Jason Robert Brown

Jason Robert Brown (born June 20, 1970) is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for his work on ''Parade'' and ''The Bridges of Madison County''.

Career

Brown grew up in the suburbs of New York City, and attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York for 2 years, rooming with fellow student, and vocalist, Christopher Mooney.Weber, Bruc
"If Only the Cool Kids Could See Him Now (at Least Hear His Songs)"
'The New York Times'', October 1, 2008 During summer, he attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts in Hancock, New York. He said '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' and '' Sunday in the Park with George'' were two of his biggest influences, and had it not been for them, he would have joined a rock band and tried to be Billy Joel.

He began his career in New York City as an arranger, conductor, and pianist, working on shows such as William Finn's ''A New Brain'', and playing at several nightclubs and piano bars in the city. ''Songs for a New World'' marked the first major New York production of Brown's songs. An off-Broadway revue with a limited run, the show was directed by Daisy Prince, daughter of director/producer Hal Prince, and featured the 25-year-old Brown's pop-rock-influenced music. The song "Stars and the Moon" has since become a cabaret standard, and is probably Brown's best-known composition to date.

Brown was subsequently hired to write songs for the Broadway musical ''Parade'', based on the trial and lynching of Leo Frank, after meeting Hal Prince. ''Parade,'' directed by Prince and with a book by Alfred Uhry, won Brown the 1999 Tony Award for Best Original Score.Internet Broadway Database listing, Brown
ibdb.com, accessed February 1, 2011 During this production, Livent, one of the producers of ''Parade'', pulled out after reviews were not as positive as they'd hoped. RCA Victor, the other major producer, decided it would pull out as well. Brown said of the event in 1999, "Livent dropped out shortly after the reviews came out. They announced they would not spend another dime on the show. RCA had an agreement to record all of Livent's shows. But when Livent pulled out of 'Parade,' the RCA higher-ups said they were pulling out, too. I had to go to Billy Rosenfield and ask him: 'What if we pay for this record and you just distribute it?' Billy said, 'Sure.'" Brown had to try to scrounge money from every corner, "In the end, RCA put in $25,000, Lincoln Center put in a big chunk, around $200,000, including the producer Scott Rudin's $25,000, and there was a contribution from the Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla foundation, which has helped support a lot of musical theatre composers over the years, of $40,000. Even Roy Furman, the new guy at Livent, gave us a little money. Somehow, we pulled it together." Livent also was struggling at the time because the company had mishandled funds while applying for bankruptcy protection.

Brown went back to working with Daisy Prince for his third major show ''The Last Five Years'', for which he wrote the book as well as songs. Inspired by his own failed first marriage, the show is a two-person musical that tells the history of a relationship from two different perspectives. The male's narrative begins at the beginning of the story and progresses through marriage, infidelity, and divorce, while the female narrative begins at the end of the relationship and ends with the couple's first date; the two actors' only direct interaction takes place midpoint, during the wedding sequence. The original Chicago cast consisted of Norbert Leo Butz and Lauren Kennedy, with Sherie Rene Scott over the New York run. ''The Last Five Years'' received mixed critical reviews and was not a commercial success, lasting only two months off-Broadway, although Brown garnered 2 Drama Desk Awards for music and lyrics. Additionally, due to the cast recording featuring Scott and Butz, the show has gained popularity among contemporary musical theatre aficionados and is an oft-performed piece in regional and community theatres.Holden, Stephe
"A Composer Sells His Songs and Himself"
'The New York Times'', February 12, 2007 A film version of the show, featuring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan, was released in February 2015.

Brown contributed several songs to the Broadway flop ''Urban Cowboy''. He had worked as an orchestrator with director Phillip Oesterman on the Off-Broadway musical '' New York Rock'', and Oesterman called on him to help him out with ''Urban Cowboy''. ''Urban Cowboy'' had been denied the use of the Clint Black catalog, and Brown came in and wrote a few songs (with help from director Lonny Price, who replaced Oesterman after he died). The show was nominated, with 30 other composers, for the 2003 Tony Award for Best Musical Score, losing out to ''Hairspray.''

In June 2005, Brown released a solo album, entitled '' Wearing Someone Else's Clothes''.

In December 2005, his '' Chanukah Suite'' received its world premiere with two performances by the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

He also teaches courses in musical theatre performance and composition at the University of Southern California. Brown is an active performer of his own work, singing and playing the piano with or without his band, the Caucasian Rhythm Kings (Gary Sieger, guitar, and Randy Landau, bass).

Brown's tween-oriented musical '' 13'' premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, CA on January 7, 2007. It opened on Broadway October 5, 2008, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, and closed on January 4, 2009.

His '' Bridges of Madison County'', a musical adaption of the film with Marsha Norman"Jason Robert Brown to Bring '13' 'The Last Five Years' to Screen More"
broadwayworld.com, December 27, 2010 premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival on August 1, 2013. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the cast featured Elena Shaddow. The musical opened on Broadway on February 27, 2014, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, starring Kelli O'Hara as Francesca.

Brown wrote the music for the 2022 musical, Mr. Saturday Night (musical) with lyrics by Amanda Green and a book by Billy Crystal,
Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel. Brown was nominated for best score at the 2022 Tony Awards.

According to Brown, Bree Lowdermilk used to be an assistant to him. In 2010, Brown publicized his personal efforts to discourage the unauthorized online sharing of his copyrighted sheet music via an e-mail conversation with a teenager named Eleanor.

As of 2020, Brown was working on a screenplay for a film version of '' 13'', a musical adaptation of Farewell My Concubine, and an original musical called The Connector.

Musical style

Brown has many trademarks in his composing style, which is often rhythmically dynamic and harmonically unconventional, calling for a wide vocal range. His vocal lines often include internal rhymes, as well as melodic phrases which do not adhere to a predictable 4-measure length. He favors songs written in AABA' form, with some exceptions to this form in his show ''Parade''. Perhaps most characteristic are his love duets; all five ("I'd Give it All for You" from ''Songs for a New World'', "All the Wasted Time" from ''Parade'', "The Next Ten Minutes" from ''The Last Five Years'', "Tell Her" from ''13'', and "One Second And A Million Miles" from ''The Bridges of Madison County'') are written in a very distinct format: male-female-both, compound time in the duet section (two using hemiola), and four of the five end with the couple singing the same pitch.

In 2005, Brown was cited by Mark Shenton as one of the leading new theatrical composers (a list that includes Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, Andrew Lippa, and Jeanine Tesori, among others).

Personal life

Brown was born in Ossining, New York. He is Jewish. He was previously married to Theresa O'Neill, and their failed marriage inspired his musical ''The Last Five Years''. Since 2003, Brown has been married to fellow composer Georgia Stitt. Together, they have two daughters.

Major works

Musical theatre

*''Songs for a New World'' – Ran Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre, October 11 – November 5, 1995. Also conducted, played piano, and sang one line in the last song. The show was revived at New York City Center for four nights in June 2018.
*''Parade'' – Ran on Broadway from December 17, 1998 to February 28, 1999. Won the Tony Award for Best Score, and a Drama Desk Award for Best Music. Also plays piano on the cast recording.
*''The Last Five Years'' – Ran Off-Broadway from March 3, 2002 to May 5, 2002. Won Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics, and nominated for Outstanding Orchestrations. Also wrote the book, conducted, and played piano. In 2014, a movie was made starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.
*''Urban Cowboy'' – Ran on Broadway from March 27, 2003 to May 18, 2003. Tony-Nominated for Best Original Score. Brown contributed five songs to the score of the musical. Also orchestrated, arranged, music directed, conducted, played keyboards, and sang.
*'' 13 –'' Premiered January 7, 2007, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, California and subsequently opened on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, running from October 5, 2008 to January 4, 2009 after 22 previews and 105 regular performances.
*''The Bridges of Madison County'' – Stage adaptation of the novel, with a book by Marsha Norman. The musical played an out-of-town tryout at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in August 2013. It opened on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on January 17, 2014 (in previews) and officially on February 20, 2014. The production closed on May 18, 2014 after 137 performances due to low ticket sales. He won two 2014 Tony Awards, one for Best Original Score and one for Best Orchestrations.
*''Honeymoon in Vegas'' – Brown has written a stage adaptation of the motion picture of the same name, with the book written by Andrew Bergman. The Broadway production was originally scheduled to debut in Toronto in November 2012, but was canceled. Performances began on September 26, 2013, for the out-of-town tryout at the Paper Mill Playhouse starring Tony Danza and Rob McClure. The Broadway production starring Danza and McClure opened at the Nederlander Theatre on January 15, 2015, before closing on April 5, 2015, due to insufficient ticket sales.
*''Mr. Saturday Night'' – Brown has scored a musical version of this 1992 film starring Billy Crystal who will also star in the musical version. He scored this production alongside Amanda Green. It will premiere at the Nederlander Theatre on March 29, 2022. The show has since announced that it will conclude its Broadway run on September 4, 2022

Solo albums

*'' Wearing Someone Else's Clothes'' – 2005 – Brown's solo debut album, composed entirely of tracks which were previously unreleased, some of which were cut songs from shows or written for shows which were never finished, and some of which were written as stand-alone songs for the album. The album features his vocals and compositions on every song, and his arrangements and musicianship on almost every track.
*''How We React and How We Recover'' – A second solo album, recorded from May–December 2017, features songs developed at his monthly Subculture concert residency in New York. The album was released June 29, 2018 by Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.
*''Coming From Inside The House (A Virtual SubCulture Concert)'' – A third solo album, featuring vocals by Shoshana Bean, Ariana Grande, and Brown's wife and daughters. It was recorded on April 27, 2020 for the one-night video streaming event to benefit the SubCulture staff and musicians from the Jason Robert Brown Artist-in-Residence concerts, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released worldwide on December 18, 2020 by Craft Recordings.

Other works

*'' Chanukah Suite'' – 2005 – an 8-minute chorale fanfare in three parts, featuring traditional Hebrew songs infused with up-tempo rock and roll rhythms and Leonard Bernstein inspired chordal flavors.
*" Jason's Song (Gave It Away)" – When Brown was in L.A. for a couple of weeks, Ariana Grande asked him to write a song for a new album. Since they have worked together before (in the Original Broadway Cast of 13), Brown agreed to help. Months later, their track was released on Grande's extended edition of ''Dangerous Woman''.
*''The Waverly Gallery'' – Off-Broadway run from March 22, 2000 to May 21, 2000 at the Promenade Theatre. Play by Kenneth Lonergan, with music by Brown.
*'' John and Jen'' – Orchestrations
*''A New Brain'' – Vocal arrangements/additional musician
*'' New York Rock'' – Orchestrations
*''The Trumpet of the Swan'', 2011 – Composer and conductor for stage adaptation by Marsha Norman

Awards and nominations

Recordings

Original cast recordings were made for ''Songs for a New World'', ''Parade,'' ''The Last Five Years,'' ''13'', ''The Bridges of Madison County'', and ''Honeymoon in Vegas''. "Stars and the Moon" has been recorded many times, including on Audra McDonald's ''Way Back to Paradise'' and Betty Buckley's ''Stars and the Moon: Live at the Donmar.''

Actress Lauren Kennedy, who originated the role of Cathy in the Chicago production of ''The Last Five Years,'' released ''Songs of Jason Robert Brown,'' featuring Brown's compositions from his previous shows, as well as several previously unreleased songs.

References

External links

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archive

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Production: Urban Cowboy
– ''Working in the Theatre Seminar'' video at American Theatre Wing.org, April 2003

''Parade'' to Make West End Premiere in 2007

''BroadwayWorld.com'' interview with Jason Robert Brown, August 16, 2007

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Jason Robert
1970 births
American musical theatre composers
American musical theatre lyricists
Broadway composers and lyricists
Broadway music directors
Drama Desk Award winners
Eastman School of Music alumni
Living people
People from Ossining, New York
Pupils of Samuel Adler (composer)
Songwriters from New York (state)
Tony Award winners
University of Southern California faculty
American male pianists
21st-century American pianists
21st-century American male musicians
American male songwriters