Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren Will Lead First Broadway Production of THE LAST FIVE YEARS

Still hurting over the end of the Broadway season? BroadwayWorld has just learned that that singer, songwriter and actor Nick Jonas and Tony Award winner Adrienne Warren will return to Broadway to star as "Jamie" and "Cathy" in the first ever Broadway production of Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown's beloved THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

This bold, brand-new production, directed by 2024 Tony Award nominee Whitney White, will open on Broadway in Spring 2025.

Sign-up NOW for first access to purchase tickets during the exclusive fan presale on Monday, July 22 at 10am EST at www.TheLastFiveYearsBroadway.com.

"THE LAST FIVE YEARS is one of the greatest original American musicals in the canon. I could not be more excited to bring it to Broadway for the first time with Nick and Adrienne, two powerhouse performers and lovers of theatre," said director Whitney White. "I fell in love with this musical many years ago when I was a student at Northwestern. I found it then, and still consider The Last Five Years to be such a human portrait and a beautiful exercise in making time-- the one thing we are all bound to-- feel consequential. The songs are iconic, and the vibes are very two-thousand-and-now because this is a story about artists falling in and out of love and what happens when something has to come to an end. There is no place in the world that can rip people apart and bring them together like New York City. I think we all understand how hard it is to leave something behind; a lover, a job, a country, a relationship that doesn't serve you anymore. But for me, the heartbreak at the center of the show walks hand in hand with abundant love and possibility. I know that audiences will be blown away, once again, by the brilliance of Jason Robert Brown's one-of-a-kind composition, orchestration and musical vision, and that they will see themselves in Jamie and Cathy-- two young people trying to figure it all out.""On June 15, 1999, I wrote the first song of a new project," said Jason Robert Brown on June 14, 2024. "It was the first time I had started a project without knowing where it was going to end up, without a producer or collaborators, just me very much on my own needing to find the music and words that would tell a story that was twisting my heart into impossible shapes every day. For twenty-five years, I have let THE LAST FIVE YEARS lead me on its journey, through our very first production in Skokie in 2001 to our Off-Broadway premiere a year later, a thrilling film version, a record-breaking revival at Second Stage, and thousands of productions spanning every continent. I have always believed that when the time was right, THE LAST FIVE YEARS would make its way to Broadway. To have Nick and Adrienne taking on these roles is a composer's dream come true, and to have Whitney's extraordinary guidance and vision is the hope of every playwright. It has taken twenty-five years, but the time is right."

THE LAST FIVE YEARS follows two New Yorkers, rising author Jamie and aspiring actress Cathy, as they fall in and out of love over the course of five years. With an "extraordinary and jubilant" (Chicago Tribune) score, the musical explores whether a couple, once united by their dreams, can remain connected as their paths diverge.

Tune in tonight, June 16 at 8pm EST to see Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren present live at the Tony Awards on CBS and tomorrow, June 17 at 8am EST on ABC's Good Morning America as they chat about the announcement and their return to Broadway.

More information including theater, opening night and additional creative team members will be announced at a later date.

2016 off-Broadway revival, starring Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor:

BIOS:

Nick Jonas (Jamie Wellerstein). After electrifying music from multiple angles, appearing in blockbuster films, and launching successful business ventures, Nick Jonas still challenges himself and popular culture. Of course, his story as one-third of Jonas Brothers remains well-documented-especially given the band's chart-dominating 2019 comeback Happiness Begins, sold out tours, and subsequent GRAMMY® Award nomination. At the same time, he established himself as a dynamic solo artist with a penchant for breaking boundaries. His 2014 self-titled album yielded the triple-platinum "Jealous," double-platinum "Chains," and gold-certified "Levels." Its 2016 follow-up Last Year Was Complicated spawned the anthem "Close" [feat. Tove Lo] and brought his streams into the billions. In 2017, he contributed the Golden Globe® Award-nominated "Home" to the Ferdinand soundtrack. Meanwhile, his songwriting would be recognized with the prestigious Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016. Along the way, he also captivated audiences as a re-occurring judge on NBC's The Voice and in big screen favorites such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, UglyDolls, Midway, Jumanji: The Next Level, Chaos Walking and more. In 2021, Nick released his studio album Spaceman [Island Records]. In 2023, Nick and the Jonas Brothers once again proved they are a constant force, embarking on a new era with the release of The Album, via Republic Records. The Album was produced by Jon Bellion and features hit singles "Waffle House" and "Wings." In support of the new album and this new era for Jonas Brothers, they kicked off "The Tour" with two sold-out shows at New York's iconic Yankee Stadium on August 12th and 13th. "The Tour" includes stadium and arena dates around the globe through 2024, resulting in the band's biggest and most extensive tour to date. Most recently, Jonas starred in The Good Half, delivering a knockout performance in his first leading role. He is currently in production for his new film "Power Ballad," starring alongside Paul Rudd.

Adrienne Warren's (Cathy Hiatt) talent as a singer, actress, and dancer has established her as a dynamic triple threat. Warren is perhaps most well known for her Tony Award-winning performance as Tina Turner in Broadway's "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical". Warren originated the role in numerous workshops of the show, working together with Tina Turner herself to embody the titular role. Warren transferred the role to Broadway following the 2018 West End production, for which she earned 2019 Olivier, Evening Standard, and Joe Allen Award nominations. Warren's performance in the Broadway run has been heralded as "extraordinary" (The Hollywood Reporter), "electrifying" (Rolling Stone) and "star- making" (The New York Times). In addition to the Tony Award, she also received a Chita Rivera nomination and the DramaDesk, Antonyo, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her iconic performance. Warren previously earned Tony and Chita Rivera Award nominations for her performance as 'Gertrude Saunders/Florence Mills' in the Broadway production of Shuffle Along opposite Audra McDonald. Warren made her Broadway debut in 2012's Bring It On: The Musical and previously appeared onstage in The Wiz (Encores! City Center) and Dreamgirls (The Apollo; NAACP Theatre Award nomination). She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2017 with the New York Pops and continues to perform around the world. In 2023, she was featured on PBS's annual "A Capitol Fourth" performing an electrifying tribute to the late Tina Turner. Warren can currently be seen in the highly anticipated feature film, Rustin, starring Coleman Domingo, and The Woman King, starring Viola Davis. She starred as 'Benny' in Hulu's Black Cake, based on the best-selling book. Warren will star and serve as executive producer on the new Peacock series Dreamland. Warren starred as Mamie Till-Mobley, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till, in Women of the Movement, a limited series for ABC. Other television and film credits include Paws & Fury: The Legend of Hank, Helpsters, Quantico, Black Box, Blue Bloods, and Orange is the New Black. Warren's voice can also be heard as the iconic spokesperson for Maybelline Cosmetics. Warren is a co-founder of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC), which unites artists, experts, students, and community leaders to use storytelling and artistry to combat systemic racism. BAC received a special Tony Award in 2021. She is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia.

Whitney White (Director) is an Obie and Lily Award winning, as well as a Tony Award nominated director, writer and musician originally from Chicago, based in New York. She was a staff writer on Boots Riley's I'M A VIRGO and is a believer of multi-disciplinary work and collaborative processes. Recent directing: Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Broadway), Jordans (The Public Theatre), The Secret Life of Bees (The Almeida, UK), Soft (New York Times Critic's Pick, MCC), On Sugarland (New York Theatre Workshop), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (New York Times Critic's Pick), What to Send Up When it Goes Down (New York Times Critic's Pick), The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre DC), An Iliad (Long Wharf), Canyon (LA Times Critic's Choice, IAMA), Jump (National New Play Network Rolling World Premier, PlayMakers Rep). The Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre). Original works include: Semblance (NYTW), Definition (Bushwick Starr), and Macbeth in Stride for which she won an Eliot Norton Award for Best Musical Performance (American Repertory Theatre, Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theatre). Her four-part cycle, Reach For It, deconstructing Shakespeare's women is currently in development with American Repertory Theater (Boston, MA) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (UK). Her musical discipline is rooted in electro-rock, industrial, and soul. Whitney has developed work with: Sundance, The Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard, The New Group, Page 73, Playwrights Realm, Juilliard, Trinity Rep, NYU TISCH, Luna/">Luna Stage, SUNY Purchase, Princeton University, Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, The Drama League, South Oxford, Jack, The Tank, New York Musical Festival, The Lark, and others. She also has been an Associate to: Sam Gold (Othello, New York Theatre Workshop), Daniel Sullivan (If I Forget, Roundabout), and Anne Kauffman (Marvin's Room, Broadway). As an actress she has worked at: American Repertory Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Shakespeare DC, The Goodman, The Guthrie, Chautauqua, Broadway Playhouse, Ars Nova, The Public, and more. Film includes OCEAN'S 8 opposite Anne Hathaway. Television: THE PLAYBOY CLUB (NBC) and Louie (FX). Whitney is a part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, is a recent recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing Award, Herb Alpert Award and the Jerome Fellowship. She is an Artistic Associate at The Roundabout and an associate Artistic Director at Shakespeare DC. Past residencies and fellowships: Colt Coeur, The Drama League, the Roundabout and the 2050 Fellowship at the New York Theatre Workshop. MFA Acting: Brown University/Trinity Rep, BA: Northwestern University.

Jason Robert Brown (Book, Music & Lyrics) is the ultimate multi-hyphenate – an equally skilled composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer – best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of our time, including the generation-defining The Last Five Years, his debut song cycle Songs for a New World, and the seminal Parade, winner of the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score and the 2023 Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This year will see the premieres of two new JRB musicals: The Connector, created with Jonathan Marc Sherman and Daisy Prince, which just completed a triumphant run at New York's MCC Theater; and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, written with Taylor Mac based on John Berendt's book and directed by Rob Ashford, opening at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in July. (The Concord original cast recording of The Connector will be released on June 21). Jason Robert Brown has been hailed as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and his "extraordinary, jubilant theater music" (Chicago Tribune) has been heard all over the world, whether in one of the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year or in his own incendiary live performances. Jason's score for The Bridges of Madison County, a musical adapted with Marsha Norman from thebestselling novel, received two Tony Awards (for Best Score and Orchestrations). Honeymoon In Vegas, based on Andrew Bergman's film, opened on Broadway in 2015 following a triumphant production at Paper Mill Playhouse. A film version of his epochal Off-Broadway musical The Last Five Years was released in 2015, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and directed by Richard LaGravenese. His major musicals as composer and lyricist include: 13, written with Robert Horn and Dan Elish, which opened on Broadway on 2008 and became a celebrated Netflix musical in 2022; The Last Five Years, which was cited as one of Time Magazine's 10 Best of 2001 and won Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics (and was later directed by the composer in its record-breaking Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre in 2013); Parade, written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Musical, as well as garnering Jason the Tony Award for Original Score; and Songs for a New World, a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, which has since been seen in hundreds of productions around the world since its 1995 Off-Broadway debut, including a celebrated revival at New York's City Center in the summer of 2018. "Parade" was also the subject of two major revivals: the first, directed by Rob Ashford, at London's Donmar Warehouse and then at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; and the second, Michael Arden's Tony-winning 2023 Broadway production starring Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond. In 2022, Jason collaborated with comedy legend Billy Crystal on a Broadway musical of Mr. Saturday Night with lyrics by Amanda Green and a book by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Jason conducted his orchestral adaptation of E.B. White's novel The Trumpet of the Swan with the National Symphony Orchestra, and recorded the score for PS Classics. Jason is the winner of the 2018 Louis Auchincloss Prize, the 2002 Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the 1996 Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for Musical Theatre. Jason's songs, including the cabaret standard "Stars and the Moon," have been performed and recorded by Ariana Grande, Jennifer Nettles, Brandi Carlile, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Billy Porter, Betty Buckley, Renée Fleming, Jon Hendricks and many others. As a soloist or with his band, Jason has performed concerts around the world. For six years, his monthly sold-out performances at New York's SubCulture featured many of the music and theater world's most extraordinary performers, including a sold-out concert at Town Hall with Stephen Sondheim. His newest collection, Coming From Inside the House, featuring Ariana Grande and Shoshana Bean, commemorates the final SubCulture concert, recorded remotely during the pandemic. His previous albums, How We React and How We Recover and Wearing Someone Else's Clothes are available from Ghostlight/Sh-K-Boom Records. Jason's 2012 concert with Anika Noni Rose was broadcast on PBS, and he was the featured soloist for an episode of BBC Radio's long-running "Friday Night Is Music Night," broadcast live from the London Palladium and featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra. His collaboration with singer Lauren Kennedy, "Songs of Jason Robert Brown," is available on PS Classics. Jason is also the composer of the incidental music for the Broadway revival of You Can't Take It With You, David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo and Fuddy Meers, and Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery, and he was a Tony Award nominee for his contributions to the score of Urban Cowboy the Musical. He has also contributed music to the hit Nickelodeon television series "The Wonder Pets," as well as "Sesame Street." Jason spent ten years teaching at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, and has also taught at Harvard University, Princeton University and Emerson College. For the musical Prince of Broadway, a celebration of the career of his mentor Harold Prince, Jason was the musical supervisor and arranger. Jason studied composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., with Samuel Adler, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner. He lives with his wife, composer Georgia Stitt, and their daughters in Nyack, New York. Jason is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802. Visit him on the web at www.jasonrobertbrown.com.

Photo Credit: Norman Jean Roy