Jersey Arts Podcast · ArtPride New Jersey

Jonatha Brooke and Joyous Grief

·40 min·3 clips

Gina Marie Rodriguez opens with a welcoming introduction to Jonathan Brooke. She traces the shape of Brooke's career, from The Story to a solo catalog that includes 14 albums over the past three decades, most of them released on her independent label Bad Dog Records, while also naming her work with Katy Perry, the Courtyard Hounds, Disney films, television shows, and the Dollhouse theme song. The conversation stays easy and personal. Brooke explains how My Mother Has Four Noses grew out of her desire to honor her mother and how she has since returned to theater writing, with three new productions underway. Grief enters the room. Brooke speaks about the loss of her mother, a long stretch of creative doldrums, and the way deadlines can push a writer back into the work even when it is hard to face. The interview also stays with the practical side of performance, including how she had to separate the character onstage from her own emotions when the material started to pull her under. There is real tenderness here. Brooke says the show became a love story and a gesture to her mother, and that it was healing to end by showing pictures of her as a normal mom, with her silliness, clowning, sexiness, and self-mockery intact. That choice gives the conversation its shape. It lets the listener hold both the hard facts of grief and the more ordinary, vivid essence of the woman being remembered. Rodriguez responds with warmth and clear emotion, and the result is an arts interview that threads career history, stage writing, and the shared emotional work of grief into one steady arc.

As heard by us

A warm arts conversation that links a long career with grief, memory, and stage work.

Jonathan Brooke's Jersey Arts conversation starts with a wide-angle look at a career that runs from The Story to solo records, collaborations, film and TV work, and new writing for the stage.

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Why you'd press play

For a warm arts interview that moves from songs to grief to stage work, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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