Brown to Take Part in Songs for a New World D.C. Premiere

Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown will conduct and perform in a production of his acclaimed song cycle Songs for a New World at the Strathmore Center in Bethesda, MD on May 16th and 17th.

The event will be produced by Signature Theatre. Michael Baron will direct.  "In this unique collaboration, Signature brings the Washington premiere of Songs for a New World to Strathmore, the revue that launched the career of Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown and has since become the stuff of theater legend," states the Strathmore website.  Songs for a New World, which premiered at the WPA Theatre in 1995, features songs such as "Stars and Moon," "I'm Not Afraid of Anything," and "I'd Give It All for You."

In addition, Brown will - as previously announced - perform at the Allen Room in the Time Warner Center in New York on February 8th at 8:30 PM.  Presented as part of the American Songbook Series, the concert will also feature Brown's band, the Caucasian Rhythm Kings, as well as the Juilliard Choral Union (conducted by Judith Clurman, with guest singers Rozz Morehead and Tony-nominee Laura Benanti.  The concert is sold out (although fans are welcome to call and ask if tickets have become available).

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.  He won a 1999 Tony Award for his score to Parade, a musical 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.  Parade was also presented on a national tour in 2000, which Jason conducted. He also contributed to the Tony-nominated score of Urban Cowboy.  Brown is the winner of the 2002 Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the 1996 Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for Musical Theatre.  Brown's first solo album, "Wearing Someone Else's Clothes," featuring his band The Caucasian Rhythm Kings, is available from Sh-K-Boom Records.  His current theater project, 13, a musical comedy written with Dan Elish, is now playing the Mark Taper Forum in L.A.

Visit www.jasonrobertbrown.com for more on Brown and for more on his upcoming engagements.  Visit www.strathmore.org for more on his Strathmore concert, and www.signature-theatre.org for more on Signature Theatre.

Photo by Craig Brockman