Never have I ever...seen Jason Robert Brown in concert.
Jason Robert Brown is a brilliant composer, and I absolutely love his musicals. So, when Julie asked me to join her in seeing him in concert on the Lower East Side, I clearly said yes. I am so glad I did. All of the musicians on stage were having the best time, including him on piano, as well as vocals at times. It was as though we had been invited to come and watch their jam session and join them in just having fun. It was awesome. They also had special guest Broadway stars Andrea Burns and Joshua Henry. Their voices are insane and beautiful. During the concert, as well as after, I was thinking about how seeing this concert was perfectly timed in my life. I just finished production on my own musical, my first one, and here I am watching an inspiration perform some of his various stand out songs for us. He was obviously at a similar point in his life at some point - just finishing his first musical, putting his work out into the world for people to hear. And now here he is performing a concert of his songs that people in the audience are singing along to. To go with that - I actually saw Andrea Burns on Broadway in "In the Heights" back in 2008. I had come to NYC on spring break of my senior year in college to audition for Studio 5. While here, I won the lottery to see that show. That was before the rest of my life altered for the better, before I had experience life in NYC, LA, and even before I traveled to Moscow. What I found neat about seeing this concert was that here was a woman I saw doing her thing on stage right before I was about to embark on a new professional path, and here I see her again when I, again, am embarking on a new and exciting professional path. Here I am seeing an inspiration to me as a composer perform, right after I finished my first work. The concert meant a lot to me and was an inspiration, and even a bit of a nudge to say keep doing what you're doing. We all need moments like these. I'm glad I had this one.
The concert was at Subculture on the Lower East Side. Sitting behind us was the famous and incredibly amazing director, Hal Prince. This was my attempt to take an inconspicuous selfie of us with him in the background.
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