Jason Robert Brown Coming to Fort Worth

Jason Robert Brown, the acclaimed and critically adored composer of such musicals as Parade and Songs for a New World, and Broadway star Soshana Bean, are touring in concert, and they'll be stopping at Fort Worth's Casa Manana on Saturday, Feb. 25.

Bean was in the original Broadway production of Hairspray, moving up from chorus to playing Penny Pingleton as a replacement; and has played Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway.

Brown was part of a new crop of Broadway composers that emerged in the 1990s, in a group that included Adam Guettel and Michael John LaChiusa, whose musical version of Giant is now on at Dallas Theater Center.

Brown's shows include the Tony-nominated Parade (for which he won the Tony for Best Score), the glorious The Last Five Years, the delightful 13 and his oft-performed Songs for a New World. The latter includes his best-known song, "Stars and the Moon," which has been recorded by Betty Buckley and Audra McDonald, among others.

Here is that song from the original cast recording, performed by Jessica Molaskey:

Here's more from the Casa news release:

Casa Mañana is excited to announce that Tony Award-winning Composer Jason Robert Brown and Broadway actress Shoshana Bean will perform live in concert Saturday, February 25, 2012 at Casa Mañana Theatre. Tickets are only $25 and are on sale now.

Along with Broadway veteran Bean, Brown will perform musical numbers from his award-winning productions including 13, The Last Five Years, Parade and Songs for a New World. Bean is well-known for starring as Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway, as well as the Tony Award-winning production of Hairspray.

The New York Times refers to Jason Robert Brown as "a leading member of a new generation of composers who embody high hopes for the American musical." His four major musicals as composer and lyricist include: 13, which opened on Broadway in 2008; 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; Parade, which premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre in 1998, and subsequently won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Musical, as well as garnering Brown the Tony Award for Original Score; and "Songs for a New World," which played Off-Broadway in 1995, and has since been seen in hundreds of productions around the world. 

Jason Robert Brown LIVE IN CONCERT is February 25 at 8:30 p.m. at Casa Mañana Theatre. Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at 817-332-2272 or visiting www.casamanana.org.