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The Broadway Season

 As far as I know, Jason Robert Brown's strongest work is "The Last Five Years," and I suspect this is because the show's subject is Jason Robert Brown. (The show is flawed.)


The best song, "A Summer in Ohio," is a love letter from an actress to her NYC writer spouse. The actress is trying to talk herself into a sense of enthusiasm for her summer-stock gig, and the song works because of its specificity:

I could have a mansion on a hill...
I could have a villa in Seville....
But it wouldn't be as a nice as
A summer in Ohio
With a gay midget named Karl
Playing Tevye and Porgy....

The song also features a terrific bridge:

I saw your book at a Borders in Kentucky...
Under a sign that said NEW AND RECOMMENDED...
I stole a look at your picture on the inside sleeve...
And then I couldn't leave...

Richard, who was with me, got uncharacteristically quiet...
Then he said, "All things considered...
I guess you don't have to buy it."
So I smiled like Mona Lisa, 
And I lay my Visa down!

I'd like to see what Adrienne Warren might do with these words.

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