Last night I had the real treat, along with Mike and my friend Dan, of seeing theater composer Jason Robert Brown perform at a restaurant/bar on the East Side. Brown wrote “The Last Five Years” and “Parade” and was brought in to help fix “Urban Cowboy.” His show last night lasted more than two hours, and it was such a pleasure. His music isn’t what one would typically think of as Broadway music; while he enjoys wordplay, his songs are jazzy and funky and modern. He’s a terrific pianist and has a nice singing voice, too.

But the first thing I noticed was that he is a dead ringer for John Kerry 30 years ago. I swear — he looks just like him, he even talks just like him. It’s uncanny.

The evening was helped by his special guest performers, including Brian D’Arcy James, Julia Murney, and Carolee Carmello — the latter whom Matt, Mike, Jaye and I saw on Saturday in “Baby” at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey. Carolee Carmello twice in three days! I love her.

Now I’m going to have to listen to all of Jason Robert Brown’s stuff, probably after bumming it off Matt. After spending over two hours watching the guy perform, I have a real sense of his music now.

I love when that happens.

Matt and I were walking north along Eighth Avenue on Saturday afternoon, heading over to Studio 54 to pick up our tickets for that afternoon’s performance of “Assassins.” We were about to cross West 46th Street when I noticed someone waiting to cross Eighth Avenue who looked familiar. That looks like John Tartaglia, I thought.

I took a closer look at his backpack and saw a button on it that said IT SUCKS TO BE ME.

Yep, it was him.

We watched him cross over and walk down toward 45th Street, presumably heading over to the John Golden Theater to get ready for the matinee of “Avenue Q.”

This was just one of the treats of the fun-filled weekend Matt and I had.

By the way, John Tartaglia and his “Avenue Q” puppet Rod are going to be on “Hollywood Squares” all next week, if you want to catch them. (Check local listings, as they say.)