Jason Robert Brown, Adam Kantor & Betsy Wolfe to Bring THE LAST FIVE YEARS to Birmingham

The Red Mountain Theatre Company (RMTC) has announced that Tony-award winner Jason Robert Brown will bring his highly acclaimed production of "The Last Five Years" to the RMTC Cabaret for three nights this February.

Since its Broadway debut, "The Last Five Years" has won numerous awards, including being named the "10 Best of 2001" by Time magazine. In 2013, "The Last Five Years" broke off-Broadway attendance records at Second Stage Theatre under the direction of Brown himself and starring Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor.

Both Wolfe and Kantor will travel with Brown to Birmingham for the local show to reprise their roles as Cathy and Jamie, a twenty-something couple in New York who explore the last half-decade of their relationship through song. In Memento-like fashion, Jamie starts at the beginning of their romance; Cathy starts her story at the end, and throughout "The Last Five Years," the audience watches as their love burgeons and deteriorates.

"Telling the story from different vantage points-in both the natural order and reversed order-is incredibly interesting," says Keith Cromwell, executive director of RMTC.

RMTC will stage an intimate, concert version of the "The Last Five Years," featuring Brown himself accompanying on piano. Cromwell is thrilled to bring Brown back to Birmingham.

"Few modern composers will enter the musical theatre canon-Jason is one of those composers," says Cromwell, who met Brown when they both worked on the Broadway production of When Pigs Fly. The New York Times agrees-referring to Brown as "a leading member of a new generation of composers who embody high hopes for the American musical."

A composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer-best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of his generation, including "The Last Five Years"-Brown has been lauded by critics and fans alike.

He has been hailed as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim" (Philadelphia Inquirer). 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.

Brown's musical adaptation-with Marsha Norman-from the bestselling novel "The Bridges of Madison County" had a successful run on Broadway. RMTC is proud to have been a lead producer of that show.

The film adaption of "The Last Five Years," starring Anna Kendrick and Jordan Jeremy, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and is receiving high praise from critics.

For tickets to RTMC's production of "The Last Five Years," visit the Box Office at redmountaintheatre.org or call (205) 324-2424.

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