Broadway By the Bay Welcomes Jason Robert Brown 7/24

Broadway By the Bay (BBBay), the Peninsula's premiere musical theatre company, is proud to welcome Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown for a one-day only master class and concert on Saturday, July 24th. From 3 - 5 p.m. Brown will conduct a master class at the Bayside Performing Arts Center (2025 Kehoe Ave., San Mateo).The master class is open to participants of all ages and will give them the opportunity to learn performance secrets directly from Brown.

At 7 p.m. Brown will return to the Bayside Performing Arts Center for an intimate concert featuring songs from several oF Brown's hit shows, including Parade, The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World and 13, and from his first solo album, Wearing Someone Else's Clothes as well as offering a sneak peak at his highly anticipated new musical, Honeymoon in Vegas. Proceeds from the concert will benefit Broadway By the Bay's Youth Theatre Conservatory (YTC) - a program that gives students (ages 4-18) solid foundations in acting, singing and dancing for the musical theatre. BBBay's YTC summer musical theatre camp will be performing Brown's Broadway hit 13 from August 5 - 8.

Tickets for the concert range in price from $35 (students) to $50 (adults). Tickets for the master class are $25. Concert/master class packages are available for $50 (students) and $65 (adults). Tickets are on sale now at the Broadway By the Bay Box Office (851 Burlway Road, Suite 300, Burlingame), by phone at 650-579-5565 and on the web at broadwaybythebay.org.

Hailed as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim" by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jason Robert Brown is the composer and lyricist of the musical, The Last Five Years, which was cited as one of Time Magazine's "10 Best of 2001" and won Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics. Jason won a 1999 Tony Award for his score to Parade, written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre in December 1998, and subsequently won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Musical. was also presented on a national tour in 2000, which Jason conducted. Jason's first musical, ParadeSongs for a New World, a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, played Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in the fall of 1995, and has since been seen in more than two hundred productions around the world. Jason's newest musical, 13, written with Dan Elish and directed by Todd Graff, premiered in 2007 to rave reviews at Los Angeles's Mark Taper Forum, and opened on Broadway in the spring of 2008. Jason's songs, including the cabaret standard "Stars and the Moon," have been performed and recorded by Audra McDonald, Betty Buckley, Karen Akers, Renée Fleming, Philip Quast, Jon Hendricks and many others.

Now celebrating its 45th Anniversary, Broadway By the Bay will next present ANNIE (July 15 - August 1, 2010), followed by the funny and delightfully touching classic, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (September 16 - October 3, 2010). The 45th season closes with the West Coast premiere of BROADWAY BY THE YEAR (November 18 - 21, 2010), a musical and historical snapshot of the Great White Way highlighting songs from Broadway shows of 1930 (Girl Crazy, Strike Up the Band and The New Yorkers) and 1964 (Funny Girl, Hello Dolly and Fiddler on the Roof).

For additional information or to purchase tickets to the Jason Robert Brown master class and concert, visit the Broadway By the Bay Box Office (851 Burlway Road, Suite 300 Burlingame), call the box office at 650-579-5565 or visit broadwaybythebay.org.

About Broadway By the Bay
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Brooke Knight and Executive Director Jim Gardia, Broadway By the Bay has won numerous awards, including over 40 Theatre Critics Circle Awards, and has garnered acclaim throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as a destination for professional-quality musical theatre. Broadway By the Bay produces three full-scale musicals and one intimate snapshot of the best of Broadway each season, presented to over 40,000 audience members at the 1,600 seat San Mateo Performing Arts Center.

Lauded for its efforts in education, The Youth Theatre Conservatory - for ages 4-18 - gives younger students solid foundations in acting, singing, and dancing for the musical theatre. For those 18 and over, the Musical Theatre Conservatory offers professional classes to adults of all ages. Students aspiring to achieve a professional level of performance skills are taught by instructors who have excelled in their specialties.