NORTHLIGHT THEATRE TO PRESENT WORLD PREMIERE "THE LAST FIVE YEARS"

NORTHLIGHT THEATRE TO PRESENT WORLD PREMIERE OF JASON ROBERT BROWN'S NEW MUSICAL "THE LAST FIVE YEARS," DIRECTED BY DAISY PRINCE, STARRING NORBERT BUTZ AND LAUREN KENNEDY, MAY 16th - JUNE 24th, 2001

SKOKIE, IL, May 16, 2001 -- Northlight Theatre in Skokie is just currently presenting a nationally-coveted producing coup - the world premiere of Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown's new musical "The Last Five Years" - as its ground-breaking 2000/2001 season finale.

Daisy Prince, daughter of legendary director Hal Prince, directs Northlight's debut of "The Last Five Years," a romantic, bittersweet two-person musical duet about a nice Jewish boy and a good Irish Catholic girl who fall in love, get married, and fall apart over the course of five years. Jason Robert Brown will be in residence at Northlight throughout the run, playing the piano and conducting the show's six-piece band. This will provide Brown with the significant and unusual opportunity for him to perform the play himself, and feel and hear audience response firsthand over the course of the run. Norbert Butz and Lauren Kennedy, both acclaimed stars on Broadway and veterans of major national touring productions, will originate the roles of Jamie and Kathleen. Tom Murray is music director.

"The Last Five Years" began previews May 16th. Press opening is Wednesday, May 23rd, 7:00 pm curtain. Performances run through June 24th at NORTHLIGHT THEATRE at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (9501 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie, IL - 847-673-6300 - http://www.northlight.org/)

"The Last Five Years" is an intimate musical, by turns wildly funny and crushingly sad, about Jamie, an emerging novelist enjoying his first taste of success, and Kathleen, a struggling actress having trouble hitting it big. Brown plans an unusual temporal shift for the piece, with Kathleen starting at the end of the marriage and working her way back, and Jamie beginning on their first date, working his way forward. Only once do they sing together, at their wedding in the middle of the play. This allows the audience to understand cause and effect, as two people whose love for one another cannot overcome their cultural differences and divergent dreams. Musically, Brown's score navigates the mine fields of love and marriage through soulful, soaring music and lyrics that evoke contemporary pop songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, with the theatrical styles of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. Traditional Jewish and Irish musical themes are played against the sounds, pace and complexity of contemporary life in New York City.

Jason Robert Brown (composer) is the Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of "Parade," a musical written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre in 1998, and won the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critic's Circle Awards for Best New Musical. Brown recently conducted "Parade" on a national tour. He began his collaboration with Northlight in 1999 as music director of "Dinah Was," a coproduction with Dallas Theatre Center and Arena Stage. His first musical, "Songs for a New World," directed by Daisy Prince, played Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in 1995, and has since been seen in more than 50 productions. As a conductor/arranger, his New York credits are William Finn's "A New Brain" at Lincoln Center Theatre, and Oliver Goldstick's "Dinah Was," directed by David Petrarca, at the Gramercy Theater. He composed incidental music for David Lindsay-Abaire's "Fuddy Meers," Kenneth Lonergan's "The Waverly Gallery" and Irish Repertory Theater's "Long Day's Journey Into Night." He was musical director of the vocal group The Tonics, conductor and orchestrator of Yoko Ono's musical "New York Rock" at the WPA Theatre, conductor and arranger of Michael John LaChiusa's "The Petrified Prince," directed by Harold Prince, at the Public, and he orchestrated Andrew Lippa's "john and jen" at Lamb's Theatre. He has conducted and created arrangements for Liza Minnelli, Tovah Feldshuh and Laurie Beechman. He is at work on a new dance-musical, "The Moneyman," and a new solo album. Brown was born in 1970 in Tarrytown, NY, and he studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He resides in New York City.

Daisy Prince (director) "discovered" Brown in a New York piano bar, and introduced him to her father, Harold, who went on to direct Brown's first Broadway musical "Parade." She later directed the premiere of "Songs for a New World" at the WPA Theater Off-Broadway. As a performer, she was seen in "Merrily We Roll Along" on Broadway, Off-Broadway in "Landscape of the Body," at the Public, in "The Petrified Prince," at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center in "Follies in Concert," at City Center in "Pal Joey," and most recently at Carnegie Hall with Brown. She is on the board of New York's Musical Theater Works.

Norbert Leo Butz (Jamie) won a Best Actor Award from Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Committee as the emcee in the 1999 national tour of "Cabaret," which also won him the Helen Hayes Award and a Los Angeles Ovation Award nomination. Originally from St. Louis, Butz landed his first acting job in New York within a month of arriving as an understudy in "Rent," and eventually played Roger for the 1998 season. He will be seen this fall in Roundabout's production of "Juno and the Paycock" and the independent feature film "Went to Coney Island on a Mission From God...Be back by 5:00."

Lauren Kennedy (Kathleen) appeared on Broadway as Daisy Hilton in the acclaimed Henry Krieger/Bill Russell musical "Side Show," after making her Broadway debut in the original cast of Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Sunset Boulevard." Most recently, she starred as Petra in "The Rhythm Club," which premiered at Washington D.C.'s Signature Theatre and is anticipated for Broadway in 2001/2002. She also originated the role of Betty Shaefer in the first national tour of "Sunset Boulevard."

Designers for "The Last Five Years" are Beowolf Boritt, set and costumes; Chris Binder, lights; and Rob Milburn, Michael Bodeen and Ray Nardelli, sound.

"The Last Five Years" was originally commissioned by Lincoln Center Theatre in New York.

"The Last Five Years:" Times, Dates and Ticket Information:

"The Last Five Years" runs May 16th through June 24th at NORTHLIGHT THEATRE at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (9501 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie, IL - 847-673-6300 - http://www.northlight.org/). Previews are May 16th through 22nd: Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00 pm, Sunday at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Tickets for previews are $30-$34. Press opening is Wednesday, May 23rd at 7:00 pm. Regular performances through June 24th are: Tuesday at 7:30 pm, Wednesday through Friday at 8:00 pm; Saturday at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm; Sunday at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm Single tickets are $32-$45. The "Pay What You Can Performance" is Saturday, May 26 at 3 pm There are 1:00 pm matinees on Wednesday, May 30th and June 6th; and a 2:00 pm matinee on Wednesday, June 20th. Matinee tickets are $32. There are no shows Tuesday, June 5th and 19th, and no 7:00 pm shows Sunday, June 3rd, 17th or 24th. Seniors receive $3 off single tickets. Student rush tickets are available day of show. Parking at Northlight is free and plentiful.

Northlight is the resident producing theater at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. Founded in 1974, Northlight has garnered dozens of prestigious local and national awards while building a reputation for incisive interpretations of contemporary plays and musicals, adventurous world premieres, and original adaptations of the classics. Northlight is celebrating its 26th season in 2000/2001, having grown to be one of the nation's top 100 regional theaters under the guidance of Artistic Director BJ Jones, Managing Director Richard Friedman, Board President Paul J. Finnegan, and a dedicated staff and Board of Trustees. Northlight is partially supported by the Chicago Community Trust, Shubert Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, Polk Brothers Foundation, Fry Foundation, the Dr. Scholl Foundation, the Patrick & Anna M. Cudahy Foundation, the Theater Communications Group, American Airlines, and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.

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