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Go in-depth with the leading artists and professionals working on stage today when you go Downstage Center. Downstage Center is the American Theatre Wing's acclaimed weekly theatrical interview program that spotlights the creative talents on Broadway, Off-Broadway, across the country and around the world, with in-depth conversations that simply can't be found anywhere else. Now in its sixth year, Downstage Center, produced in association with CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, has been featured by the Associated Press and Slate.com as the place to go for theatrical talk. New editions will be available every other Wednesday from this website, where you can listen online, download the programs or subscribe to the podcast. |
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Jason Robert Brown |
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With:
Jason Robert Brown
Jason Robert Brown, who prefers the title "songwriter" over "composer," talks about why he spends so much time performing his own material and engaging directly with his fans. He discusses writing all of his songs "in his own voice"; his short time at Rochester's esteemed Eastman School of Music; coming to New York, getting work in piano bars and how that led to rehearsal pianist jobs; the evolution of Songs for a New World and whether it began as a collection of existing songs or whether the material was newly created for the show; the nature of his collaboration with William Finn on the vocal arrangements for A New Brain; how he got hired for Parade after Stephen Sondheim passed, having the opportunity to choose his collaborators when the musical team was assembled for Parade, and the changes he has made more recently to move the show away from Hal Prince's vision; how the origin of The Last Five Years began out of a desire to be free of collaborators and how it fuses Songs for a New World and Parade; why he enjoys writing incidental music for plays; his sojourn in Europe and his decision to return to the U.S. by moving to Los Angeles; the origin of 13 in a handful of songs that he happened to share with Michael Ritchie of the Center Theatre Group, the "trauma" of Broadway and subsequent revisions to musical; and the status of upcoming projects including the film version of The Last Five Years, the "difficult, scary" chamber musical The Connector, his collaboration with Marsha Norman on The Bridges of Madison County, and the long-aborning stage adaptation of the film comedy Honeymoon in Vegas.
Original air date - May 11, 2011
Running Time - 1:02:34
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