Second Stage Theater has announced Shoshana Bean and Jason Robert Brown will perform The Last Five Years as a part of the special concert series, Musical Mondays, in celebration of the acclaimed company’s 40th anniversary. Jason Robert Brown will also direct the sold-out performance on Monday, March 4.
“Believe it or not, the first time I heard Shoshana Bean sing was actually when she auditioned for the original production of The Last Five Years in 2001, and what I wrote down that day is still true: ‘Oh my God, can this girl sing,” said Brown. “Shoshana and I started performing concerts together in 2007 and it has been clear from our very first show that she could make my music soar and dive in ways no other singer can. It was an amazing stroke of luck that Shoshana was available to lead the company of Songs for a New World last summer at City Center, and hearing her bring that score to life only made me ache for more collaborations with her. And so what better way to celebrate Second Stage’s 40th anniversary than to bring my beloved collaborator to the stage for an informal concert of the show that first brought me to this glorious theater, featuring the full orchestration and my favorite musicians. I can’t wait for March 4th when I can wrap my fingers around this music again and have the best seat in the house as one of the finest singers in the world brings The Last Five Years to life. It only took 18 years!”
A series of one-night only concerts of musicals produced by Second Stage Theater, Musical Mondays will take place every Monday night through the month of March, kicking off on March 4 with Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. The series will continue on March 11 with Saturday Night by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Stephen Sondheim; on March 18 with Peter Duchan, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul’s Dogfight; and on March 25 with Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next To Normal.
All concerts will play at 7 p.m. at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theater (305 W 43rd Street).
Shoshana Bean (Cathy) has had four independent solo releases top the iTunes charts in the US and UK, and her latest release Spectrum landed her at #1 on the Billboard Jazz Charts. Bean made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Hairspray and starred as the first replacement for Elphaba in Wicked. Most recently, she appeared as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and as Cee-Cee Bloom in the new musical adaptation of Beaches, for which she earned a Jeff Award Nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Musical.
Jason Robert Brown (playwright, director and Jamie) has been hailed as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim” (Philadelphia Inquirer). Brown received two Tony Awards for Best Score and Orchestrations for The Bridges of Madison County. A film version of his epochal Off-Broadway musical The Last Five Years was released in 2015, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and directed by Richard LaGravenese. The Last Five Years (2002) was cited as one of Time magazine’s 10 Best of 2001 and winner of Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics. Brown directed its record-breaking Off-Broadway run at Second Stage in 2013. Learn more at www.jasonrobertbrown.com.
Carole Rothman is the president and artistic director of Second Stage Theater. Casey Reitz is the executive director.
For more information, visit www.2ST.com
