Jason Robert Brown

Jason Robert Brown is a musical theater composer and lyricist. Often cited as one of the "New School" of theatrical composers (a list that includes Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, Andrew Lippa, and Larry O'Keefe, among others), Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics, and is frequently compared to Billy Joel. An accomplished pianist, Brown has often served as music director, conductor, and pianist for his own productions.

Related Topics:
Composer - Lyricist - Michael John LaChiusa - Adam Guettel - Andrew Lippa - Larry O'Keefe - Billy Joel

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Brown attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and began his career in New York City as an arranger and conductor, 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 legendary 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.

Related Topics:
New York City - William Finn - A New Brain - Songs for a New World - Hal Prince

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Through his association with Daisy Prince, Brown wound up writing 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.

Related Topics:
Parade - Leo Frank - Alfred Uhry - Tony Award

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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. Loosely (or not-so-loosely) based on 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. Kennedy was unable to continue the role in New York due to her committment to the role of Nellie Forbush in Trevor Nunn's production of South Pacific in London, so Sherie Rene Scott took over her role for the New York run (Butz carried over from Chicago). The Last Five Years received mixed critical reviews and was not a commercial success, lasting only two months off-Broadway, although Brown garnered a pair of Drama Desk Awards for music and lyrics. Additionally, due to the cast recording featuring Scott and Butz, the show has gained enormous popularity among contemporary musical theater aficionados and is an oft-performed community theater piece.

Related Topics:
The Last Five Years - South Pacific - Drama Desk Award

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Brown contributed several songs to the Broadway flop Urban Cowboy, and was nominated (along with over 20 others) for the 2003 Tony Award for best Musical Score, losing out to Marc Shaiman's smash hit, Hairspray.

Related Topics:
Urban Cowboy - Marc Shaiman

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Brown has many trademarks in his composing style. For instance, his piano music is often extremely rhythmically challenging; he releases his sheet music in mostly unmodified or simplified 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' format, the exceptions coming mostly in his show Parade. Perhaps most characteristic are his love duets; however: all three (I'd Give it All for You from Songs, The Next 10 Minutes from L5Y, and All the Wasted Time from Parade) are written in a very distinct format: male-female-both, compound time with a hemiola in the duet section, and two of the three end with the couple singing the same pitch.

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

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Brown recently married fellow composer Georgia Stitt, and is currently working on several projects, including a dance-musical entitled The Moneyman (based on the life of financier Michael Milken), and a musical about thirteen-year-olds.

Related Topics:
Georgia Stitt - The Moneyman - Michael Milken

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