Fall 2006
A New Brain
Music by William Finn and Jason Robert Brown
Lyrics by William Finn
Book by William Finn and James Lapine
Produced by Justin Leader
Directed by Josh Burlingham
Think Spring!
After collapsing in a restaurant, cranky, unfulfilled composer, Gordon Schwinn is diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain condition, which sets him off on a wild, phantasmagorical ride through his own subconscious mind, while still in the confines of his hospital bed, in William Finn’s powerful and witty autobiographical musical, A New Brain.
Gordon’s lover, Roger, mother, Mimi , and best friend, Rhoda try to keep his mind at ease, even as he is being haunted and taunted by visions of his boss, a children’s television show host in a frog suit, the practically demonic Mr. Bungee , who attempts to exacerbate his greatest fear—that he will die without ever having accomplished a work of lasting worth.
Unexpectedly funny and soul-stirring, A New Brain is a complex meditation on the restorative powers of art and creation by one of Broadway’s cleverest and most heartfelt writers.
