In Their Own Words: The Songs of Jason Robert Brown at The Green Room 42

Spencer Sher (he/him) is a Theatrical Producer, Arts Administrator, and Drummer. He made his 54 Below producing debut in July 2024 with 54 Sings Vulfpeck and his Green Room 42 producing debut in January 2025 with Fake Bands/Real Songs. He is the Creator and Producer of the podcast, “And the EGOT Goes To…”, of which he hosts the Tony Awards episodes and the Co-Host and Broadway Reviewer for the international Musical Theatre podcast, “Thrash n’ Treasure”. Keep an eye out this year for his new concert series, “In Their Own Words” which uses interviews given by composers throughout their careers to add context to their library of work.

JASON ROBERT BROWN is the ultimate multi-hyphenate – an equally skilled composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer – best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of our time, including the generation-defining “The Last Five Years” (revived on Broadway in 2025 with Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren); his debut song cycle “Songs for a New World”; and the seminal “Parade,” winner of the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score and the 2023 Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. Jason’s score for “The Bridges of Madison County,” a musical adapted with Marsha Norman from the bestselling novel, received two Tony Awards (for Best Score and Orchestrations). “Honeymoon In Vegas,” based on Andrew Bergman’s film, opened on Broadway in 2015 following a triumphant production at Paper Mill Playhouse. A film version of his epochal Off-Broadway musical “The Last Five Years” was released in 2015, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and directed by Richard LaGravenese, and recently had a 25th anniversary concert at Radio City Music Hall starring Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt. His major musicals as composer and lyricist include: “13,” written with Robert Horn and Dan Elish, which opened on Broadway on 2008 and became a celebrated Netflix musical in 2022; “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 (and was later directed by the composer in its record-breaking Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre in 2013); “Parade,” written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best New Musical, as well as garnering Jason the Tony Award for Original Score; and “Songs for a New World,” a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, which has since been seen in hundreds of productions around the world since its 1995 Off-Broadway debut, including a celebrated revival at New York’s City Center in the summer of 2018. “Parade” was also the subject of two major revivals: the first, directed by Rob Ashford, at London’s Donmar Warehouse and then at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; and the second, Michael Arden’s Tony-winning 2023 Broadway production starring Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond. In 2022, Jason collaborated with comedy legend Billy Crystal on a Broadway musical of “Mr. Saturday Night” with lyrics by Amanda Green and a book by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. 2024 saw the premieres of two new JRB shows: “The Connector,“ created with Jonathan Marc Sherman and Daisy Prince, which completed a triumphant run at New York’s MCC Theater; and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” written with Taylor Mac based on John Berendt’s book and directed by Rob Ashford, currently in preparation for its Broadway premiere after playing at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Visit him on the web at www.jasonrobertbrown.com.