Fantastic news to announce today: the new production of The Last Five Years that’s currently running at Second Stage Theatre in NYC will be recorded for a cast album, so that everyone will be able to have their own private experience of the amazing performances by Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor, not to mention the unbelievably great orchestra. I’ll be producing the CD, the great Jeffrey Lesser will be recording, the amazing Andy Waterman will be mixing, and the wonderful folks at Sh-K-Boom will be putting it out this summer. I couldn’t be happier or more excited! We record on May 22, and hopefully you’ll be able to pick up a copy by July.

You can read more about it here on the Sh-K-Boom website, where you can also pick up a copy of 13, Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes, or the original legendary Last Five Years CD from 2002!

The post A NEW CAST ALBUM FOR “THE LAST FIVE YEARS” appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.

I didn’t have a child when I wrote Parade, and now I have two. Two beautiful little girls who, a hundred years later, live a life that would have been unimaginable to Mary Phagan, but who carry my dreams and hopes inside them as surely as Mary carried her mother’s.

This previously unreleased recording of the Funeral Sequence from Parade features the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by their music director Grant Gershon. Playing the role of Frankie Epps is Brian d’Arcy James.

from the musical Parade (1998)
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
[incorporating "There is a fountain", traditional hymn by William Cowper, melody by Lowell Mason (1772)]
Orchestration by Don Sebesky
Brian d’Arcy James, tenor solo
Los Angeles Master Chorale and Orchestra; Grant Gershon, conductor
Recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles CA, June 15, 2004

The post IN MEMORY OF MARY PHAGAN appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.

Read Erik Piepenburg’s article in the New York Times here.

Left, Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe in the 2013 revival at Second Stage; right, Sherie René Scott and Norbert Leo Butz in the 2002 production at the Minetta Lane Theater.

By ERIK PIEPENBURG
New York Times, published April 25, 2013

“The Last Five Years” is a modest musical with a huge following. Jason Robert Brown’s two-person show follows the doomed marriage of Jamie, an arrogant Jewish novelist, and Cathy, an insecure gentile actress. The story of their troubled courtship is told chronologically — backward (hers) and forward (his). Their scenes intersect in the middle, when Jamie proposes to Cathy during a boat ride in Central Park. It’s an intimate, melancholy show that has confused and alienated some audience members and enchanted others since its 2001 premiere at the Northlight Theater in Skokie, Ill.

The following year it opened Off Broadway, lasting two months at the Minetta Lane Theater, though its stars, Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie René Scott, have gone on to Broadway success.

There was a cast album, which has sold a not insignificant 85,000 copies to date and has helped the show’s fan base spread. “L5Y,” as the Twitter hashtag reads, has been produced more than 1,000 times in the United States and around the world.

Mr. Brown directs the new Off Broadway revival at Second Stage Theater, which stars Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe, and has been extended several times through May 18 despite mixed reviews. (In this video Mr. Kantor performs an excerpt from the number “If I Didn’t Believe in You.”) A film version, adapted and directed by Richard LaGravenese, is in production with Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick.

What is it about the show that makes people travel the world to see it, or make marriage proposals using the show’s lyrics? The New York Times recently asked readers to share their memories and memorabilia of the show. Following are condensed excerpts from interviews and online comments.

I made a mix CD for my girlfriend, now my wife, when we started dating. She went to Indiana University and I was at the University of Kentucky at Lexington, about a three-hour distance. I compiled a set of songs that I thought she would appreciate from recent musical theater she hadn’t heard of. From “The Last Five Years” I included “Shiksa Goddess.” She’s not Jewish. She’s of Indian descent and I’m of Western European lineage. The humor of the song was the point. Since then we’ve seen it about five times, including productions in London; Cincinnati; and Oxford, England. Doug Reside, 34, New York City

I was a senior in college and newly hooked on “The Last Five Years” when my parents split up in 2003. I tried, obsessively, to draw parallels between their crumbling relationship and the one L5Y centers on. It helped me sort through what had happened between them, even though the circumstances were very different. Ten years later I’m going through kind of a gritty time in my own marriage, and I’m at it again: What’s going on here? Am I being a Jamie? A Cathy? What are the chances I’ll find a therapist who knows what I’m talking about? Paige Campbell, 31, Abingdon, Va.

I wanted to propose to Alex, my girlfriend, with something public or fun, with a lot of our friends. I’m not a great singer, but I love to ham it up. Her favorite song from the show is “The Schmuel Song.” We went to a karaoke bar in New York, where most of our friends live, and I changed the lyrics at the end of the song to make it a proposal. The original goes: “Say goodbye to wiping ashtrays at the bar/Say hello to Cathy Hiatt, big-time star.” I changed it to: “Be more than just my girlfriend on this day/Say hello to Alex Cook my fiancée.” That’s when I pulled out the ring. When we got married our rings were inscribed, above, with the words “How lucky I am,” from the last line of “The Schmuel Song.” Bayard Templeton, 32, Philadelphia

I was the house manager for the production at the Minetta Lane. There was the night Sondheim came. He was sweet. I love that someone I revered so much was coming to see a piece with a score that I think stands up to anything that’s out there, including Sondheim’s own stuff. Other attendees I remember were Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Alice Ripley, Carol Burnett, Fran Drescher, Eric Stoltz, Betty Buckley and Liza Minnelli. Back then Liza always tried to see everything. Carolyn Saxon-Ruccio, “In my forties,” Boston

It was especially fulfilling to do the production at East West Players in Los Angeles, which traditionally promotes Asian-American talent in nontraditional casting. We didn’t play it with any kind of gimmicks. The one thing I do remember having to justify was believing Jamie was Jewish, since we had a Korean-American actor, Michael K. Lee, playing him. In our research we found there are quite a number of Korean Jews. Jennifer Paz, 39, Chicago

I was this female Catholic actress and he was this Jewish guy who was in the fine arts. Clearly Jason Robert Brown was telling us we should never date. So we never did. We ended up becoming really good friends. About a year ago he was my man of honor at my wedding. His best man toast was all Jason Robert Brown lyrics, some of which were from “The Last Five Years.” Amanda Trombley, 26, Phoenix

When I finally saw the show for the first time in 2011, it turned out to be one of the most intense theater experiences of my life. There were no over-the-top sets, no special effects, just a couple of chairs, two tables, a few props and two incredible actors: Christian Alexander Müller and Joana Fee Würz. The production was held in a tiny basement theater in Germany, the Chemnitzer Kabarett, with less than 150 seats. It felt wonderfully intimate, almost a bit voyeuristic, as if I was sitting in Cathy and Jamie’s living room watching their relationship unfold right in front of me. Annegret Hintze, 26, Dresden, Germany

When I think about other stage works I love — namely “Betrayal” and “Merrily We Roll Along” — that turn the clock backward, I’m even more knocked out by the achievement of this show. Something about boiling the world down to only two people in “The Last Five Years” allows the show to take that crazy extra structural step that says, “You go in your direction, I’ll go in the opposite direction,” which tells us in the first minutes of the show how doomed this couple’s relationship is. Jonathan Marc Sherman, New York (Mr. Sherman is the author of “Clive” and other plays)

I’m obsessed with the show. I’ve collected anything I could find, including a bootleg DVD of a performance they did in Skokie before the Off Broadway run. Jason Robert Brown was so honest with his portrayal of these two characters. It’s got two characters who are both likeable and unlikeable. Anybody who has been in love has been in this position. You’re right and wrong for each other, and neither one can say that. I know I’ve gone through that. Jimmy Straley, Springfield, Ohio

The post THE STRANGE PULL OF A SIMPLE LOVE STORY (NYT 4/28/13) appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.

The NY Times is running an article next week about the lingering influence of “The Last Five Years” and the passionate devotion the show has inspired over the years, and they’re asking for the recollections of fans and alumni of the show, as well as photos of any mementos. I would be so grateful if you would send them some of your memories and impressions. The Times has never been very kind to this show, and it means a lot to me if we can let them see what an amazing shadow “The Last Five Years” has cast over the years, with actors, musicians, students, teachers, designers, writers, and everyone else who has fallen in love with Jamie and Cathy’s story.

I hope you’ll take a second to go to this link:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/calling-super-fans-of-the-last-five-years/

and let the folks at the New York Times know how much this show means to you. It certainly has meant so much to me.

(And hey, copy me on those emails if you’d like! I’d love to see what you all write!)

Thanks so much,
Jason Robert Brown

The post Fans and alumni of THE LAST FIVE YEARS needed! appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.

Here’s more enticement – two more wonderful videos from the Second Stage folks featuring my gorgeous and amazingly talented cast. Previews are going so well, I hope you can come down to 43rd Street and see the magic that we’re making.

More about the show and how to get your tickets here!

The post “LAST FIVE YEARS” PREVIEW #4 & 5: BETSY AND ADAM appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.

Performances currently scheduled through April 28! Hope to see you there!
J.

The post JRB & L5Y on NPR appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.

PLAYBILL BRIEF ENCOUNTER With Jason Robert Brown, Now Directing His Beloved Musical The Last Five Years

By Brandon Voss
07 Mar 2013

Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown (Parade) talks about seeing his cult hit The Last Five Years from both sides now — as songwriter and director of the new Off-Broadway revival.

*

Few musicals are as fanatically adored as Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. Using opposing chronology to retrace the ill-fated relationship of a New York couple — purportedly inspired by the Tony Award-winning composer’s own marriage woes and later divorce — the two-hander is getting another chance this spring at Off-Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre. The Mystery of Edwin Drood‘s Betsy Wolfe and Rent‘s Adam Kantor star as Cathy and Jamie, the roles immortalized by Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz on the popular 2002 original Off-Broadway cast recording. (It was recently reported that Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan will star in a forthcoming film adaptation.) Brown, who also directs the revival, looks at the last 11 years of his show’s cult success.

Are you as excited as your fans are about this revival of The Last Five Years?
Jason Robert Brown: I’m probably more excited, because I know how awesome it’s going to be.

Why did you want to direct it yourself?
JRB: It wasn’t my idea, initially. A producer wanted to produce a revival on Broadway if I directed it, because he knew I had a very specific take on the show. After years trying to pull together a Broadway production with the casting nonsense required, I finally decided I didn’t want to wait for an Anne Hathaway and a Jake Gyllenhaal, so I came to Second Stage. This is a show that many people love, but almost none have actually seen — at least not with my vision and the kind of amazing cast you can find in New York. It was time.

You conducted the orchestra of the original Off-Broadway production. Did you consider that for the revival?
JRB: Oh, God, no. I had to draw the line someplace. I’ve got an incredible piano player, Andrew Resnick, and Tom Murray, who was the music director 10 years ago, is music-directing again now. I’ve been very relieved not to have to touch the piano.

Being in the orchestra every night, you were obviously very close to that original production, which was directed by Daisy Prince. Have you found yourself borrowing any of her directorial choices?
JRB: Well, the design that Derek McLane has come up with is very different than Beowulf Boritt‘s design from the original production, so already there’s a lot that’s different visually. And these two actors, Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe, are so different and bring so much of their own lives to it, so there isn’t a whole lot for me to borrow from what Daisy did. Everything Daisy did was great, but she got to do it, and now this will be mine.

Are you making any changes to the material, or are you treating the show as though someone else wrote it?
JRB: I’m definitely not treating it like someone else’s piece. But the show very tightly constructed, so there’s not a whole lot I could do. Anything you pull out and change is going to affect something else down the line.

No tweaking the occasional lyric that’s always bugged you?
JRB: There may be little stuff like that. I’ve performed in the show a few times in concerts with Lauren Kennedy and Julia Murney, so there are things that have crept in over the years, little things I’ve added, little fixes I’ve made, and those will all be in this version.

Is the show still set around the beginning of the millennium, or has it been updated?
JRB: So much about the motor of the show is about these two people not being able to communicate. You can still not communicate with people even if you have stuff like texting and Facebook, but those weren’t part of the vocabulary back then, so they’re not in the show. I felt that if you said it was 2013 and yet they don’t spend time on Facebook, Twitter, texting, then they’re not really being young, contemporary New Yorkers, so I decided to leave it be. I’m not having them wear period fashions that suggest 1998, but I didn’t want to do anything that felt aggressively au courant.

The original Off-Broadway production closed about two months after opening. What happened?
JRB: First of all, it didn’t get very good reviews. It was also the first commercial piece to open Off-Broadway after Sept. 11. We were downtown at the Minetta Lane, and people were barely coming to the city much less that far south, so I think we definitely suffered for a lack of traffic.

With such a brief run, you couldn’t have foreseen the rich life that the musical would have after that.
JRB: I actually did sort of foresee it. It’s a show with two characters, so I knew that people would want to do it. There was no guarantee, but I hoped it would have the life that it in fact has had — that it would go out into the world, be shared, and become part of contemporary musical theatre vocabulary. We took a lot of care with the cast album, because we knew a lot of people would be listening to it.

Did that hope for the musical’s future make the premature closing less devastating?
JRB: No, it was still devastating. I mean, “devastating” makes it sound like — well, no, maybe “devastating” is exactly the right word. I didn’t want to be in the business anymore after that. I really didn’t. I thought that if this town didn’t know how to support that kind of work, I didn’t need to be here. I didn’t have another show in New York until 2008 with 13, and that was because I left town and moved to L.A.

At what point did you realize that The Last Five Years had become a cult classic?
JRB: It’s been a slow dawning over a number of years. It’s great. I lived in Italy in 2005. When I came back, I found that I was very much in demand on college campuses. Everyone wanted to book me to come talk to their students and theatre groups. The show was also being done a lot. I was paying my mortgage with The Last Five Years. So sometime around there, I must’ve figured it was doing OK.

What is it about the show that’s resonated with so many people?
JRB: I love that these characters have very full, honest emotional lives. A lot of musical theatre has to stint on those things, but I didn’t write this for anybody but me. I had something I needed to say, which gave me freedom to write these characters as deeply as I could, so they’re flawed but very recognizable. People see themselves very much in these characters.

Is it accurate to describe the show as autobiographical?
JRB: It’s not not autobiographical. On an emotional level, it’s very autobiographical. I had a really tragic first marriage, so that part is true. Knowing anything about my own biography, you can’t watch the show and not see a lot of parallels, but the specifics aren’t autobiographical.

Have audiences missed the point if they leave the show picking sides?
JRB: You can take from the show whatever you want. For me, the fun thing about the last 11 years is seeing how the reviews that do place blame are evenly split. Either Cathy’s horrible and unsupportive or Jamie’s a rotten philanderer. I’ve been able to rest comfortably knowing that I managed to write something balanced.

Do you like seeing as many college and regional productions as you can?
JRB: No, I really don’t. Emotionally, it’s very hard for me to watch. I’ve probably seen about 50 of them, but it takes a lot to get me there.

Can you still be surprised by fresh interpretations of the material?
JRB: I’m always open to being surprised, but I’ve always had a very specific thing in my mind about what this show is. I’m open to seeing what other people do with it, but it makes it a variation on what I wanted it to be — as opposed to the actual thing I wanted it to be. That was probably even true with Daisy’s interpretation; as gorgeous as it was and as superbly cast as it was, I don’t think it was ever exactly what I saw in my mind. So it’s been really exciting trying to nail down exactly what that thing is in my mind and put it up on stage.

That sounds like something a control freak would say.
JRB: You’re supposed to be a control freak when you’re an artist. That’s the whole point of having a vision: Why have one if you’re not going to protect it?

What’s it like to revisit the characters through older, wiser eyes?
JRB: The feelings of both characters were very, very close to me. I have a more avuncular interest in the characters now, as opposed to the more direct personal interest I had the first time. I look at them like, “Oh, these kids, they don’t know what’s coming!” I feel for them as someone older.

It’s no secret that the musical’s road from Chicago to Off-Broadway between 2001 and 2002 was a rocky one. It was originally announced for and then pulled from Lincoln Center Theater’s schedule amidst much mystery, rumors regarding your ex-wife’s alleged objections to the material, and vague statements made by lawyers and other representatives. Is there anything you’d like to say about the matter that you couldn’t say back then, or is there any misinformation that you’d like to clear up?
JRB: Nothing especially relevant. Although some have said that the show changed so much between Chicago and New York, and actually, compared to most musicals, the show barely changed at all. Look at what Sweet Smell of Success did between Chicago and New York that same year: They changed casts, threw out the finale, and wrote five different songs. I changed one song and maybe eight lines of lyric. I just saw it on my computer the other day, and the entire list of changes is less than a page. I don’t think that’s so bad. The circumstances under which I made those changes were a little batty, but it’s fine. The show survived it, and I’m as proud of the show as I would’ve been had I not changed a note.

You mentioned the downside of opening at the Minetta Lane. Do you wish the show had gone to Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse as originally intended?
JRB: I don’t spend any of my time — anymore — doing that sort of wishful thinking. That’s why I don’t live in New York. I could spend all my time wondering, “What if…?,” but the fact of the matter is that I had an extraordinary production with two dynamos who were about to become massive stars, which I think is the same situation I’m in now with Adam and Betsy. They’re right on the verge of amazing careers.

Did you audition a lot of actors for this revival?
JRB: Oh, yeah.

What was it about Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe that appealed to you?
JRB: They selected themselves. It wasn’t even hard. When Betsy left after her first audition, I said, “We’re done. That’s it.” Betsy, being a typical neurotic actress, wanted to come back in, felt that she didn’t get this one thing, and I was like, “No, we’re good. It’s done.” It was the same with Adam. He walked in, he opened that mouth, he had that voice, and he looks like he looks. He so embodied what this character is.

You’d never worked with them before?
JRB: I hadn’t. That’s the other thing about not living in New York: I didn’t even know who they were. If I showed you the list of people who auditioned, you’d say, “Oh, my God, these are the greatest young actors in New York.” I didn’t know who any of them were. I got to experience them all freshly.

I thought you might’ve caught Betsy in Sherie Rene Scott’s Everyday Rapture.
JRB: No, by the time I came back in town, it was closed. But I did just get to see Betsy in Drood.

Have you seen any other shows since you’ve been in town?
JRB: I saw Golden Boy when I first got here, and I was thrilled I got the chance to see that, because it was just sensational. Other than that, I haven’t had a whole lot of nights free to go see things.

Adam and Betsy certainly have big shoes to fill. It must be daunting to take on two beloved roles previously played by two powerhouses, Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott, whose performances were captured on the terrific cast recording that many fans know by heart.
JRB: I suspect that these two are confident enough that they don’t get daunted by that. It’s exciting to put your own stamp on these things, and it’s thrilling watching them take ownership of it.

Is your direction of them ever shaded by memories of Sherie’s and Norbert’s performances?
JRB: No, it’s impossible, because they really are so different. Neither of them would make any of the same choices that Sherie and Norbert made. I didn’t choose them because they were such different performances, but it was evident the minute I started working with them.

The Last Five Years and your 1995 musical Songs for a New World are proof that a show doesn’t need to open on Broadway to have a very successful life.
JRB: They may be the exceptions that prove the rule. I’m not sure that they’re proof that anybody else can do it.

Fair enough, but they’re your exceptions. With those unconventional successes under your belt, must Broadway still be the goal as you work on your musical adaptations of Honeymoon in Vegas and Bridges of Madison County?
JRB: Certain shows demand certain venues. When I’m writing for Broadway theatres, which I am for Bridges of Madison County and for Honeymoon in Vegas, they’re Broadway shows that wouldn’t feel right in an Off-Broadway house or in a small regional theatre. The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World were deliberate chamber pieces meant to play in small houses.

The Last Five Years has become a very recognizable commodity. Even without Hollywood actors, do you still have hopes for a Broadway transfer?
JRB: I really don’t give a shit one way or the other. I don’t think The Last Five Years needs to be on Broadway to be a success. If it does end up on Broadway at some point in the rest of my life, it has to be handled very carefully so that it fills that room the way it’s supposed to. The show means so much to me, and I hope it’s received in the spirit it’s given. New York is really a character in the piece in such a specific way, so I’m just happy to have it back here. And whoever comes, I hope they like it.

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It’s been five years since I brought a new musical into the world, so I’m deliriously happy to be able to announce a new arrival this summer.

On August 1 of this year, the Williamstown Theatre Festival will present the world premiere of The Bridges of Madison County, the musical I’ve been writing with the brilliant Marsha Norman based on the novel by Robert James Waller. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the show will run for only two and a half weeks, so get your subscriptions quickly! Williamstown is a fantastic theatre in a gorgeous town, and we can’t wait to share our show with the folks there. Here’s the info about the show and how to get tickets!

But if you can’t wait until August to hear some JRB music, remember that The Last Five Years starts performances off-Broadway on March 7 at Second Stage Theatre in New York, directed by me and starring the incredible Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor. Want to know more? Go here!

And there are more thrilling announcements coming – soon! – about the rest of 2013. There will be miles and piles of me coming at you this year – I can’t wait!

See you at the the-ay-ter!
Jason Robert Brown

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Here’s more Betsy Wolfe from our January recording session. You can’t imagine how great she and Adam Kantor are in these parts – they’re going to be astonishing.

Get all the information about “The Last Five Years” by clicking here! Performances start March 7!

The post “LAST FIVE YEARS” PREVIEW #3: GOODBYE UNTIL TOMORROW appeared first on Jason Robert Brown.

Here’s more footage of Adam and Betsy singing their asses off (and this was before rehearsals even started!), with me playing the piano and Gary on the guitar.

Go to the Second Stage website for more info and tickets!

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