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Join us for an unforgettable night of music and conversation as Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown and Broadway powerhouse Shoshana Bean take the stage. Hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist Frank DiLella, this intimate evening offers a rare glimpse into the creative journeys of two of Broadway’s most celebrated artists.
From the soaring melodies of The Bridges of Madison County to the electrifying energy of Parade and The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown’s music has defined a generation of musical theater. Shoshana Bean, whose powerhouse vocals and dynamic stage presence have dazzled audiences in Wicked, Waitress, and Hell’s Kitchen, has been a longtime collaborator and interpreter of Brown’s work. Having performed his music around the world—including their acclaimed concert collaborations and her unforgettable performances of Songs for a New World—Bean brings a deep, personal connection to his compositions, making this evening a truly special reunion of two extraordinary artists.
Guiding the evening’s conversation, Frank DiLella brings his deep knowledge and passion for theater to the stage. As the host of On Stage on Spectrum News NY1, DiLella has championed the Broadway community for over two decades, offering in-depth coverage and interviews with the industry’s most influential voices.
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JASON ROBERT BROWN
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,” 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 Robert Brown has been hailed as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and his “extraordinary, jubilant theater music” (Chicago Tribune) has been heard all over the world, whether in one of the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year or in his own incendiary live performances. His most recent musical, “The Connector,“ created with Jonathan Marc Sherman and Daisy Prince, just completed a triumphant run at New York’s MCC Theater; and his next show, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” written with Taylor Mac based on John Berendt’s book and directed by Rob Ashford, played its pre-Broadway run at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre last summer. 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. 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,” currently running on Broadway in a revival starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren, 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 both in its record-breaking Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre in 2013 and in London’s West End in 2016); “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, which is currently on tour throughout the US. 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. Jason conducted his orchestral adaptation of E.B. White’s novel “The Trumpet of the Swan” with the National Symphony Orchestra, and recorded the score for PS Classics.
Jason is the winner of the 2018 Louis Auchincloss Prize, the 2002 Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the 1996 Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for Musical Theatre. Jason’s songs, including the cabaret standard “Stars and the Moon,” have been performed and recorded by Ariana Grande, Jennifer Nettles, Brandi Carlile, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Billy Porter, Betty Buckley, Renée Fleming, Jon Hendricks and many others.
As a soloist or with his band, Jason has performed concerts around the world. For six years, his monthly sold-out performances at New York’s SubCulture featured many of the music and theater world’s most extraordinary performers, including a sold-out concert at Town Hall with Stephen Sondheim. His newest collection, “Coming From Inside the House,”featuring Ariana Grande and Shoshana Bean, commemorates the final SubCulture concert, recorded remotely during the pandemic. His previous albums, “How We React and How We Recover” and “Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes” are available from Ghostlight/Sh-K-Boom Records. Jason’s 2012 concert with Anika Noni Rose was broadcast on PBS, and he was the featured soloist for an episode of BBC Radio’s long-running “Friday Night Is Music Night,” broadcast live from the London Palladium and featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra. His collaboration with singer Lauren Kennedy, “Songs of Jason Robert Brown,” is available on PS Classics. Jason is also the composer of the incidental music for the Broadway revival of “You Can’t Take It With You,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Kimberly Akimbo” and “Fuddy Meers,” and Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Waverly Gallery,” and he was a Tony Award nominee for his contributions to the score of “Urban Cowboy the Musical.” He has also contributed music to the hit Nickelodeon television series “The Wonder Pets,” as well as “Sesame Street.” Jason spent ten years teaching at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, and has also taught at Harvard University, Princeton University and Emerson College.
For the musical “Prince of Broadway,” a celebration of the career of his mentor Harold Prince, Jason was the musical supervisor and arranger. Other New York credits as conductor and arranger include “Urban Cowboy the Musical” on Broadway; “Dinah Was,” off-Broadway and on national tour; “When Pigs Fly” off-Broadway; William Finn’s “A New Brain” at Lincoln Center Theater; the 1992 tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Carnegie Hall (recorded by RCA Victor); Yoko Ono’s “New York Rock,” at the WPA Theatre; and Michael John LaChiusa’s “The Petrified Prince” at the Public Theatre. Jason orchestrated Andrew Lippa’s “john and jen,” Off-Broadway at Lamb’s Theatre. Additionally, Jason served as the orchestrator and arranger of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’s score for a proposed musical of “Star Wars.” Jason has conducted and created arrangements and orchestrations for Liza Minnelli, John Pizzarelli, and Michael Feinstein, among many others.
Jason studied composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., with Samuel Adler, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner. He lives with his wife, composer Georgia Stitt, and their daughters in Nyack, New York. Jason is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802.
Photo: Joe Mazza
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SHOSHANA BEAN
Shoshana Bean was most recently seen starring in Alicia Keys' new hit Broadway musical, Hell's Kitchen. Her portrayal of ‘Jersey’ earned Shoshana a Grammy Award, her second Tony Award nomination, a Drama League Award nomination, and a Drama Desk nomination. Her performance in the Public Theater’s Hell’s Kitchen Off-Broadway production earned her a Lucille Lortel Award nomination.
In 2022, she received Tony and Grammy nominations as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination and a Drama League Award Nomination for her role as Susan Young opposite Billy Crystal in Broadway’s Mr. Saturday Night. She previously starred on Broadway as the first replacement for Elphaba in Wicked and as Jenna in Waitress. Her six independent studio albums and EP’s have landed her on top of the iTunes and Billboard charts, including the peak position of #1 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. She has sold out concerts around the globe and lent her voice to countless films and television shows, including The Boys, Sing, Sing 2, Enchanted, Jersey Boys, Glee, and Galavant.
Shoshana made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Hairspray, appeared Off-Broadway in the 2000 revival of Godspell, and in Songs for a New World at City Center Encores. Regionally she appeared in Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter, won an IRNE Award for her performance as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and earned a Jeff Award nomination for her portrayal of CeeCee Bloom in the pre-Broadway musical production of Beaches. She has appeared in Bloodline, Bill and Ted Face The Music, Great Performances: 50 Years of Broadway’s Best, and recently filmed a solo concert special for PBS.
Photo: Johannes Oberman
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FRANK DILELLA
Frank DiLella is a seasoned journalist with over two decades of experience covering New York City’s vibrant entertainment community. Known for his insightful interviews and comprehensive coverage as the host of ON STAGE on Spectrum News NY1, DiLella has established himself as a prominent voice in New York City’s arts and entertainment scene. Throughout his career, DiLella has conducted interviews with many legendary artists, including Tom Hanks, Vanessa Redgrave, Bono, Nathan Lane, Elton John, Ryan Murphy, Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Hugh Jackman, Tom Stoppard, Lin-Manuel Miranda, James Earl Jones, Chita Rivera, Alicia Keys, Jane Fonda, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Chastain, Angela Lansbury, Judith Light, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Lady Gaga, Tony Kushner, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
His work has been recognized with numerous awards, including 11 New York Emmy Awards, 8 New York Press Club Awards, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. In 2022, he was honored by the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists for his Spectrum News Special, "Pride and Perseverance."
Beyond his work at NY1 NEWS, DiLella has contributed to various outlets, including the Tony Awards, the Olivier Awards, Playbill, MANHATTAN Magazine, and Broadway Direct. He regularly appears on MSNBC's "Morning Joe", where he’s been affectionately referred to as “the Broadway guy”. He has also made appearances on The Tamron Hall Show, Andy Cohen's "Watch What Happens Live," the AOL BUILD Series, BBC, CBS, NBC, CTV, and has been heard on The Broadway Podcast Network, iHeart Radio, and Sirius XM.
In January 2022, DiLella executive produced and hosted the documentary "Reopening: The Broadway Revival," featuring Sara Bareilles, Kristin Chenoweth, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and other notable theater artists. This PBS Great Performances special offered a unique glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the Broadway industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DiLella has also made numerous on-screen appearances, including in Ryan Murphy's "The Prom" opposite Meryl Streep, "Smash," "The Little Voice," "Gossip Girl," and "The Forty Year Old Version."
Committed to fostering the next generation of artists, DiLella serves on the selection committee for the annual Clive Barnes Award and Foundation, which honors talented young professionals in dance and theater.
A graduate of Fordham University at Lincoln Center, DiLella returned to his alma mater in 2013 where he currently serves as an adjunct professor – teaching entertainment journalism.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Sponsors
Performing Arts programming is supported in part by funding from Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and Monica and Peter Tessler. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: John and Joan D’Addario, Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Christine and Bill Campbell, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Lena Kaplan, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Michèle and Steve Pesner, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, Leila Straus, Susi and Peter Wunsch, and Andrew Yuder and Kyle Glaeser.