Jeb Brown’s Broadway career kicked off over 50 years ago, starting with a turn as a “no-neck monster” in the 1974 Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. At just 10 years old, he was breathing the same air as the great Tennessee Williams. “I remember thinking, ‘Why is he so quiet?’” Brown says to Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek of his time in the legendary playwright’s presence. “That was a child's view of that very distinguished man.”
That memory is just one of many still frames in the “slideshow” of Brown’s life and career that he’s been able to reflect upon from the vantage point of a lifelong stage actor, and—thanks to David Yazbek, Erik Della Penna and Itamar Moses’ bizarro bluegrass musical Dead Outlaw—a first-time Tony nominee.
“It’s a doozy of a story,” Brown says of Dead Outlaw, a musicalized version of the story of Elmer McCurdy, a failed railroad bandit whose corpse became a famous sideshow attraction. In early scenes, Brown plays McCurdy’s criminal mentor, but for most of the show, he’s the Bandleader—a rocking narrator reminding the audience in song that one day, we’ll all be dead.
“No, I don’t think that’s a great idea” is how Brown sums up the reactions Yazbek received throughout the 30 years he held the concept in his back pocket. “Finally, his collaborators said, ‘Yeah, let's do this.’ Man, did they do it.”
In those same 30 years, you could find Brown wending his way from stage to stage. “I spent my 20s in L.A., kind of checking out that turf,” he says. “After eight years, I realized I kept checking my watch and wondering when I was going to get home. So around age 30, I came home and dug into theater.” He performed in regional theaters across the country, carved a niche off-Broadway and periodically popped up on Broadway in Aida, I’m Not Rappaport, Ring of Fire, High Fidelity, Grease, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
“You always invest like it's going to be the great one,” Brown says, mentally thumbing through his stage resume. “Even as the ship is sinking, you're hanging on and thinking, ‘Well, maybe we'll get it together.’ Sometimes, that doesn’t work,” he says, letting his laidback Virginia roots from his father’s side overpower his East Coast upbringing (Brown was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut). “It never feels pointless or fruitless. It always feels for me like I know what I'm doing and I'm going to do it as well as I can.”
Hit or flop, all of it goes into the slideshow. “I do feel like as a ‘seasoned’ performer, if I may use that term, you just got a lot of stuff to look back on,” says Brown. “It's a lot of stuff, a lot of work, a lot of fun. Always a good time.”
GET TO KNOW THE TONY FIRST-TIMERS
Left to Right: SADIE SINK (John Proctor is the Villain) | JUSTINA MACHADO (Real Women Have Curves) | DARREN CRISS (Maybe Happy Ending) | CONRAD RICAMORA (Oh, Mary!) | NICOLE SCHERZINGER (Sunset Boulevard) | JEB BROWN (Dead Outlaw)
Watch the June 4 episode of The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal, highlighting all six of our first-time Tony nominees, and flip through the complete gallery of photos from our exclusive Broadway.com photo shoot.
The Broadway Show Credits: Directed by Zack R. Smith | Producers: Paul Wontorek and Beth Stevens | Senior Producers: Caitlin Moynihan and Lindsey Sullivan | Videographers: Eddie Lebron, Nick Shakra, and Ryan Windess
Photo Credits: Photography by Emilio Madrid | Photo Assistants: Eric Hodgman, Farley Schilling and Leandra Worth | Location: Corner Studio
Grooming by Madison McLain
Styling Credits: Styling: Emma Pritchard | Styling Assistant: Rina Andreatta | Suit: Luigi Bianchi | Shirt: Donna Karan | Boots: Allen Edmonds | Pocket Square: The Tie Bar