Jason Robert Brown

The Last Five Years review by Richard Lawson There’s something about director Richard LaGravenese’s style that warms the heart. Here, adapting Jason Robert Brown’s two-hander musical into a nice, efficient little film, LaGravenese tells a simple story quite well. Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) and Cathy (Anna Kendrick) are a young couple who, through a dozen or so songs, sing us the story of their relationship’s glorious rise and bittersweet fall. They do so in opposite chronologies, Cathy starting at the end of the marriage and working her way back, Jamie starting at the beginning and going forward. She’s a struggling actress,Read More »

Ty Burr reports on this year’s Toronto International Film Festival for the Boston Globe: “The Last Five Years” is the most emotionally satisfying experience I’ve had at this year’s festival — yes, an adaptation of a musical; yes, starring Anna Kendrick — and in its small-scale way it’s possibly the best stage-to-film musical adaptation of the entire post-”Chicago” boomlet. You don’t really have to be a musical theater junkie to like “The Last Five Years.” I mean, if the form makes you cringe on general principle, by all means stay away. Myself, I think that once you get past Sondheim,Read More »

Entertainment Weekly has just posted the first official clip from the film of The Last Five Years (premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in about three hours!) – here’s Anna Kendrick singing “I Can Do Better Than That” to Jeremy Jordan in a vintage Caddy. Spread it around, y’all!

The first major deal of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival has closed, as Radius has acquired North American rights to Richard LaGravenese‘s musical “The Last 5 Years,” which stars Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan, the company announced Friday. Radius will release the film on Valentine’s Day 2015, which means it will go head-to-head with Universal’s steamy “Fifty Shades of Grey,” as well as Matthew Vaughn‘s “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” “Last 5 Years,” which premieres Sunday night at the Ryerson Theater, is based on the 2002 off-Broadway musical by Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown. The musical chronicles aRead More »

CBS Films is making a big-screen version of the stage musical 13. Laurence Mark is producing the adaptation, which is being written by Bert V. Royal, the scribe best known for the well-regarded Emma Stone high school movie Easy A. Bob Boyett, who produced 13 onstage, also is producing, while David Blackman will executive produce. Jason Robert Brown, who won a Tony for his score for The Bridges of Madison County, wrote the music and lyrics for 13 and will tackle the same duties on the film. The play — which made its debut in 2007 at the Mark TaperRead More »