Jason Robert Brown
Jason Robert Brown
Jason Robert Brownis an American musical theatre 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. He has won Tony Awards for his work on Parade and The Bridges of Madison County...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth20 June 1970
CountryUnited States of America
felt home kept musicals supposed wanting
I did musicals in high school, certainly. And then I just kept wanting to do them. I felt at home in the theater, in that way that, you know, you're supposed to if that's the kind of person you are.
audience behind crucial love performer sitting
Immediate, simultaneous connection between the audience and a performer is crucial to me. It's why I do what I do. Other things, like recording, are satisfying, but they're not the same. I love the connection I get with the audience when I'm sitting behind that piano.
ambivalent anyone doubtful open paying whether
I'm not doubtful that I am doing what I should be doing - writing for theater - and that I'm doing it in a way no one else does it. Whether anyone else is paying attention or anyone else cares, I'm still ambivalent about that. It's still an open question.
best great people theatre wonderful work
What's great about collaborating is getting to work with wonderful people. That's what theatre is about: other people getting you to give your best, and getting everyone else's best out of them.
billy love musical rock star unfair
When I started out, I wanted to be Billy Joel. The plan was to be a singer-songwriter of that ilk, and, then, I got waylaid - that's probably an unfair way to say it - from being a rock star by the musical theatre stuff, which I love doing.
best capital listen love musician musicians
Being a musician - and I like to think of myself as a musician with a capital M - you need to be an omnivore, and I think the best musicians will listen to anything and love everything, and I do.
form knowing medium musicals people realizing
You have to understand the medium you're writing for. People jump into writing musicals without realizing how complicated they are. Knowing one form doesn't necessarily mean you know the other. You have to be comfortable with it.
Actually, if you ask my really close friends, they would say that 'Honeymoon' is more me than anything else I've written.
accessible easily explaining good goodness rage sort thank understanding work
I've never been particularly good at explaining or even understanding what this sort of rage is that is so accessible to me. I'm not an out-of-control person, but I can access in my work very easily a feeling of real fury. Thank goodness I've channeled it into my work, I guess.
freak point protect supposed
You're supposed to be a control freak when you're an artist. That's the whole point of having a vision: Why have one if you're not going to protect it?
billy grew mitchell paul stevie stuff
I grew up in the '70s, and I hear in my own stuff a lot of what I grew up listening to, which is to say I hear a lot of Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder.
begging family musical realized
I don't come from a musical family at all, but I realized early on I was a musician. I started begging for a piano when I was 6 years old.
bit surprised
Personally, I've never been popular, so I'm not surprised that professionally I'm a bit out of step, too.
formative interests led sondheim spent teenage
Leonard Bernstein was probably the most significant formative influence on me - he was such an encompassing musician. I spent my teenage years absorbing him, and my other interests stemmed off of that. Bernstein led me to Sondheim and to Gershwin, and Sondheim led me to listening to Joni Mitchell.