B'way Update: The Last Five Years

Adrienne Warren and Nick Jonas
will star in The Last Five Years
on Broadway.

Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years will have its Broadway premiere in a new production starring Tony winner Adrienne Warren (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) and Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers, How to Succeed) directed by Tony and Drama Desk nominee Whitney White (Jaja's African Hair Braiding, On Sugarland), set to open in spring 2025. The two-character musical premiered at the Northlight Theater in Skokie, Illinois. It opened Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theater in 2002 with Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott, winning Drama Desk Awards for Brown's Music and Lyrics. A 2013 revival at Second Stage starred Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe. The 2014 film version directed by Richard LaGravenese was headlined by Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick.

The plot follows the five-year relationship between author Jamie Wellerstein and actress Cathy Hiatt. The unique structure follows Jamie's story moving forward chronologically and Cathy's moving backwards. The two did not directly interact except for the wedding scene when the meet in the middle of each other's story. 

The musical is based on Brown's real-life marriage to Theresa O'Neill who sued her ex-husband for violating a non-disclosure agreement in their divorce proceeding. Brown countersued O'Neill for interfering in his creative process. In the settlement, Brown altered certain parts of the script to lessen Cathy's resemblance to O'Neill.

Sherie Rene Scott and 
Norbert Leo Butz
in The Last Five Years.
Credit: Joan Marcus

“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.” 

Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick
in the film version of
The Last Five Years.

“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.”

Note: The press release was sent out at 8:00am on a Sunday morning, a strange time for a major announcement about a Broadway show. Warren and Jonas will be presenting on tonight's Tony Awards and will no doubt announce their upcoming production, which may explain the strange timing of the release.

2024-25 Broadway/Off-Broadway/Awards Calendar 
Summer 2024
June 16--Tony Awards (David Koch Theater/Lincoln Center)
June 18--Pre-Existing Condition (Connelly Upstairs)
June 20--Cats (Perelman Performing Arts Center)
June 23--N/A (Mitzi Newhouse)
June 29--From Here (Signature Center)
July 11--Oh, Mary! (Lyceum)

July 29--Six Characters (LCT3/Clara Tow)
July 30--Job (Hayes)
Aug. 12--Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson)

Fall 2024

Sept. 12--The Roommate (Booth)

Sept. 12--Counting and Cracking (Public Theater/NYU Skirball)

Sept. 12--Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song (Theater555)

Sept. 24--Vladimir (MTC/City Center Stage I) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Sept. 29--The Hills of California (Broadhurst)

Sept. 30--MCNEAL (Vivian Beaumont/LCT)

Oct. 1--Yellowface (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

Oct. 1--Good Bones (Public)

Oct. 9--The Counter (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Oct. 10--Our Town (Barrymore)

Oct. 10--Deep History (Public)

Oct. 17--Maybe Happy Ending (Belasco)

Oct. 20--Sunset Boulevard (St. James)

Oct. 24--Romeo and Juliet (Circle in the Square)

Nov. 8--Gatz (Elevator Repair Service/Public)

Nov. 11--What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical (Studio 54)

Nov. 14--Tammy Faye (Palace)

Nov. 14--King Lear (Kenneth Branagh Theater Company/The Shed)

Nov. 21--Death Becomes Her (Lunt-Fontanne)

Nov. 21--The Blood Quilt (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Nov. 25--Eureka Day (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Left on Tenth

Swept Away

We Live in Cairo (NYTW)

Winter 2024-25

Dec. 19--Gypsy (Majestic)

Jan. 23--English (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Feb. 20--Liberation (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

The Antiquities (Playwrights Horizons/Vineyard Theater)

A Knock on the Roof (NYTW)

Sumo (Ma-Yi Theater/Public)

2024-25

My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?)

Romeo and Juliet w.Tom Holland/Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (?)

Smash

Wine in the Wilderness (CSC)

Spring 2025

March 10--Ghosts (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

March 25--Old Friends (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) (previews begins opening TBA)

April 21--Floyd Collins (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)

April 24--The Pirates of Penzance (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Bowl EP (Vineyard Theater/National Black Theater)

Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. (Public)

Good Night and Good Luck

The Last Five Years

Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole (NYTW)

Othello

The Picture of Dorian Gray (???)

Show Boat (Target Margin/NYU Skirball)

2025

Redwood

Summer 2025

Twelfth Night (Public Theater/Delacorte)

Fall 2025

Initiative (Public)

2026

Hello, I'm Dolly

Future--Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beaches the Musical; Beat Street; Black Orpheus; BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Crazy Rich Asians; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Frida, the Musical; Game of Thrones; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; High Noon; Imitation of Life; The Interestings; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; The Mousetrap; Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor; Pal Joey; Purple Rain; The Queen's Gambit; Rear Window; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; The Queen of Versailles; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Soul Train; Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Working Girl.

2024-25 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

Good Night and Good Luck

The Hills of California

Job 

Left on Tenth

MCNEAL

Oh, Mary!

The Roommate

New Musicals

Death Becomes Her

Maybe Happy Ending

Old Friends

Smash

Swept Away

Tammy Faye

What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical

Play Revivals

English

Eureka Day

Home

Othello

Our Town

Romeo and Juliet

Yellowface

Musical Revivals

Floyd Collins

Gypsy

The Last 5 Years

Once Upon a Mattress

The Pirates of Penzance

Sunset Boulevard