Musician Jack Lipson “bounds toward what’s next in the world of sound.” The Los Angeles-native-turned-New Yorker has composed, arranged/orchestrated and/or musical directed theater, dance, concerts, the theme and scores to “zenroom,” a new sitcom starring Cheri Oteri, and the docushort Paper Boats which screened at festivals in NY, LA and Buenos Aires. His short musical May I Be Frank (lib. Jessica Wu) debuted 2024 at Merkin Hall in Theatre Now’s Sound Bites Festival.
He co-writes music, lyrics, and -stars alongside his twin brother in Jack & Benny Lipson’s “sensational, clever, and astute” revues that have played NY (Birdland Theater, Club Cumming), LA (Luckman Fine Arts), Chicago, San Diego, and San Francisco. The Lipsons also penned Miranda, Please!, an “opera buffalo,” and Brainstorm, a revue of their material.
Both Carnegie Hall and the LA Phil commissioned Jack to curate and arrange cabarets for their respective Weimar Festivals. He has produced and arranged recordings by Pia Toscano, Bethany Joy Lenz, Nina Herzog and for Lifetime’s Snowed Inn Christmas. For 2 years Jack MD’d the Wyoming Theater Festival, where he met playwright Mark Saltzman and has since developed three of his pieces: Romeo & Bernadette (off-Broadway 2022, Drama Desk & Outer Critics’ nom.), Alice, Formerly of Wonderland (arrangements, World Premiere 2024) and Another Roll of the Dice (arrangements and orchestrations, World Premiere 2019).
Jack has piano’ed and sung supporting Josh Groban, esperanza spalding, Michael Feinstein, Steve Ross and many more at venues from The Hollywood Bowl to Disney Hall. He guest-starred on-screen accompanying Andrew Rannells in Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendales” and as MD to Jonnie Reinhart’s A Queer Cabaret collaborated with Darren Criss, Michael Arden, Dylan Mulvaney, Jackie Cox and others in both NY and LA. He has toured the US with international chanteuse Meow Meow, Australia’s The TEN Tenors, Beehive, the 60s musical, and Broadway legend Barbara Dixon.
Under Gerald Sternbach Jack associate-MD’d Sweet Charity starring Laura Bell Bundy (dir. Kathleen Marshall, Reprise 2.0), I Only Have Eyes For You (dir. Kay Cole), and An Evening of Wicked Fun: Celebrating Stephen Schwartz featuring Idina Menzel, Megan Hilty, Andrea Martin, Jordan Fisher, etc. (The Wallis). Lipson co-founded For Good: a monthly night of showtunes to save the world, which donated over $25k to local LA charities. He currently serves on faculty at New York Film Academy and previously taught or lectured at AMDA, Boston Conservatory, Lee Strasberg Institute, Columbia College Hollywood, and LA County High School for the Arts.
Jack writes in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop and earned his Bachelor’s in Music, composition at UCLA, where he studied with Paul Chihara. Otherwise he’s reading, crossword puzzling, or cutting a rug.