$
Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren in The Last Five Years.
Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren in The Last Five Years.

Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren Preview Broadway Romance in The Last Five Years

The Last Five Years had been on Nick Jonas’s radar since his adult costars in Beauty and the Beast obsessed over the original Off-Broadway cast recording, featuring Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott. (At the time, 9-year-old Nicholas Jonas was playing Mrs. Potts’s son Chip.) Two decades later, he recalls telling his wife, actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, “that I dreamed of playing the role of Jamie one day — and not long after, the opportunity came to be part of this production. I’m just over the moon.”

The production is an irresistible musical about falling in and out of love. A young novelist named Jamie and an actress named Cathy spend half a decade together before their relationship falters over misunderstandings and clashing ambitions. The show, with an achingly beautiful score by three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown, has amassed a passionate fan base since its 2002 premiere. Now, The Last Five Years is getting a richly deserved Broadway debut, with theater veteran and pop superstar Nick Jonas and Tony Award–winning actress Adrienne Warren as Jamie and Cathy. This highly anticipated theatrical event begins a limited engagement March 18 at the Hudson Theatre, directed by Tony nominee Whitney White. 

“This is a very special and unexpected pairing,” Warren says of being cast opposite Jonas. “Something beautiful happens when two unlikely artists get to work together, learn from each other, and present something that audiences will be moved and excited by.” In truth, these charismatic costars have more in common than people might think: Warren won her best actress Tony for channeling the ultimate female rocker, Tina Turner, in the 2019 musical biography Tina. And long before selling more than 130 million records with his brothers Kevin and Joe, Nick Jonas was a child actor on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun, Beauty and the Beast, and Les Misérables.

“I am a Broadway baby to some degree,” Jonas acknowledges with pride, “and my experience on Broadway as a kid is the foundation of my work ethic. I have so much respect for the Broadway community and how hard Broadway actors work, and I’m so grateful to come back as an adult to originate this role.”

Warren, on the other hand, had never pictured herself playing Cathy, although she loved Brown’s score. “I was a fan from afar because I didn’t feel like I had agency to do this piece,” she says now. “Growing up, I was drawn to roles that Audra McDonald or LaChanze or Heather Headley played,” citing three Tony-winning Black actresses. “You start pigeonholing yourself when something hasn’t been done before. It was so emotional to get this opportunity because it means that there’s going to be a new group of girls out there who will be invited to play this role in the future.”

The Last Five Years is one of the rare contemporary musicals that seems timeless, offering two juicy parts for actors blessed with the vocal chops needed to handle 90 minutes of nonstop singing. Jamie’s story starts at the beginning of the couple’s romance; Cathy’s story works backward from their breakup. “It’s about coming of age and falling in love, something everyone can relate to,” Warren says. “And it’s about how we blossom and fall down and get back up again. There will never not be Cathys in the world; there will never not be Jamies. We’re all trying to figure out our lives.”

For Jonas, starring in The Last Five Years feeds a side of his creative life different from songwriting or performing in front of 50,000 screaming fans in Yankee Stadium. “The thing I love most about acting is telling stories about everyday life, about things that are challenging, and this show is a prime example of that,” he says of the musical’s fractured romance. “The fact that we get to bring it to life in a wonderful way on the stage is what it’s all about.”

Both stars express excitement at appearing together on Broadway. “Adrienne is a force, in every sense of the word,” Jonas declares. “Obviously a Tony winner, obviously an incredible voice, but as a scene partner, she brings something nuanced and complex and dynamic to the table, and I couldn’t be happier to do this production with her.”

Beyond her costar’s “rock-star energy,” Warren emphasizes the humanity Jonas brings to Jamie, a role often played with an emphasis on the character’s arrogance. “Jamie is a complicated person, and Nick is such a beautiful human,” she says. “It’s going to be really interesting to see Nick, who is unbelievably humble, kind, and talented, bring a different energy than we’re used to seeing.” Jonas’s theatrical background is the icing on the casting cake: “I love it when someone whose roots are in the theater goes out and becomes a superstar, but the theater is always home. I think that’s the case for Nick.”

As they prepare to introduce The Last Five Years to a new generation and share a thrilling, fresh take with longtime fans, Warren and Jonas predict that audiences will be moved by Whitney White’s vision. “I hope people walk away knowing that every relationship in life is special and teaches us something,” says Warren. “Even if you experience heartbreak, on the other side of that, you will be OK. I know that Jamie and Cathy will both be OK.”

Agrees Jonas, “Jamie and Cathy experience a tremendous love, and I believe that their journey doesn’t really end, but transitions into something else. My hope is that audiences leave reflecting on their own relationships, thinking about how they can tell the ones they love how they feel in a meaningful and thoughtful way and not take anything for granted. And I hope they have an enjoyable night at the theatre!”

Learn More About The Last Five Years