About this Artist
“Bounding towards what’s next in the world of sound,” Los Angeles-native twin composers, songsters, and multi-instrumentalists Jack and Benny Lipson united to birth the award-winning project jackbenny, who shared their debut show in 2016 with musician-comedian Reggie Watts. At first they peddled their originals as a 4-piece prog pop-rock band at many of LA’s bar venues, but as their “sensational, clever, and astute” lyrics evolved into more nuanced millennial meditations, Jack and Benny re-outfitted their material as a piano-bass-percussion trio, mixed in a healthy heaping of sibling shtick, and have since toured their at-once satirical and optimistic revues in theaters and cabaret rooms across the country.
jackbenny’s premier cabaret engagement in November 2017, Happiness is trending, sold out the Duplex Cabaret in New York, and subsequently played Chicago’s Stage 733, The Triad Theater in New York, and in 10-month residence at Los Angeles’ Lyric Hyperion Theatre. The Lipsons followed in March 2019 with It’s National See-a-Show Day!, produced by Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles, which they then brought to New York’s historic Birdland. After receiving their show to uproarious acclaim, Birdland sanctioned jackbenny’s sophomore appearance at the club, and All Aboard! the Train of Thought premiered there October 2019. Jack and Benny are currently writing And on the 366th Day to celebrate leap day, once again at the Luckman.
Passionate writers for the theater, Jack and Benny presented a reading of their original “musicalette” comedy Miranda, Please! at the 2017 Wyoming Theater Festival within their Let Hear It! series. The Lipsons are now developing Brainstorm, a 3-character musical revue of their material which received its initial reading September 2019 and whose songs have resounded at new musical showcases in both LA (at Rockwell Stage and The Federal) and NY (at The Duplex). As arrangers and orchestrators, Jack and Benny have together and separately worked on dynamic projects ranging playwright Mark Saltzman’s Another Roll of the Dice (world premiere at North Coast Repertory), The Piano Men: Songs of Billy Joel and Elton John with Barn Stage Company (at California Center for the Arts, Escondido), and Burton Lane and Ralph Freed’s “How About You” for Lifetime’s holiday special Snowed Inn Christmas.
Jack and Benny have played piano, bass, percussion, and sung in support of such luminaries as Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow and many more at iconic LA venues from The Hollywood Bowl to Disney Hall. jackbenny serves as house band for Jonnie Reinhart’s A Queer Cabaret, where they've collaborated with Darren Criss, Michael Arden, and others at LA’s Tramp Stamp Granny’s and NY’s Club Cumming. With Ashley Joyce, they co-founded and play For Good: a monthly night of showtunes to save the world, which for nearly two years has donated over $10k to local Los Angeles charities. The Lipsons regularly curate events for Center Theater Group, and, in addition to Musik! Fantasie! Revolution!, are planning an all-Sondheim program for the Phil in May.
Benny holds a degree from University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in studio jazz voice and bass. Jack graduated in composition at UCLA, where he studied with Paul Chihara and Mark Carlson. jackbennynow.com | @jackbennynow