Video: Unpacking the Music of Jason Robert Brown

Are you ready

It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. Well, Bro, Roole World family and all my roundtable friends that are here

you know, we have had some of the best songwriters in the world. I'm a little geeked out and I'm a little nerded out

because our next guest is someone I've been listening to. You know, songs from a new world, I think has the best finale of any musical ever

written. It gives me all the chills. It is one of my most played songs on my Spotify list

And I am so thrilled and excited to have Jason Robert Brown here. He's coming to Carnegie Hall

with the most incredible lineup of singers in the entire world. We're so honored to have him here

Please welcome Jason Robert Brown to the round table. Woo! Let's go! I need like a laugh track and an applause track

Oh, the batteries probably. I, Kristen Chenowitz gave me this machine once that does applause

but I think, yeah, it doesn't. Well, that's about all the applause, I guess, but there, there you go

Well, I mean that about songs from, I mean, it is one of the most epic and beautiful

soundtracks and things to my life growing up here in New Jersey

And your music has given us so much joy. And I'm so excited for people to experience what you do at Carnegie Hall

Yeah, no, I know. I'm pretty impressed with Carnegie Hall myself. That's pretty serious stuff

that's October 25th at 8 o'clock and people can get their tickets the tickets are literally on sale right now so if you're watching us right now go to carnegie hall.org or you can go to jason robert brown.com or you can oh yeah and i'm on instagram also jason robert brown instagram but uh yeah you should you should come because it's going to be an unbelievable thing i mean i mean i always try and do a good show it's not like i was you know like oh you know this time i'll really make it work but

But I played in a lot of great venues. But in this case, I really said

I want to play Carnegie Hall. And suddenly it was happening. And I was like, oh, I have to take this very seriously

And so I asked the best people on the planet Earth if they would come and join me

And so Heather Headley is going to come and sing with me. And I've never gotten to work with Heather in my life

And this was like the perfect opportunity to do that. And Ben Platt, who of course I have gotten to work with

And that's just heaven to get to. to work with him again is Shoshana Bean

because I really shouldn't ever do a concert without Shoshana Bean. And Jay Harrison G., who just did Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with me in Chicago

and I wrote a lot of songs for them, and they're going to do a couple of those

because why not have that fantastic experience? And there's more people that I can't, I cannot tell you other people

because there are contractual obligations that they have to get through before I can mention their names

But those four people, that would be enough, incidentally. I mean, I, you know, I don't, I, I, I, I chewed my own horn

But let's be honest, that's, that's a good show. But there's more

There's more than that. There's Tony and Grammy award winning more than even that

But I'm not going to say, you should just buy the tickets. You should buy the tickets

Just buy a ticket. Just go to Carnegie Hall.org. It's October 2050. You have nothing to do on a Friday night

We are not, we're musical theater people. We don't have that many plants. No. And it's a 26-piece orchestra, which is bigger than any show you're going to get in a Broadway theater

So you get to end, George's conducting it. And I'm playing the piano, and it's my band

This is a very good, I mean, either you like it or you don't like it

But on the assumption that this is the kind of thing that you're going to like, this is the kind of thing you're going to like

I mean, you're going to like this one. Well, I think your get, well, firstly, your music alone is a character

Then you add guests like Heather Headley's, that warm, gorgeous voice you could sing anything

and she's going to sing your emotional music, it's done. Ben has, we know what he can do to your music

Jay is a superstar across the board, and you've worked a lot with Ms. Bean herself

and she sings. Anything. I mean, anything on earth. I literally, I could throw anything at her

and she would just be like, yeah, oh, I can do that, and she would then do it better than everybody else does

Do you ever take a moment to look back and go back to the days where, you know

it's been written and spoken a lot about your relationship with how Prince your relationship directing with his daughter

Like the things that you've started your career and how now to see like a night like Carnegie Hall where it's really a retrospective of your career and you see these pieces and how it's all moved

How does it feel that kid that grew up in New York and wanted to do this and to be at Carnegie Hall

You know, I'm trying very hard in my life to move through it with gratitude

Gratitude is a practice and I don think anyone is sort of born to it but you do have to practice it and especially in this business which we all got into so that we could get a lot of attention you know and so that we would have the chance to express ourselves to a lot of people And I have that and I have these opportunities and this life where I get to make music and I get to work with these astonishing people all the time And I just think it is my

task in life is to keep approaching that with gratitude and to keep sort of passing that on so that other

people will also have gratitude that they got to experience, you know, this part of my world

I just, it's a miracle. I look back at, you know, I didn't, I don't have a show business family

I don't come from money. I don't, I had no easy way into this other than I loved it so much and was so determined

to make my mark on it. And then there were people who said, yes, we think you're talented enough to be part of this

We think you have something to say. And they let me say it

And they keep letting me say it. I mean, I've been, you know, this concert celebrates 30 years

that I've been working professionally in the New York theater. 30 years

Well, we have some of the album covers of some of the works that you've done

that you, if you know like this, like going back, Jessica and the famous Billy Porter and Ty Taylor

and the whole saga of the recording, but that recording is as relevant and pristine today

as it was when it came out. I, it's still, I mean, I was just talking yesterday to a group of kids in Ohio who are performing the show at their college

And I thought, you're talking about an off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway show, to be honest, that ran for like 28 performances

And 30 years later, people are still singing those songs and it still means something to them and they're still bringing

And I think that's just, that's an incredible gift. You know, that's not, I mean, I was able to write this material

but that it continues sort of meaning something to people in the world

That's just a gift. That's a wonderful blessing. It's been done everywhere

It's a right of passage in theater, I think. And the new recording, talk about Shoshana Bean

I mean, holy moly, she, it's something. And then another show that's been done, you know, and is done everywhere and anywhere

And the movie and all of that. What's it like when someone comes to you and takes something like

the last five years, which is very personal and very intimate, and you see it up on a screen or you see it being done literally around the world

I mean, there's no way to make any sense of it in the abstract

You know, you just, at some point I wrote this thing, and then it becomes something else

Other people take it on and they bring it to life. I mean, it happened with last five years where I saw it on a screen

And then again, it happened with 13. And, you know, these shows that just

they came from some sort of very deep and real place inside me

And then they're just very large. And they, the thing about movies is that they're not personal the same way

They belong to the world. You know, when you go to see a show, you're the only one who saw that show that night

You know, I mean, you and whatever, a couple hundred other people, if you're lucky, you know, we're there

But when you see a movie, it's a, the play. planet owns it and that's it's titanic it's you know it's this amazing feeling and also sort of a

little weird but it's an amazing feeling to to be part of this enormous machine like that well we love

it we're here for it and it gives the whole world a chance to see a piece of theater and and

broadway if they're not in the new york area and shows like bridges of madison county and

honeymoon and Vegas and mr saturday night and and of course parade and of course then the

amazingly brilliant revival of Parade with this amazingly brilliant cast. I moved to Detroit five

weeks ago and we are dying and waiting. Parade will be here at the Fisher Theater in a couple of

weeks. And your touring cast is something special as well. I mean, you don't even know who's in the

you know, you know the two leads. I know everybody else who's in the touring cast and let me tell you

it's a very good cast. Oh, we can't wait. That's story in this year in 2024

is as relevant and as important as ever. The things that went around that show

and the statement that that show makes, did you ever think when you wrote it and put it out

that a story from back then would be as relevant as it is today? I don't know if I thought about what it would be like

you know, 25 years after I wrote it. I knew it felt relevant to me even then

but I don't think the audience knew. I don't think the audience understood in 1998 and 99 what that story was saying about America

But boy, they sure understood it in 2023. And I think they'll really get it now

Well, I know that there's some other things that you've done that, you know, that like if we go back to like the trumpet of the swan

Oh, I love the trumpet of the swan. I love to go back

I mean you part of Urban Cowboy and I don know if people didn remember no that that you know Oh And your albums and your music that are that are out

that people can be streaming. Yeah. I mean, how we react and how we recover

we'll be doing several songs from that at Carnegie, because that stuff still is very meaningful to me

But my first album also still wearing someone else's clothes, still really, it's very resonant

it's it's resonant of me when I was 34 but it still counts you know i love the album cover of that

that album and then you know even during the during the past few years like things like with ariana

grande and shoshana bean and things like like it has just been a career of some great artists with

great music written by you when you get behind the piano and you do cabaret shows or you do

concerts or you go to venues and whatever what is an evening like how do you blend the musical

theater fans and your own solo material and make an evening. How do you put together a set list

I try and just figure out what I want to see. Like if I were sitting in the audience, what's the

part that I want to see? And so, you know, there are opportunities for me to just be making

music with this orchestra, you know, what songs have I written from my shows or what songs

have I written from my albums that, you know, feel like they're an opportunity to explore and to do

something different. And then there's the stuff where I'm like, you know, when I go to a concert of an

artist, I want to hear them go crazy, but then I also really do want to hear like, I want to

I want to land at the places where I can walk out and say, I can't believe I saw them do that tonight

And so, you know, I'm really into like, what are the greatest hits? What are the things that people

you know, came to this concert to hear? And because when I do songs that I've been doing for 20 years or for

30 years. You know, I to me it's still an opportunity to explore them and to find out what what makes

them tick. And sometimes you can do that by doing them exactly the way you did them. And then

you just find like one little bit, one thing that that's different about it, just an eighth note

that is a different way to approach the song. And suddenly the song opens up in some new way

So I love getting to do that. And because I've been behind the piano at these

concerts for a very, very long time. There is a lot of stuff that has just kind of evolved where

these songs have turned, you know, they have little, you know, Georgia, my wife and I, we call them

the little injokes and the songs that they're just things that if you've been watching the concerts for all this time, you're used to the fact that, oh, the song does that. But if you've

never seen it, it's this wonderful surprise that comes up in the middle of the song. So I try and

balance everything. I like it when when I can do a show that actually hits all of my musical

theater shows, I can't usually do it. I don't know if I'm going to, I'm going to get close with this

one, but I don't know. 13 is always the hard one to get in there because it's best when you have

actual children. But I think I think I'm going to get pretty close with this concert to having a

little bit of everything. Well, people get your ticket, October 25th, Carnegie Hall.org

you, aside from this project, and you have a lot of projects on the pipeline, you have

you have stuff going on here. Oh, yeah. You have, we have the connector

Yeah. And we have, go ahead. Yeah, no, I mean, the thing about the connector, we did it, you know, earlier this year at

MCC, it was an amazing production with an incredible cast, and we have the album, which is, I think

the album, I'm proud of stuff in my entire career. So we'll be doing a couple of songs from that at Carnegie also

But more importantly, we're looking to see what the next life for that piece is

And I'm very excited about the next chapter in that story, the connector

It's everything I ever wanted a show of mine to be. I love it so much

That gives us so much joy and excitement. And then you talked about Chicago. You talked about Jay and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

taking that, you know, the famous book and all of that is based on

What was it like to put that on his feet and be out in Chicago? It was really cool. I mean, you know, it's a huge piece. It's a piece with a lot of size and a lot of scope to it and it says a lot of things, but it's also really funny. And Taylor Mack is unbelievably funny and smart. And so getting to work with them and getting to sort of work with Jay and with Tom Hewitt and the whole rest of the Sierra Bogus, this incredible group of people. And Rob Ashford and I worked together. He directed Parade at the Dawn

in 1996, no, sorry, 2006. But we've had this fantastic relationship and finally got to develop

an entirely new piece together. So I just, I had the greatest time putting it together

and we, you know, we have a path and we know what we're going to do

and I can't tell you any of those things, but they're very, they're very exciting things

And so it is my hope that New York will get to come visit us

in Savannah very soon But boy what a great ride that show has been all in all We hope so And if you in the New York area and you going to come see Carnegie Hall but also if you in the New York area and you a Broadway Nista

and you're ready to see Jason Robert Brown more Broadway of Jason Robert Brown on Broadway

It's coming as well. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. This is going to be ferocious

I mean, I'm just really excited about it. You know, the last time we did it in New York, I directed it

And, you know, when I was done with that, I was like, Well, I feel like we've said what we have to say about the last five years

And so now to have this director, you know, Whitney has such brilliant ideas about it and such a distinct vision

And then to have Nick and Adrian who are just on fire, you don't even know how thrilling and how sexy and how smart

And, I mean, the singing is off the charts. So, you know, I can't wait to get into rehearsal, which we don't do for another couple of months

But I've gotten to do a couple of pre-production sessions with both of them. and it's going to be a ride

I just want to hear them sing your score, and I want to see them act this story out

And Whitney White, what the work that she did last season on Broadway and the things that she said

this is going to be, this is going to be a moment. So you need to get your tickets

You have done some things, too, that I don't think people may know. Like, you write, I don't know the exact word

but you write music for shows. Like, what is the instrumental little bits

and pieces. Do you do that? Am I lying? What did you do like for Kimberly Akimbo? Oh, well, not this

Kimberly Akimbo. This was when Kimberly Akimbo was a play originally, 20 some odd years ago, I wrote the

underscore for that. David Lindsay Barron, I did two. I did the score for funnieres and for Kimberly

Akimbo. And we, you know, we got to be friends back then. And so we are always looking for what

it is we're going to do together. But he's had such a wonderful partnership with Janine. So I'm like

all right, I'll wait my turn. You'll wait your turn? But the writing and if it's just music like underscoring or if it's the scores of Broadway

musicals with lyrics, do you keep a steady routine for writing or do you need a project to write

Oh, God, no. I mean, I wish I did. But, you know, first of all, I'm pretty old and I have kids

And so everything is about, you know, like keeping life running first

And then once life is fine, then I can worry about whether I'm writing. But, no, I wish I had a routine

I hear some people talk about how to get up every morning and they write for three hours. And I'm like, you know, if I get 45 minutes of writing in on any given day, that's like, that's an amazing day

So, no, I try and just squeeze it in. And, you know, at some point, the producer or the director, the book writer is going to call me and be like, are we ever going to get the song

And I'll be like, ah, I'll do it, I'll do it. So that's what it happens. Well, if you've ever wanted to see Jay, Harrison, Shoshana, Heather

Ben in a Broadway show together singing Jason. And other people. And other people

He led with Tony Grammy, like, people that you're going to freak out

Yeah. This is one night only this October. I mean, I only get to play it for the first time once

And this is the first time I get to play Carnegie Hall. And I don't want Carnegie Hall to be mad at me

So I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it a thing. So, you know, I promise it's a thing

Here's what I promise. Even if you don't like Jason Robert Brown, in which case you've really gone through a long interview at this point

But if you don't like Jason Robert Brown, it's still going to be a good show. There's so much that is like just over and above the me part of it

because it's these people and the orchestra and that thing. And it's honestly a night in Carnegie Hall with an orchestra

It's nice anyway. But it's your music. October 25th. Go to go to gordonkihall.org

Go to jason Robert Brown.com and follow my favorite Instagram name of all time

Jason Robert Brown's to Graham. I just changed it to that. I have to say I had a name I liked much better, but nobody was following me

So my wife was like, maybe you should like have a name that someone might be able to find

So I love it. I have to say I teach musical theater at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey

And last summer in our musical theater intensive, a bunch of the kids sang stars in the moon and found so much meaning in life into it

the song lives forever, and they're 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, and your melody and the message

and your lyrics and what you've done means so much to the next generation. They're listening

They love it. And you're inspiring us all to create great art. So thank you

Please thank them. They're too young for stars in the moon. They are. But go on. Keep doing it

I have a mortgage. You have to keep doing my shows. Please

It's such an honor to talk to you. I'm so excited about this. I'm so excited for parade going on tour

I'm so excited for the last five years. And whatever else you got up your sleeve? Hair

Nothing right now. Yeah, all right. Good. I'll see you on October 25th, and we're going to have a party

It's a party. Thanks so much for being here