Because that show is completely sold out, a second concert has been scheduled for March 18 at 7 PM at the famed jazz club. The concerts, part of the Broadway at Birdland series, will feature the original Last Five Years Off-Broadway orchestra.
The Last Five Years, according to press notes, is "an intensely personal look at the relationship between a writer and an actress told from both points of view." Kennedy played Cathy in the world premiere of Five Years in Chicago in 2001. The Off-Broadway production, which co-starred Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott, won a Drama Desk Award for Best Music and Best Lyrics.
Jason Robert Brown, who was the musical director and arranger for the musical Urban Cowboy, won the Tony Award for Best Score for his Broadway debut, Parade (a revised version of Parade recently played London's Donmar Warehouse). His two-person musical, The Last Five Years, played a brief run at Off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre and was preserved on Sh-K-Boom Records. Brown also composed the score for Songs for a New World and wrote incidental music for Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, The Waverly Gallery and the Irish Repertory Theatre's production of Long Day's Journey Into Night. His newest musical is titled 13. He also recently presented a workshop of another new musical, Honeymoon in Vegas, which is based on the film of the same name.
Lauren Kennedy was most recently seen on the New York stage as the Lady of the Lake in the Tony-winning musical Spamalot. She covered the role of Daisy Hilton in the Broadway production of Side Show and also appeared in the New York companies of Sunset Boulevard and Les Misérables. Kennedy starred in The Rhythm Club and was also a part of the early incarnations of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. Kennedy previously crossed the Atlantic to star in the National Theatre's revival of South Pacific. She was also seen in The Ten Commandments: The Spectacle Musical. Her solo albums are titled "The Songs of Jason Robert Brown" and "Here and Now."
Birdland is located in Manhattan at 315 West 44th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues. For tickets, priced $35 (plus $10 food/drink minimum), visit www.birdlandjazz.com or call (212) 581-3080.
