Nick Jonas on The Last Five Years, New Jonas Brothers Album and Tour

Nick Jonas has got a singular impression that things are movin’ too fast. After all, the pop star is currently more than a month into headlining The Last Five Years on Broadway, performing eight shows a week at New York City’s Hudson Theatre.

The buzzy, limited production — running now through June 22 — is finally enjoying a Broadway debut that was more than two decades in the making. Jason Robert Brown’s intensely intimate two-person musical charts the doomed romance between Jonas’ character, Jamie, a hotshot New York novelist, and Cathy, a struggling stage actress played by Tony winner Adrienne Warren, from love at first sight to embittered ruin half a decade later.

It’s not exactly a spoiler to reveal that the two characters (originated by Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott in the original 2001 Off-Broadway production and reportedly inspired by the composer’s short-lived first marriage) don’t end up together. After all, as devoted generations of theater kids already know, the narrative opens at the end of the relationship, with Cathy surveying the wreckage of her broken fairytale through the quietly devastating opening number “Still Hurting.”

From there, the show’s plot zigzags in a famously non-linear fashion: Jamie’s perspective of the tragic romance is told chronologically from beginning to end, while Cathy’s plays out in reverse. The dual timelines only converge during the couple’s wedding with “The Next Ten Minutes,” an emotional high point that serves as the musical’s one true duet. The musical is also filled with now-famous numbers like “Shiksa Goddess,” “See I’m Smiling,” “A Summer in Ohio,” “Climbing Uphill” and “If I Didn’t Believe in You.”

 

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Having made his Broadway debut at the age of 8 in the revival of Annie Get Your Gun, Jonas is no stranger to the stage. However, tackling the role of Jamie has proven to be an altogether different beast from past credits like Chip in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Gavroche and Marius in Les Misérables and J. Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

“This show has challenged me in ways that I have not been challenged before,” Jonas tells Ticketmaster by email. “I think it’s really called all of us to bring our A-game.”

Part of that challenge surely comes from the pressure of bringing such a cult classic — one that diehard theater fans have loved for more than twenty years and counting — to life on the biggest and brightest stage possible. “It’s a really encouraging thing to look out in the audience each night and see the reaction from people who come ready to see a show they probably know and love, but leave seeing it in a totally new and imaginative way,” he adds. “I’m just thrilled to get to be doing it on the Broadway stage for the first time.”

Below, Jonas opens up to Ticketmaster about the importance of finding Jamie’s humanity amid his flaws, his favorite songs from the show and why Jamie and Cathy’s story has stood the test of time in Broadway history. Plus, the superstar dishes on what Jonatics can expect from the Jonas Brothers’ upcoming 20th anniversary tour this summer, and even reveals some of the inspirations behind the band’s just-announced seventh album, Greetings from Your Hometown.

How does it feel to bring The Last Five Years to Broadway for the very first time?

[It’s] a dream come true. This show has challenged me in every way possible and has been a dream to work on alongside this incredible creative team.

The show has developed such a cult following since it premiered Off-Broadway in the early 2000s. Did you have a connection to the show, or were you a fan before the opportunity came to play Jamie?

I was a fan of the show for a long time before I got to play Jamie, going all the way back to my early days on Broadway and discovering the cast recording of the Off-Broadway production at a really young age. I loved the score and then, over time, I found myself relating with each of these characters in so many different ways and thinking about what I wanted to bring to this version of Jamie. It has been a really fulfilling experience.

Jamie is such a complex character, but it can be really easy to view him as the villain of the story — particularly from Cathy’s perspective. (I mean, the show literally starts with her singing, “Jamie is over and Jamie is gone”…) But how do you see his personality? How did you go about developing him as a character?

I think it’s easy to see it that way, with Jamie being a villain or a narcissist. All these things that we often think of him as were part of the challenge — and the fun — of creating this version of the show alongside Whitney White, our director. And building out this character to be dynamic and flawed, but also to be compassionate, and have moments where he really does tap into his humanity and his willingness to love, and love beyond himself and his shortcomings.

Do you have a favorite song in the show?

I have a few — “I’m Still Hurting” is one of my favorite songs of all time. I also love “A Part of That.” As far as Jamie’s songs go, I really love singing “Nobody Needs to Know.” There is so much emotion in that song and [it’s] really kind of the culmination of the character’s whole journey. It’s a pleasure to get to sing it.

The show’s two non-linear timelines only intersect at Jamie and Cathy’s wedding with “The Next Ten Minutes.” How did you approach that song and the importance of that moment with Adrienne Warren, considering it’s the only time Jamie and Cathy are in the same place at the same time?

The way this show is structured is unique, putting it in a totally different light and perspective for both characters. Playing with the timelines and trying to find creative ways to keep the audience informed as to where we are in that story was something I thought Whitney White did a really good job of achieving. In this production, there are times when we do kind of tap into each other’s timelines, which I think helps connect some of those emotional dots in a really meaningful way.

Obviously, the story of The Last Five Years does not have a happy ending, and Jamie’s timeline of the relationship ends with “Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You.” What do you consider Jamie’s fatal flaw?

His ambition. It’s also the thing that makes him great, which is often the case with real, creative minds. His desire to kind of achieve all the things he wants to achieve and build out the world the way that he sees it is the very thing that causes him to fall short in his relationship with Cathy.

What have you learned from working with Jason Robert Brown throughout this process?

Jason Brown is incredibly detailed and thoughtful about every note of music and every word in this show. One of the exciting things was getting to tap in and better understand the musical language of the show and his thought process behind everything, because everything is so intentional.

You also have so much coming up with the Jonas Brothers! What can you tease about the sound of your next album, Greetings from Your Hometown?

I’m very excited about the new album. Greetings from Your Hometown really is a love letter to our roots musically and to our home state of New Jersey — there’s a heavy influence of Bruce Springsteen and storytelling behind some of the greats from the state. But also, it’s just about coming back to those roots. We are a family at our core, more than a band or anything else. Any time we come back to that feeling of playing music in our living room in Jersey, it’s a great feeling.

“Love Me To Heaven” is such a great single. What made it the right choice to kick off this new era of music?

I think that “Love Me To Heaven” in a lot of ways, was a love letter to the people in our lives, our family, and friends but really in a big way. When I went into the studio with Justin Tranter to work on the lyrics, we wanted it to be universal so that it could really connect with the fans as well, and also be a love letter to them. It felt like the perfect way to kick off this 20th year of music.

Two days after the album drops, you’re kicking off Jonas20: Living the Dream Tour. How will the tour tell the story of the Jonas Brothers over the last 20 years?

We’re building the creative out now for the tour, and we’re incredibly excited about where we’re at, and to have the ability to tell the story of where we’ve come from, and where we’re going through our musical journey.

We’ve already done Five Albums, One Night, so this is going to be a very different show that tells that story in an almost theatrical way. It will be exciting to bring it to life in the stadium shows in a big and epic production. But the main thing is that we want to create an environment that just feels like a family outing. Our fanbase now covers so many different generations, and if we can make it feel like we’re opening that living room in Jersey to 50,000 people, that’s a win for us.

Remarkably, the opening night of the tour will be the first time the band plays a headlining show at MetLife Stadium. What does that mean to you considering you and your brothers grew up so close by in Jersey?

Starting the tour in New Jersey at MetLife Stadium is the perfect venue. You know, really where it all began. We grew up ten minutes from that stadium and dreamed of playing there. To be marking our 20th anniversary tour by playing it for the first time is incredible — I think that energy on opening night is going to be electric.

It’s also safe to say fans are particularly freaking out over the fact that you’ll be revisiting Nick Jonas & the Administration on the tour. What does that project mean to you and why do you think it holds such a special place in fans’ hearts 15 years later?

It’s amazing to think about all the different musical journeys we’ve been on, both as individuals but also as a collective over the years. Getting to embrace some of that music from solo works and also side projects like Nick Jonas & the Administration is something I’m really excited about. It’s been a long time since I played many of those songs, and I’ll have to sharpen up and do some rehearsal.

Between that and DNCE and Joe’s solo music and my solo music and all the brother stuff, and our projects with Disney, there’s a lot of ground to cover we weren’t really able to on the last tour, so we get to expand on that a little bit more.

As someone who gleefully purchased a Fastlife shirt at JonasCon, please tell me Joe is planning on adding a song or two from that album to his solo set on the tour…

I think Joe has plans to do music from DNCE and from his solo works. I also happen to be a huge Fastlife fan, so I’m excited to hear some tracks from that album as well as his work with DNCE.

Well, before you can get to all of that, you still have an entire Broadway run ahead of you. What do you hope fans take away from The Last Five Years?

That we’re telling a story about two humans who everyone can kind of see themselves as at different points in their life, career, and relationship. And I think any story that connects us in that way and makes us feel like we’re watching a version of ourselves and our own story — those are really powerful.

It’s a really encouraging thing to look out in the audience each night and see the reaction from people who come ready to see a show they probably know and love, but leave seeing it in a totally new and imaginative way. I’m just thrilled to get to be doing it on the Broadway stage for the first time.

Tickets for The Last Five Years are available on Ticketmaster. Tickets and VIP Packages for JONAS20: Living THE DREAM TOUR are also available on Ticketmaster.