Articles Tagged With: Jason Robert Brown

The Last Five Years at CJ Productions

Reviews November 3, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

When you see a show as many times as I (and has anyone seen these shows as many times as I?) you tend not to forget the very first time you saw the production and the most recent time you’ve seen it. Occasionally there will be stand-outs (for good and bad reasons) that stick in the mind, but the two that resonate strongest tend to be the first one and the most recent one. I’ve certainly never forgotten The Last Five Years the very first time I saw it— at a semi-active,

The Bridges of Madison County at Signature Theatre

Reviews August 25, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

This is Albany… This is Buffalo… This is Shirlington… Not an original planned stop on the train that Francesca took with Bud on their way to Winterset, Iowa. But The Bridges of Madison County is stopping in Shirlington, Virginia for a few weeks (through September 17th 2023) as the main-stage musical opener to their 23/24 season. Jason Robert Brown’s haunting score wending through the rolling book by Marsha Norman, based on the novel by Robert James Waller,

Home Before You Know It: An Interview with Julia Wheeler Lennon on Signature Theatre’s The Bridges of Madison County

Interviews August 5, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

They’ll be home before you know it! And by home we mean back to the stage— the live stage, Max Theatre at Signature to be specific. Signature Theatre launches its 2023/2024 season with the 2013 Broadway musical— The Bridges of Madison County, with music & lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Marsha Norman. Based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Robert James Waller, Bridges (as it is affectionally referred to in the theatre world) won the 2014 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations— after the show had closed on Broadway.

The Last Five Years (Book Cast) at Greenbelt Arts Center. AnnaBelle Lowe (left) and Matt Wetzel (right). 📸Kris Northrup

The Last Five Years at Greenbelt Arts Center

Reviews November 5, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

I’ve got a feeling— things are moving way too fast! And by things I mean the weekends left in this 2022 calendar where you can see The Last Five Years at Greenbelt Arts Center! It’s the first, fully staged, live, in-person production since January of 2020 and it’s a sensational one. Directed by Meg Nemeth, with Musical Direction by Rolanda Brown, this emotionally astonishing musical is a two-person show weaving the experience of a relationship over the last five years between Jamie and Cathy.

Songs For a New World at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews November 9, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

A new world calls across Charm City! A new world calls across street. A new world whispers through Mt. Vernon— time to see— time to see…it is time to see Songs For a New World at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre. Co-Directed by Andrea Bush and Michael Tan, and Musical Direction by Michael Tan, four talented voices come together on the stage to sing songs of love and hope. Fitting well into the Season57 theme of ‘Strong Voices’,

The Last Five Years at The Montgomery Playhouse

Reviews September 21, 2018 Mike Zellhofer 5 Comments

There is a song in The Last Five Years titled, “I Can Do Better Than That” and if The Montgomery Playhouse & Theatre @ CBT want to fill the seats, Producers David Jones and Elizabeth Weiss really need to do better. To ad lib a line from Mel Brooks, “What they did to Jason Robert Brown, Booth did to Lincoln.” When you put up a show with only two actors and music by JRB you need to make sure that your actors and Musical Director are up to the task.

The Bridges of Madison County at Dundalk Community Theatre

Reviews October 30, 2017 Andrew Worthington

The movie-turned musical has become a prevalent trend in today’s world, but The Bridges of Madison County is unlike most musicals in the same family; it breaks the mold and offers the audience an emotional, rich story filled with phenomenal music. Based on Robert James Waller’s 1992 novel, which was adapted into the 1995 film starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, The Bridges of Madison County is a rich, profound love story that transcends the page,

The Last Five Years at Stillpointe Theatre

Reviews March 6, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

For the next ten minutes— well times eight but hey— will you share your life with them? With Jamie and Cathy and their story? Can you handle that? They can. Stillpointe Theatre takes Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years and breathes a curious new life into the production by running two casts in rotating rep over the course of the show’s four-weekend run. Featuring a male and female cast, as well as a female and female cast,

Review: The Bridges of Madison County at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 6, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Striking and inspiring beauty isn’t just in the covered-bridge landscape of Winterset, Iowa. It’s possessed wholeheartedly in the stellar music of Jason Robert Brown’s The Bridges of Madison County musical, now appearing live on stage in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Based on the novel by Robert James Waller with Book by Marsha Norman, Brown’s stunning score of the heart-melting and utterly emotionally mesmerizing love story is populated with bittersweet poignancy and the closest thing to true American Opera the stage has heard since the 80’s.

Review: Parade at TYA Senior Teen Company at Drama Learning Center

Reviews June 12, 2016 Jim & Ashley Gerhardt

Set in Atlanta in 1913, a Brooklyn-raised Jewish man by the name of Leo Frank is put on trial for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. Already guilty in the eyes of everyone around him, a sensationalist publisher and a janitor’s false testimony seal Leo’s fate. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience, and, eventually, his assimilated Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion. Based on true historical events and adapted for the stage by an acclaimed playwright (Alfred Uhry – Driving Miss Daisy) and composer/lyricist (Jason Robert Brown – Songs For A New World,