Jason Robert Brown- Page 2

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 9/11/08 at 3:18pm

I would imagine they say that because most of his musicals are about him in some way.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/11/08 at 3:26pm

Well for one thing, he's a brilliant pianist - so brilliant that some of the piano parts he writes are almost impossible for anyone else to play well. It's no accident that for the original Chicago and New York runs of Last Five Years, he played the piano. How often do you see the composer playing in the pit? (well, behind the stage, actually.)

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 9/11/08 at 3:52pm

My voice teacher told me that Adam Guettel's actually a lot harder to play than JRB on the piano.

Not that I'm disagreeing, just reminded me.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 9/11/08 at 4:26pm

I would agree with that. At least with JRB, it's so pop/rock oriented that you can fake your way through it. With Guettel I just pray for the song to end so my fingers will stop bleeding.

As for him being self-indulgent, I kind of think that's a silly statement. I mean, "A New Brain"? "Rent"? "[title of show]"? I'm all for creating art about a time period or event I'm fully removed from, but you have to respect people who have the guts to put themselves into their work, especially when it forces them to be portrayed in a poor light.

In TL5Y, it's not like he changed history and made Jamie the hero... he fully accepts the fact that he cheated on his wife and says "Here, this is what I did. This is what happened. I'm not proud of it, but I can't deny it." That takes courage.

[broadwaybaby086]

Posted: 9/11/08 at 4:28pm

I would agree. I'm not virtuoso by any means, but trying to play both, Guettel is a lot more irregular/less regular than Brown, whereas while Brown has a lot of bluesy runs that are fast and tricky, the rest of the parts are fairly systematic or patterned. Once you get the hang (or hand, haha, puns) of one figure or motive, you can kind of apply that to the next. Guettel is all over the place. Both sound lovely, though!

Both could easily play me under the table, though, so take my opinion for what it's worth.

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 9/11/08 at 6:44pm

I must admit, since posting this thread I've listened to The Last Five Years a good bit, and I've learned to like it more. Still don't understand the obsession, but it's growing on me.

[blondebaby589]

Posted: 9/12/08 at 2:13pm

DooWahDiddy, I agree with you about the self-indulgence thing. And to add one to the list, "Tick Tick Boom". I think people tend to associate JRB with negative self-indulgence because he is usually recognized as a snob.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/12/08 at 6:46pm

My question on "Tick, Tick Boom" is, do we really know if the "finished product" as heard on the cast album is really what Larson had in his head? It sounds like the folks who put together the three-actor version that was presnted Off-Broadway and recorded went to a lot of trouble to appease the RENT fans - making the arrangements, orchestration and even the quality of the vocals sound a lot like RENT. So, it ends up sounding like a Rent "prequel".

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 9/13/08 at 12:03am

No, it's pretty much the same. I have the DVD of Jonathan's performance (from the "Jonathan Sings Larson" CD/DVD) and it's pretty close to what we know as the show. It even had a young Roger Bart sitting upstage singing those harmonies, although that didn't seem to serve much purpose for that particular presentation.