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New York theater fans, clear your calendars—and maybe your tear ducts?
Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler are teaming up for a strictly limited concert staging of The Last Five Years, landing at Radio City Music Hall on April 6 and 7 as part of the show’s 25th anniversary celebrations. The performances follow a one-night stop at the Hollywood Bowl on April 3 and a London run at the London Palladium from March 24–29. On both sides of the Atlantic, the concerts will be directed and conducted by the musical’s creator, Jason Robert Brown.
If you somehow missed it over the past two decades (or have simply been emotionally recovering), The Last Five Years charts the rise and fall of a five-year relationship between novelist Jamie Wellerstein and actress Cathy Hiatt, told in a famously brain-bending structure where Jamie moves forward in time as Cathy moves backward. First staged in 2001 before running off-Broadway the following year, the show has become a rite of passage for musical-theater obsessives, spawning revivals, a 2014 film adaptation and last year’s Broadway debut.
This concert version emphasizes the show’s intimacy, but also scales it up for two of the country’s biggest stages. Platt, who won a Tony for Dear Evan Hansen and most recently appeared in Parade, brings both Broadway pedigree and pop-star presence. Zegler arrives fresh off acclaimed stage turns in Romeo + Juliet and Evita, plus boasts a film resume that includes West Side Story and The Hunger Games franchise.
Tickets for the U.S. performances go on sale Friday, February 6 at 10am and if history is any guide, they won’t linger. A 25-year-old breakup musical, two stars at peak cultural velocity and Radio City as the backdrop? Get in line.