so your dog can jump on whoever has just arrived,…
What do you do when a last-minute schedule change means your featured guest star suddenly cancels her appearance? If you're me, you take to Twitter, ask your followers who they would be most…
It is a very rare thing, what I saw tonight. The world premiere of a new oratorio by one of classical music's most valuable, surprising and incisive composers, performed by the mighty New Yo…
On New Year's Eve, I said goodbye to 2018 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where Kate Baldwin and Ashley Perez Flanagan sang a ravishing version of my song "Singing You Home," with K…
It's been an unbelievable year of shows at the SubCulture residency. So many dazzling artists doing thrilling work and really pushing me to keep up " Carrie Manolakos, Sutton Foster, the ast…
Twenty years ago, Carolee Carmello headed the company of my first Broadway show, Parade, and poured her voice of molten brass right into my music for a Tony Award nomination and a performanc…
The amazing Chris McGriff invited me out to the Hill School to share a wonderful night with his amazing students, who had just finished a run of Songs for a New World and couldn't wait to as…
You could find a dictionary definition of "charisma," or you could just watch Ty Taylor. Here is a guy who pulls an audience right to him, whether he's in a stadium in front of 50,000 people…
I wrote a song in 2010 to celebrate the fact that Georgia Stitt and I had, at that point, made it through ten years of our relationship. Today marks our 15th wedding anniversary (so we've be…
