BWW Exclusive: Broadway's Hottest Singer/Songwriters: Meet Jason Forbach

Welcome to the latest entry of "Broadway's Hottest Singer/Songwriters" featuring some of theater's hottest talents sharing insight into their own original music.

Today, we meet Jason Forbach who has appeared in LES MISERABLES, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MISS SAIGON, MY FAIR LADY and many other shows.

As Seen In: The 2014 Broadway Revival of Les Miserables, Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Tour, Phantom of the Opera in Vegas, and Miss Saigon.

Latest Project: I'm currently playing Freddy in My Fair Lady at Sacramento Music Circus taking a leave from the barricades for the summer...having a blast in California!

Writing Process: It's never really quite the same process each time. I always scribble notes as inspiration hits me. I'm always juggling multiple projects that help inspire each other. I'm constantly writing poetry. I'm collaborating on a new musical. I'm writing a play. It's the thing that stimulates an artistic side in me that I can't exercise in Les Miz every night.

I've always worked with collaborators and sometimes the lyric inspires the melody, but sometimes it's the other way around. I don't have a set method at all. When I co-wrote "Remembering To Dream", my collaborator, Joey Singer had a bunch of piano sketches that felt Christmas-y to him and we crafted the song from there. For "Revolutionary", written with Wesley King, we started with just that word and then lyrically discovered what came from that idea. I've never been strictly a lyricist, I've always written both music and lyrics with a partner and have had varied paths toward writing a song.

Musical Point of View: My training, my background is in classical music. I began a performing career in opera and then transitioned to musical theater about ten years ago. But even before that, I sang jazz. I love all kinds of music. Every style turns me on in some way. I always come from a point of view that is essentially a pursuit of beauty. I always want to feel music so incredibly deeply, to have it stir something in me, to speak to me, to move me in some way that it takes me to a place that words alone can not.

Song that defines you: This is impossible to answer. Songs that have touched me or defined me throughout my life would be a list a mile long. Some would be: "Stop This Train" by John Mayer, "Fable" from Light in the Piazza, "Move On" from Sunday in the Park, "Harvest Moon" by Neil Young sung by Cassandra Wilson, "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" sung by Sarah Vaughn, "But Beautiful" sung by Gregory Porter, so many of the Classic Disney songs...I could go on all day.

Music influences: Sondheim, Harold Arlen, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Anthony Warlow, Jonas Kaufmann, Audra McDonald, Sara Bareilles, Chet Baker, Kurt Elling, Rodgers and Hammerstein, this is another list that could go on and on all day....

Website: www.jasonforbach.com

Twitter: @jtforbach