The opening line to Jason Robert Brown bio is BOLD!!!!!!

[BETTY22]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 4:14pm

Jason Robert Brown (Music & Lyrics) has written the scores for some of the most influential musicals of the past thirty years, beginning with Songs for a New World (1995), and continuing with Parade (Tony Award for Best Score, 1999), The Last Five Years (Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Lyrics, 2002), 13 (2008), The Bridges of Madison County (Tony Award for Best Score and Best Orchestrations, 2014), Honeymoon In Vegas (2015), and last season's Mr. Saturday Night (lyrics by Amanda Green). Both The Last Five Years and 13 have been adapted into films. Jason tours the world as a singer and pianist, and his songs, including "Hope," "Someone To Fall Back On," and "All Things In Time," have been recorded by hundreds of artists including Ariana Grande, Shoshana Bean, Betty Buckley, Jennifer Nettles, Brandi Carlile, Billy Porter, and Audra McDonald. His latest musical, The Connector, directed by his longtime collaborator Daisy Prince, opens Off-Broadway next year.

Too much or healthy ego? 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 4:32pm

Most of his melodies are boring, pretty much all of his shows have flopped, and he only won those Tony Awards by default.  The only score i actually like is Bridges of Madison County.

[JasonC3]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 4:36pm

Seems relatively tame to me on the scale of bold or braggadocious self-assessments.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 4:43pm

Like it or not, it’s actually a true statement. An entire generation of theatre composers have tried to emulate his grooves and rhythmic patterns. Say what you want, but he made popular this style of piano-driven, pop/rock-influenced contemporary musical theatre (which in turn was influenced by many before him like Kander & Ebb, Maltby & Shire, Schwartz, etc.). While his Tony wins may have been “by default,” there is no denying the power of those scores and the skills he has. I think he is a worthy winner of those awards.

[binau]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 4:56pm

I think 'influential' is hard for me to justify because I genuinely don't know who he has influenced (cf. Oscar Hammerstein, who influenced Sondheim - or Sondheim, who influenced Jonathan Larson among others, or Jonathan Larson, who influenced Lin Manuel Miranda and Tom Kitt among others).

However, if we are talking pure quality of output I do think "Parade" and "Bridges" are absolutely top-tier scores that would make anyone including Sondheim envious. And so even if I don't really understand the hype behind others such as "The Last Five Years', Jason Robert Brown has earned his place for me. 

[trpguyy]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 5:01pm

I bet if you were to ask young performers and/or students to name influential musicals from the last 30 years, you’d get an awful lot of JRB titles. 
And there’s absolutely no denying that he has influenced younger composers (Tom Kitt and LMM immediately jump to kind). 

Updated On: 1/30/23 at 05:01 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 5:16pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Keep in mind also that his bio may have been written by a PARADE publicist, not by him directly. Bigger things to get worked up about. It’s not like he’s actively lying, like the AIN’T NO MO language."

I have no doubt he wrote it himself. Jason Robert Brown's biggest fan is Jason Robert Brown.

[JoeW4]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 5:18pm

I have my issues with JRB, but I'm inclined to agree that he was a pretty significant influence on what we now think of as the "contemporary musical theatre" sound, particularly during the aughts.

[JasonC3]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 5:39pm

Technically, the first line doesn't say JRB is/was influential personally, but that he contributed to influential musicals∫.

Otherwise the language would be more like "JRB is one of the most influential musical theater composers of his generation yadda yadda yadda."

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 7:12pm

trpguyy said: "I bet if you were to ask young performers and/or students to name influential musicals from the last 30 years, you’d get an awful lot of JRB titles.
And there’s absolutely no denying that he has influenced younger composers (Tom Kitt and LMM immediately jump to kind)."

Is there actually a place where LMM credited JRB in this way? I'm asking because I don't recall it. I am sure that, because he is a nice-to-everyone sort of person, he has said nice things if asked, but to me that's different. Also, with all due respect, if you look at Kitt's track record, absent one hit, maybe any influence was not a great idea. I can't challenge your bet but I do wonder how many of those "influencees" have anything to show for it outside of a very insular cocoon.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 7:16pm

HogansHero said: "trpguyy said: "I bet if you were to ask young performers and/or students to name influential musicals from the last 30 years, you’d get an awful lot of JRB titles.
And there’s absolutely no denying that he has influenced younger composers (Tom Kitt and LMM immediately jump to kind)."

Is there actually a place where LMM credited JRB in this way? I'm asking because I don't recall it. I am sure that, because he is a nice-to-everyone sort of person, he has said nice things if asked, but to me that's different. Also, with all due respect, if you look at Kitt's track record, absent one hit, maybe any influence was not a great idea. I can't challenge your bet but I do wonder how many of those "influencees" have anything to show for it outside of a very insular cocoon."


He is literally credited for the quote of his used in Hamilton.

[JoeW4]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 7:31pm

TotallyEffed said: "He is literally credited for the quote of his used in Hamilton."

 

But that's very different from citing JRB as a stlyistic/artistic influence, which I don't see much of in LMM's work, personally.

 

@Hogan - totally agree about Tom Kitt, and frankly a lot of the composers who employ that sound - it can be pretty regurgitative and sterile in a lot of cases. But I guess that's not JRB's fault, for influencing other people to pursue a sound that they weren't creative enough to do as well as he did. But I guess that perspective depends on whether an individual enjoys his music in the first place, which many people obviously don't. Though I do, up until his post-Bridges work.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 7:57pm

JRB directly influenced composers like Tom Kitt, Pasek & Paul, Adam Gwon, Ryan Scott Oliver, Jonathan Reid Gealt, the Lopezes, Rick Hip-Flores, Scott Alan, JRB’s own wife Georgia Stitt, so many others. These voices haven’t all been represented on Broadway, but they have a presence in contemporary musical theatre and cabaret. 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 8:15pm

HeyMrMusic said: "JRB directly influenced composers like Tom Kitt, Pasek & Paul, Adam Gwon, Ryan Scott Oliver, Jonathan Reid Gealt, the Lopezes, Rick Hip-Flores, Scott Alan, JRB’s own wife Georgia Stitt, so many others. These voices haven’t all been represented on Broadway, but they have a presence in contemporary musical theatre and cabaret."

A question and 2 comments.

Is what you state an opinion or have any of them credited him?

A good part of your list defines what I meant when I used the word "insular." Even accepting the suggestion that Brown has influenced lots of composer types and other denizens of the cocoon, it's demonstrable that most of his work has utterly failed to resonate for broad audiences. Make no mistake: if that's the audience he seeks, he's doing great, and there is or at least should be a place for him in the non-profit world. But as we all know, the contradiction is that he is trying to make a play for that broader audience.

I think Tom is a very talented musician. I think it shows in the substantial work he has done arranging, orchestrating, and conducting other people's music. I also think he has done his worst work musicalizing movies, something I consider a lousy approach and if that's something he picked up from Jason, it's the kind of influence he would have been better off without. 

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 8:25pm

That was a list made off the top of my head whose music is similar in style to JRB or sounding like an offspring of it. None of it was heavily researched. I’m of the generation that grew up listening to Songs for a New World and The Last Five Years as the hip new sound of musical theatre, and I assume so did this group of composers.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 8:47pm

Whether JRB directly influenced these other composers or not, he is the only MT composer since Sondheim to achieve such a distinctive sound and to have an actual “canon” of frequently produced and beloved musicals. David Yasbeck and Adam Guettel come close, but The Last Five Years, Parade, Bridges of Madison County, and SFANW are musicals that MT people in their thirties and forties hold pretty dear. And Thirteen is produced by schools quite a lot.

Also, as someone pointed out, it is unlikely that he wrote that bio himself.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 9:02pm

The Lopezes are pretty noticeably influenced by JRB; when a pastiche of your style shows up in an enormous Disney movie, you’ve more than made it to “enormously influential” levels.

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 10:38pm

To me, JRB just represents a shift to generic contemporary musical theatre sound.  JRB, Tom Kitt, Aherns and Flaherty, Pasek and Paul, Scott Frankel, Tesori.  It all just sounds boring and lyrical and story driven.  I prefer a very melodic score, people like Richard Rodgers, John Kander, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Menken, Schwartz.  Now those men know how to write a tune!

[Valentina3]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 10:41pm

Broadway Flash said: "To me, JRB just represents a shift to generic contemporary musical theatre sound. JRB, Tom Kitt, Aherns and Flaherty, Pasek and Paul, Scott Frankel, Tesori. It all just sounds boring and lyrical and story driven. I prefer a very melodic score, people like Richard Rodgers, John Kander, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Menken, Schwartz. Now those men know how to write a tune!"

I'm sorry Tesori is generic? What in the name of ...

I also didn't realize songs being "story driven" was a bad quality in a musical. What in the name of ...

Updated On: 1/30/23 at 10:41 PM

[Skip23]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 11:00pm

Funny he doesn't include "Stars And The Moon" in his "Best of" song list.

 

 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 11:19pm

Millie is very tuneful.  Some of her more recent stuff i would say is generic musical theatre.  Fun Home and Kimberly Akimbo.  Not really something I would remember the melodies of leaving the theatre.  Of course this is MY opinion, and probably many people agree with me.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/30/23 at 11:22pm

Lol influential is such an arbitrary term. Maybe he's had influence on his nephews and his neighbors.

 

 

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 1/31/23 at 12:48am

Whether or not you agree, it’s a true statement. You can hear the influence of THE LAST 5 YEARS and SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD in countless composers work.

[JasonC3]

Posted: 1/31/23 at 1:03am

Fun Home is generic musical theater?  WTF?

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 1/31/23 at 2:33am

The score is beige.  I believe Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal said that.  So look at that, it's not just me!