Did You Catch Jason Robert Brown's Lyrical Changes to THE LAST FIVE YEARS?

The Last Five Years finally opened on Broadway earlier this week, a mere 24 years after its original premiere. Jason Robert Brown, who wrote both the music and lyrics, admits in his latest blog post that in addition to expanding on the show's orchestrations (he discusses in full with BroadwayWorld), he had to make several lyrical updates to adjust with the times. 

"The most important adjustment Whitney asked me to make was to update some of the lyrics so that the story could take place in 2025, instead of in the late 90s as I had originally written it," he writes. "Lots of people have asked for this over the years, and I did reluctantly make some changes to this effect for the movie, but let it be said for the record that I don’t think the show should be updated to the present day – part of Jamie and Cathy’s story is about the world they live in, and those characters would make different choices in 2025 than they made in a world without cell phones and social media.  But I wanted to see how Whitney’s vision for the show would work, and I’m glad I did..."

He goes on to outline a few key references in "Moving to Fast" that were changed because they are now a bit out of date. For example, "The Atlantic Monthly's printing my first chapter" became "The New Yorker's printing my first chapter", and "I wrote a book and Sonny Mehta read it!" became "I wrote a book and Salman Rushdie read it!"

Fans would also notice that the "gay midget named Karl" referenced by Cathy in "A Summer in Ohio" has been changed to "A gay dentist named Karl". "While I never intended “midget” literally – in my mind, it was an insult Cathy directed at the star of her company – it’s not a great word in any case, and it’s easy enough to replace," Brown writes. "I actually came up with this fix when we did the movie in 2013, but for whatever reason, Anna [Kendrick] ended up singing the original lyric."

Later in the show, when Cathy is auditioning during "Climbing Uphill", the original lyric: “the people who cast Linda Blair in a musical," has been updated to “the people who cast NeNe Leakes in a musical." 

The list goes on! Check out Brown's complete breakdown at his blog.

The Last Five Years, starring Grammy and Golden Globe Award nominee Nick Jonas and Tony Award winner Adrienne Warren, directed by Tony Award Nominee Whitney White officially opened on April 6, 2025 for a strictly limited engagement at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre. 

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