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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPmsWTfn3sM

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