Jason Robert Brown's FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE Musical Will Get NYC Reading in February

Jason Robert Brown's next big musical project is on its way to the stage! According to an Equity casting notice, his adaptation of the 1993 film Farewell My Concubine will get a staged reading February 11-15. The project, which features a book by Kenneth Lin, will receive direction by Moises Kaufman and musical direction by Thomas Murray.

Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 Chinese drama film directed by Chen Kaige. It is one of the central works of the Fifth Generation movement that brought Chinese film directors to world attention. Similar to other Fifth Generation films like To Live and The Blue Kite, Farewell My Concubine explores the effect of China's political turmoil during the mid-20th century on the lives of individuals, families, and groups. In this case, the affected are two male stars in a Beijing opera troupe and the woman who comes between them.

The film is an adaptation of the novel by Lilian Lee, who is also one of the film's screenplay writers. Farewell My Concubine stars Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi and Gong Li. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win other honours.

Jason Robert Brown is a composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer. Jason's score for The Bridges of Madison County, a musical adapted with Marsha Norman from the bestselling novel, directed by Bartlett Sher and starring Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale, received two Tony Awards (for Best Score and Orchestrations). A film version of his epochal Off-Broadway musical The Last Five Years was released in 2015, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and directed by Richard LaGravenese.

His major musicals as composer and lyricist include: "13", written with Robert Horn and Dan Elish, which began its life in Los Angeles in 2007 and opened on Broadway in 2008 (and was subsequently directed by the composer for its West End premiere in 2012); 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, written with Alfred Uhryand directed by Harold Prince, 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 Jason the Tony Award for Original Score; Honeymoon In Vegas, based on Andrew Bergman's film, which opened on Broadway in 2015 following a triumphant production at Paper Mill Playhouse; and Songs for a New World, a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, which played Off-Broadway in 1995, and has since been seen in hundreds of productions around the world.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos