Jason Robert Brown in Concert

from the Library of Congress in Washington DC you [Applause] [Music] [Music] I come to sing a song about I'm not inspired much right now but even so I came out here to sing a song so here I go I guess I think that if I tinker long enough one might appear and look it's here one verse is done the works begun I come to sing a song about hope in spite of everything ridiculous and sad though I'm beyond belief depressed confused and man well I got dressed I underestimated how much that would take I didn't break until right now a sing of hole and don't know how so maybe I substitute strength because I'm strong I'm strong enough I got through lots of things I didn't think I could and so did you I know that's true so song though I can't guarantee there's something real behind it I have to try to show my daughters I can find it and so today when life seems crazy and impossible to bear it must be there fear never will that's what I hope see I said hope the works begin you [Applause] [Music] all right every I have a card our names the trunk of this tree ready from speed with the south [Music] for these old hell behind me these old Red Hills [Music] Oh Gragas no spell upon them till they clean for what they wrote his back the lies they talk again where on earth did that breathe ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] once upon a time I had ties to control Edmonds to spin and stars to ignite they took flowers at my feet when I walked through the town on a time I had largest protect I had rules to change and wrongs set aright there were people at my side and there were River as I could god I wanted nothing in return let me out of here give me back to the wind let me out of here let me please see the Sun let me out of here please tell me what I did wrong I'm king of the world of the sea I am the winner I used to be king of the world please set me free I have a power and the promise to live my given definitely once upon a time I had faith in my hands and the confidence of a million regimes laser brother you're in charge we'll follow everything you see once upon a time father said to me child you are everything that you see in your dreams and I thought gee that's the key there on a wall surrounding me there are no prisons in this life let me out of here back to the wind let me out here may I please be my son let me out here don't you understand [Music] I'm king of the world sheath of the fear I am the will we try to be king of the world set Miri I have a pool around the problem give me back my family [Music] why are we wanting to explore why am I sitting in this cylinder I was not challenging the piston I was working for the people I just wanted to be better why are we punished for trying to survive why am I locked behind the bar hell the children all returns and tell them through someone let them know I will be me I will not be defeated I will stand like a mountain and the road will stretch before me I don't know it's time to power and we lift our eyes and raise our head to face the Sun and tell the future I'm King held the world land of the free cuff on the side of it that I can be and I'm king of the world watch then you'll see nothing can stop me from tomorrow kingi provide yesterday [Applause] [Music] [Music] at least I used to be [Music] all right I got all that out of my system okay thank you so much for being here tonight it's a sort of surprising honor for me to be here you know they mark Horowitz and the whole gang here at the library have been asking for a couple of years if I could come and it's hard I have kids and I have shows that were in production and all that and it was just hard to find a date and I think it just we had been working on it for so long that by the time I showed up today I was kind of like oh yeah I've got that gig at the Library of Congress and and I was meeting we did a little interview this morning upstairs and they had pulled out some pieces from the collection to show me and some of the things they had pulled out there was a manuscript Burnstein a version of I feel pretty with some terrible lyrics that were in it that were cut eventually but all in Bernstein's hand and there was a stared growth phase actual manuscripts orchestration of the Rhapsody and blue that was Paul Whiteman's copy that he used to conduct it the first time he did it and on the page where the big piano cadenza is it's totally blank because Gershwin hadn't written it yet and what you see is in Gershwin's own handwriting in pencil it says wait for nod and I thought I've been there I know that um and then you know Gershwin's piano is just across the hall the door is locked right now but as all Gershwin room and to just sort of be 200 steps away from Griffin's piano it's pretty heavy and I I think I'm sort of grateful that I didn't anticipate it because I just got to feel a sort of brush of it and you know it's a well I don't have to tell you people it's a complicated time to be in Washington DC but I I turn out to be very grateful to be here and to be part of the legacy of this building and ultimately the legacy of this country which is still something I'm so proud to be a part of [Applause] right so I didn't I didn't come alone I brought with me one of my favorite singers in the entire world and I'm just going to bring her out this is Shoshana beam [Applause] [Music] that's me something easier smile I'll give you anything but don't ask me this don't ask the face when there's no great love when I'm just now beginning to feel don't know if I right here come here comes the ocean how did it die there to risk why is the course some practical thought wish emotion terrible crime take me from [Music] [Applause] you I should resist I should refuse you ask me again now I'm strong see how I keep my bow maybe I'll trim it maybe I'll lose you what happens happens show me ha [Music] [Applause] [Music] and you will leave oh all the boys to tell me to stand my ground know all the boys that beg me to stay mom representing will knife and I'm flattered oh she was expected to was accepted who what you're told to [Music] ah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I will borrow and you will leave you will [Music] [Applause] [Music] Jamie is over and Jamie is gone Jamie's decided it's time to move on Janie has no dream and I do [Music] Jamie right not the end of the line Jamie's convinced that the problem among Jamie's kept secret she doesn't buy [Music] what about line Janey's what about things that you swore to be true what about you Jamie what about you Jamie should something wonderful sighs Jamie design it his right to the Sun Jamie's top secret he doesn't buy yeah [Music] ah I love away run away run and buy something better [Music] run away like it's simple like it's dry [Music] - Amy maybe I see how you could be snow with certain then we head all Jamie is over and where can I turn she's covered with scars I did nothing to learn maybe there's somewhere once the foundation [Music] [Music] [Applause] my first crush from an Irish girl I was 10 years old and her name was Elaine the redhead girl who looked like you but if he were 10 which are clearly not now that you look old I'll just stop now okay weak because I had a point now I swear I did well I think I did which is all my lies important since I was 10 I've had a yen for an Irish lass because God knows why like the ancient curse of the shiksa Queens do I talk too much which is not to say that I want Elaine who turned out to be when I last checked in a Republican and a parapsychologist if you've got a four-leaf clover you can make my dreams come true I will be your Hebrew slave just do the things that Irish girls do talk about potato famine I begin to cry on cue think about the Emerald Isle get your Irish eyes and smile I feel love and someone like you [Music] you I just left the relationship with a lovely girl named ELISA Levine she was really great it was all my fault I just got upset when she slept with my brother so I made a vow not to get caught up in the dating scene or the whole routine the cousins friend or the who knows one like I need that I've got marks to make I got step 5 it's the perfect time I've got books to write I've got things to do I go out my door and fall fancy you as a king is up and my vow is through I don't know what I'm doing but come in and ruin me I will write my eulogy if you're there to show me how take me back tucks a kimura baby in the river shot and now if you'll be mrs. O'Leary maybe I will be your cow I'll deliver shamrocks Lily by you're my new Chevy leave I can be in love with someone like you could be my inspiration and get me past in block and walk me through the great unknown to you to be my true salvation unchain me from this rock and keep me from oh I'm no good Oh take me to another level let me play in the bigger Hall I will do a Riverdance as long as you keep answering my call get me out of my apartment to keep me from the indented wall someone hired topic or start the wearing of the green someone [Music] [Music] [Applause] I was I couldn't decide whether I should do sort of something from every one of my shows and sort of make it a whole big omnibus or I should just sort of focus on kind of where I am now and I decided not to really make a decision it's kind of a mishmash room but I there for it it's a long night tonight so I hope you're not planning on going right ah you say that now um but you know if you have to go to the bathroom anyway just go ahead we'll still be here um it is getting warm right yeah it just started getting like a little toasty oh yeah you should have been here at the soundcheck with an actual it was like doing a spa we're just like trance anyway um so maybe it won't be such a long night but the point is this number shouldn't follow the last number but that's the way this program came together and so here it is this is the the opening number from honeymoon in Vegas [Music] I like taxis I like train I like Brooklyn when it rains what I love fits I like walking after dark I like jogs in Prospect Park but I love the Betsy I like Shake Shack I like MoMA and New Jersey's ripe aroma the parades when I see them and even the DMV and the Brooklyn Bridge by bike heck there's lots of stuff I like but I love Betsy and she loves me [Applause] she likes hockey no I swear she likes guys with thinning hair and I love Betsy she likes meat and Chinese Louboutins and mac and cheese god I love the Betsy she likes swimming writing letters she likes watching doubleheaders she drinks bourbon and sake and even liked Rocky 3 I'm amazed that I'm impressed but the thing that I like best is I love fencing and she loved me my beer I've been in love with Betsy for five years I can't believe she's stuck with me what kind of luck have I got to keep someone like her around ten years my mom's been dead already for ten years since she put that curse on me no curse not a curse organizing turn the point is it's miss long enough now it's time to grow up and moms in the ground [Music] I like dancing on the pier I like Broadway once a year and I love Pepsi I like visit to the zoo I like opera it's not true but I love messy it's been five years and I'm ready get the sparklers I'm confetti you know wait to the waiter and summon the maitre d just like jay-z and Beyonce I will make her my fiancee I love and Betsy lumpy Amish muck and Betsy loves me doesn't matter what I do I know it's true I could never live without that she loves me it's amazing Betsy loved me and tonight I'm gonna show her how proud I am to know her through the seizures there's no drama there's no curse and there's no mama but my problems in the past I'm a grown-up paranoid nothing immune I'm from the Bronx to the island so then if you wanna this whole now he's gonna I love you let me sorry mama I love that and they love me [Applause] [Music] one y could say you know should we yeah so I have a new piece that I'm working on a show called the connector which is being directed by Daisy Prince and the book is by a playwright named Jonathan mark shermin wonderful playwright and so we've been working on that for a while and the story's way too complicated to get into but what you need to know about it in order to know this song is that Robin there hi Robin is she's working at a magazine called the connector she's been working there for a long time in the fact-checking Department and her real ambition is to you know get articles into the paper but that hasn't happened yet but Ethan has has shown up and has begun getting articles in the paper it's sort of an astonishingly fast rate he's sort of missed her all over the place and he's younger than she is and they start to have a relationship and there's one night where she's finally finished a story she's been working on for a long time she submits it and it gets rejected and she comes home and she's a little bummed about it and Ethan Ethan says you know I know this has been you know a frustrating time I do have a couple of suggestions about how you might be able to sort of get your stuff going you know if you were interested in how to sort of make this happen a little bit more and this is Robin's response the and a five down the clock on the tool there's a girl and she's and she's black so she first with the power to see in the future never make a bar say nothing and drinking coke in the sound of the coming stories of the world on written top stories of the world are kept on red and so long people of the world will never know what is asters on prevented danced on the phone in an office somewhere you may need consent so in pain from a vision that sometimes she wishes she were your interpretation of the thing she's been every day she decided the day that she'll finally tell her then she sees all the best all the best getting their story sold instead all the women of the world are shaped diamond all their warnings to the world are her too late and so the people of the world are left to wonder what offensive non-repetitive what is after freemen did lie in way [Music] No [Music] you offer a berth to patronize me but what doesn't change unquestionably is a GG for you [Music] stories of the world originally the clock dongle and sonar people of a world not encounter anything but one perspective one reflection one directive and white and enlightened [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] now what no I've constructed this is two songs from The Bridges of Madison County [Applause] inside a picture frame some tables and the coffeepot beautiful city how the table what a man of 37 that's exotic as that girl standing over here and laughing abscess cake server question no one thought to ask hello mr. green color thank you and expose them just enough to wish for more there was not me between something like the name something's wrong something's strange more than quicksand more than play [Music] on a honeymoon in Marrakech camera there was something I know [Music] but I believe and if our knife just dated I'd break him down [Music] obviously not the shadow find a picture [Music] wearing four years of confusion like a scar walking through the door and leaving nothing sorry I still did he [Music] [Music] another [Music] [Applause] [Music] a little knock will whisper at the bottom of your mouth subtly on the gentle knock death of us all in the leaves you hold your breath you check the lock you reassure yourself and nothing's at the window but you're wandering you're wondering you're wondering what that was nothing's gonna have nothing's gonna have eternity is that the switch you settle back into the blissful awesome Miller you close your eyes but there's an inch it'll hurt your heart trees you've ignore the tiny twitch pretend the feeling will be gone before the board but you're wandering you're wondering you're wondering where you are nothing's gonna happen nothing's gonna happen wouldn't it be fun to share the weather in Iran her hair damage live there the shadow is but everything you know true and everything you want to do with everything that makes you you kalain are nothing like and wondering [Music] nothing's gonna have nothing [Music] so a little story before we get to this one um I I know a theater company in Birmingham Alabama thanks and they've done a lot of my work and they've been very supportive of me over the years the artistic director and I actually had done shows together in New York back when he was just a dancer and I was just a music director and he he called me a couple years ago and he said we would really like to were doing a big fundraiser and what would really be great is if we could include in the auction the chance for someone to bid on having an original song written by you and I said that's a terrible idea that's not that's not going to go well and he said no I think it would be great and you know it doesn't have to be a big deal but I think people would be really into that here and so I sort of thought well I mean they've done a lot and they put a lot of money in Bridges of Madison County and lost it and then you know I sort of was like i alright fine you know I'll do it and I figured you know I'll write like eight bars on a napkin and they can frame it and it'll be great okay good so I'm sorry I said yes and you know a couple of months went by and then I got a call and he said I'd love to introduce you to the the couple that one year one year song at the auction and I said Oh couple okay great sure what's that and so he introduced me to the wife and she said well this what we're really hoping is that you can write something that we can have sung at our fiftieth anniversary next year I cheese video it's our 50th anniversary and you know it's very special to us because of course I'm a cancer survivor and so that has really you know it to have gotten this far it means a lot and I thought wow well okay [Applause] and so I will they're there with the napkin and I am you know 50 years is a lot now 50 years is I you know I've been married for like 12 years and we can barely get through the day like 50 years it's a lot and so I was pondering what it is to get through 50 years and what it must feel like and anyone who knows me will not be surprised when I say that I actually delivered the song to them on the morning of their anniversary party which was a full year after they had won the auction but apparently they're still together so I guess it worked [Music] this bees started in West Pennsylvania could have been Paris or Rome or Duluth 50 years started in a West Pennsylvania that's how you know that I'm until then the truth cuz the dears isn't some fairy tale story some Hollywood ship some old country song starts out as nothing it grows till it's 50 years along one year easy five years whatever ten years or 12 now you're starting to learn climbin working given up something and praying you like what you got in return what is this city and who are these people how did we get here and did we go wrong keep holdin hands kids you grew something 50 years it's 55 50 years death every year's champs in the wheel the years a region 50 years growing at the 50s no it's real it's real it's funny how someone looks 50 years different it still looks the same give or take more or less it's funny to think 18 thousand days later what you might have been if you hadn't said yes but look at us crying look at us as Ivan here's what we're thinking in case it's not clear that love could happen in West Pennsylvania who knows what could happen right here so come tell the story how you can do it is love and it's luck and it's sacred and strong starts out as nothing and grows till it slow start out nothing and grew something 50 [Music] [Applause] [Music] at a house while you were gone the week after you left me I found a couple acres near Severna Park and a house while you were gone a house silver shutters in the driveway laid in marble and thousands of rooms to fill miles space and I try to believe it was better without I was safer no I give it all for you give it all through you by my side once oh I'd give it all for you I'd give it all the whole new again feel I'm completed to know there and then that all that I needed was a year to fight the fear and now you're here I took a trip while I was gone Caston all my savings bought an Eldorado drove to Tennessee and took a trip while I was gone through all the cross the country stop it laughs and diners stared in the milk star thought I could touch the sky high and I try to believe it was better without you I was finally free I give it all for you I give it all for you oh I give it all for you I give it cause of mountains I climb get higher and higher running from time walking through fire Oh God knows easy hi he need a high from the Texas Education far blindly trust what you can't understand easy to run easy to run from the people you love hard to stand that like for the things you nothing about us were perfect were clear open tyrannize calls me fine rather be here there's something between us nobody else there across our mountains to conquer me and I stood on the Clipper the second before I jumped I knew where I needed I can't offer you [Music] nothing [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] kiss me goodbye again leave this night clean and fine we want the last words you want me last season all you can say all you can see you rip up inside one perfect kid I want you turn and go and goodbye until tomorrow goodbye until the next time you fall I will be waiting I will be [Music] tomorrow did I recall how to breathe and I have been waiting I am [Music] I struggle to keep my back I open my eye open lydell's one fish at a time finally yes and finally now finally stop hey wait finally finally he can cut 33 [Music] goodbye goodbye I will be the rest of my life and I have been waiting for lady crying [Music] I am until I crawl to your door [Music] [Applause] [Music] Shoshana beam you're right if we do a couple more I'm good not too many what octave does this have okay [Music] I'm just going to sing a song about you're done I'm just going to sing a song about the way you feel protected when you hold it in your arms when day is done who's gonna sing that song sir it's gonna sing a song about your gun I'm just gonna tell the world that you feel grounded and respected when you wrap your hands around your Remington who's gonna sing a song about your gun all those people that the rodeos and range is preaching freedom first and nothing else above surely one of them could play a couple changes the matter write a verse in praise of what you love someone's got to think it would be fun to sing a little song about your gun sir I can't sing a song about your gun got 27 other jobs that I've neglected and in fact right now I've kind of got a run so I can't sing a song about your gun see I'm too busy writing songs about my daughters and the news I have to hide from them today I'm too busy reading stories about slaughter than some little town a half a mile away by some kid who looks a little like your son I can't sing a song about your gun sir I'm not interested in your justifications for the patriotic sermons that you preach hard and we serve and I ran right out of patience to wait for consensus to be reached so honestly we odds are 1 to 1 but I don't give a about your gun sir was gonna sing a song about your gun who's going to tell the world the maligned and disrespect it and you're never understood by anyone who wouldn't sing a song about your gun [Applause] thank you I'm very grateful to have been here tonight at the Library of Congress and here with all of you people in Washington DC it means so much to me that you all came out would you do me a favor and welcome back for one more song mr. Shoshanna beam [Applause] [Music] and time if not today if not and all in time we can predict what comes to pass [Music] we control is how we react and how we become something like say deep in our skin every [Music] see in Thai some things come with some things come come given the chance I can think the day all we decide what to explore maybe it's just wanted enough let it begin [Music] no guarantee nothing but joy [Music] let's make a deal standing with you while I'm trusting what's true [Music] thank you all so much when you slap enough you get one more feel like I shouldn't be rewarding that kind of behavior alright I have to do a concert in New York on Sunday night and I don't have a voice because this right now is your fault did I just hear an alarm Scotty sirens go flying in half impressive things are moving too bad you're skater years later top single their impression things are movin tail laughs and you say oh no on the brakes do whatever it takes to stop this train but they don't know whatever I do out there along through and hopefully no matter what I try [Music] Oh never we love in their heart can't sell two things apart [Music] Oh what else in store for hard [Music] impression I've got a angular impression things are moving too fast [Music] you this has been a presentation of the Library of Congress visit us at loc.gov

Channel: Library of Congress

Views: 34,050

Rating: 4.8985505 out of 5

Keywords: Library of Congress

Id: Q7zJQpFjr10

Length: 78min 46sec (4726 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2017