Jason Robert Brown - Biography

Jason Robert Brown (born June 20, 1970 in Ossining, New York) is an American musical theater composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. An accomplished pianist, Brown has often served as music director, conductor, orchestrator, and pianist for his own productions.

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. 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.

When Brown was 23, he and a friend were invited to see a Stephen Sondheim show by Sondheim himself. Brown's friend, whom he refers to only as "Franz Liszt", wrote to Sondheim, and that is how they both got the tickets. Sondheim also invited them to dinner afterward. At the show, they sat in front of the New York Times' Frank Rich. They went to dinner, and after twenty minutes, Sondheim asked them what they thought of the show: they both were silent. Brown described the dinner after that moment as "many extremely awkward silences punctuated by bursts of frantic, desperate conversation about anything other than the slaughtered elephant in the room." Brown called mutual friend Daisy Prince the next day, asking if there might be any way to repair the damage after the dinner. She and her family decided that Brown should call Sondheim. Brown paraphrased what Sondheim said:

Nobody cares what you think. Once a creation has been put into the world, you have only one responsibility to its creator: Be supportive. Support is not about showing how clever you are, how observant of some flaw, how incisive in your criticism. There are other people whose job it is to guide the creation, to make it work, to make it live; either they did their job or they didn't. But that is not your problem. If you come to my show and you see me afterward, say only this: "I loved it". It doesn't matter if that's what you really felt. What I need at that moment is to know that you care enough about me and the work I do to tell me that you loved it, not "in spite of its flaws", not "even though everyone else seems to have a problem with it", but simply, plainly, "I loved it." If you can't say that, don't come backstage, don't find me in the lobby, don't lean over the pit to see me. Just go home, and either write me a nice email or don't. Say all the catty, bitchy things you want to your friend, your neighbor, the Internet. Maybe next week, maybe next year, maybe someday down the line, I'll be ready to hear what you have to say, but at that moment, that face-to-face moment after I have unveiled some part of my soul, however small, to you: that is the most vulnerable moment in any artist's life. I beg you, plead with you to tell me what you really thought, what you actually, honestly, totally believed, then you must tell me "I loved it." That moment must be respected."

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 introduced to Harold Prince through his association with Daisy Prince, and was hired to write songs for the Broadway musical Parade, based on the trial and lynching of Leo Frank. Parade, directed by Hal Prince, and with a book by Alfred Uhry, won Brown the 1999 Tony Award for Best Original Musical Score.

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 which 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 mid-point, 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 theater aficionados and is an oft-performed piece in regional and community theatres.

Brown contributed several songs to the Broadway flop Urban Cowboy, and 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).

His most recent completed work, 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.

According to Brown, Brian Lowdermilk used to be an assistant to him. Brown has recently 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.

Current Projects

He is currently working on several projects, including a musical version of the hit movie Honeymoon in Vegas. On July 18, 2010, Brown revealed, via twitter, that he was working on a new show with previous collaborator Daisy Prince. Further details are yet to be announced. He is writing a musical adaption to The Bridges of Madison County with Marsha Norman. Other projects include adapting a French musical with Alfred Uhry for Kathleen Marshall, screenplays for movies of 13 and The Last Five Years, and releasing a solo album in the summer of 2011. One of his songs, entitled "Another Life", is featured on Kelli O'Hara's 2011 album Always.

Musical style

He is cited by Mark Shenton as one of the new theatrical composers (a list that includes Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, Andrew Lippa, and Jeanine Tesori, among others). "They're all smart writers and excellent musicians with lots of interesting ideas for shows. But they don't write take-away tunes." writes New York Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel.

Brown has many trademarks in his composing style. His piano music is often extremely rhythmically challenging; his sheet music is released in a mostly unmodified format, posing many challenges to anyone who tries to play it. His songs are by no means easy to sing, either, with his choral music including many complex and unconventional harmonies and his songs (for men, in particular) covering a very wide vocal range. Most of his songs are written in AABA' form, the exceptions coming mostly in his show Parade. Perhaps most characteristic are his love duets; all four (I'd Give it All for You from Songs for a New World, All the Wasted Time from Parade, The Next 10 Minutes from The Last Five Years, and Tell Her from 13) are written in a very distinct format: male-female-both, compound time in the duet section (two using hemiola), and three of the four end with the couple singing the same pitch.

Personal

Since 2003, Brown has been married to fellow composer Georgia Stitt;. Together, they have two daughters.

Major works

Sources:Internet Off-Broadway Database listing, Internet Broadway Database listing

• Songs For a New World - Revue, Ran Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre, October 11 - November 5, 1995. Also conducted, played piano, and sang one line in the last song.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 13, Composer. 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.

Other works

• The Waverly Gallery - Off-Broadway run from March 22, 2000 to May 21, 2000 at the Promenade Theatre. Play by The Waverley Gallery, with music by Brown.
• John and Jen - Orchestrations
• A New Brain - Vocal arrangements/additional musician
• New York Rock - Orchestrations

Recordings

Original cast recordings were made for Songs for a New World, Parade, The Last Five Years, and "13." "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.

External links

• Jason Robert Brown's Official Website
• Internet Off-Broadway Database
• 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