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(fit
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BILL CARROLL
to make it big on Broadway.
"I knocked around like many
other aspiring composers,' he
0
or just a "bunch of songs"
said, "working in piano bars, giv-
written for "various aban-
ing music lessons, doing any-
doned pieces" that were
thing to help pay the rent. I like
then "put up at a cabaret,"
living in New York because
the musical revue Songs for a New
Jewish people just fit in better in
World didn't come out too badly for
show business here. I love the
young Jewish composer Jason .
cultural aspect of Jewish life in
Robert Brown.
New York.
That's how Brown himself
"Then I got involved in Songs
describes his first musical, finished
for a New World, which seemed
in 1995 after several years of hard
to take on a life of its own. The
work. It premiered Off-Broadway at
show is a pretty good summation
the old WPA Theatre for 28 per-
of the first part of my life, espe-
formances, a standard run there,
cially my early years in New York
and has been in 60 different pro-
City. I just got caught up in the
ductions around the United States
flow. You trust the moment, hold
since then.
your breath and sail away."
Songs for a New World will make
Brown had trouble putting the
its Michigan premiere Friday, Feb.
show together until he met Daisy
16, at the Stagecrafters' Baldwin
Prince in a piano bar where he
Theatre in Royal Oak, and run
was working. She's the daughter
through March 4. The 45-year-old
of famed Broadway producer-
community theater, with 3,000-sea-
director Harold Prince, who later
son-ticket subscribers, performs
directed Parade.
musicals and dramas throughout the
"She saw the show as it was
year at the Baldwin, an old vaude-
then and liked it, and she agreed
ville house renovated in the 1980s.
to be the director," Brown said.
Brown is probably best known for
"There are times when my intu-
his music and lyrics for Parade, a
ition about things is strong, and
dark musical about a 1913 Atlanta
I was lucky in this case. She's a
murder case. Parade won him a
very talented and phenomenal
Tony Award in 1999 for Best
collaborator."
Original Score, plus New York
Brown and Prince worked on
Drama Critics Outer Circle and
the show for three more years at
Drama Desk awards for Best New
that point, and it took on a
Musical. He also is an arranger,
Jason Robert Brown: "Sometimes I still want
strange new shape," according
orchestrator and musical director.
to be Billy Joel," says the composer, who com-
to Brown. "She and I were pow-
Brown, 30 and single, is the product bined his interests in music and acting into a erless to control it. Songs that
of a "typical Jewish household" in a
career writing for musical theater.
seemed perfect on their own sud-
heavily Orthodox community in
denly became awkward in the con-
Rockland County, N.Y., about 40
text of the show and were dropped.
miles north of Manhattan. There was no musical back-
Songs written years apart seemed to make more sense
ground in the family — his mother is a teacher, his father
together and were added. We discarded piles of songs that
a hardware salesman - — but Brown "demanded" piano les-
weren't right anymore."
sons at the age of 7. He started using his middle name to
Most difficult was creating an opening number, the title
distinguish himself from two other Jason Browns in high
song, which Brown finally put together while playing the
school.
piano in a rehearsal hall at 1:30 in the morning. After
He attended the prestigious Eastman School of Music in
more fine-tuning, the show opened af the WPA Theatre
Rochester, N.Y., but dropped out after two years because
— named after the old Works Projects Administration
he "just disliked academia." After a brief stint as a music
from the Depression era — with four performers and a
teacher in Florida, he returned to New York, determined
five-piece band. For this show, Brown was given the 1996
`;'
F
21st
YEAR
2/16
2001
Jason Robert Brown is the young Jewish composer behind a new Stagecrafters
revue that seamlessly weaves together a range of musical styles.
Special to the .3Jewish News
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DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS
`New World' On Parade
"