The insular world of musical theater, and his place within it, nagged at him. “He didn’t like walking through Midtown and seeing the marquees of shows that were running when his wasn’t,” Ms. Stitt said.

She added: “He has often said he is looking for — what’s the word he uses? — sanctuary, and it’s hard for him to find sanctuary in New York.”

Mr. Brown said he was at peace with the decision. “I liked theater, but I thought they don’t have room for me, so it doesn’t matter anymore,” he said.

Yet his wife, friends and colleagues all suspected — or hoped — that Mr. Brown was not done.

“I’ve never known a composer who at some point hasn’t been ready to give up,” said Harold Prince, the director of hits like “Cabaret” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” who hired Mr. Brown as a rehearsal pianist in the 1990s before choosing him to write “Parade.” “But he didn’t give up.”

“I don’t see how someone with all that stirring within could quit,” he added.

What brought Mr. Brown back was “13.” A collaboration with the writers Dan Elish and Robert Horn, which would feature a cast and band where no one would be older than 17, “13” began more as a lark.

But sitting in the audience at a public performance of a workshop for the musical in early 2007, he felt overwhelmed. “I really thought, ‘Nobody else does this the way I do it,’ ” he said. “I shouldn’t be so cavalier about it, assuming I can leave it behind.”

Yet he pushed ahead with a lot of reluctance, knowing full well that a trip to Broadway could be another chance to be rejected. He was right. But Mr. Brown was back in for good — or ill.