Jason Robert Brown

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.Holden, Stephen.The New York Times, June 29, 2005 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.Weber, Bruce.The New York Times, October 1, 2008 During summer, he attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts in Hancock, New York. He said 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, a friend and him were invited to see a Stephen Sondheim show by Sondheim himself. Brown's friend, who he refers to only as "Franz Liszt", wrote Sondheim and that is how they both got the tickets. Sondheim also invited them to dinner afterwords. 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...
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