The pair starred in a sold-out concert of Brown’s musical on September 12.
Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple) and two-time Tony nominee Joshua Henry (Shuffle Along) starred in a one-night benefit performance of Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years on September 12. Produced by SubCulture and Brown, the concert was held at Town Hall with Brown leading the orchestra.
All the proceeds from the sold-out show benefited the Brady Center, the national organization determined to create a safer America by cutting gun deaths in half by 2025.
Erivo currently stars as Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, a role that earned her a 2016 Tony Award. Henry recently concluded his run in George C. Wolfe's Shuffle Along at the Music Box Theatre. He earned Tony nominations for his previous roles in The Scottsboro Boys (2011) and Violet (2014) and will soon take on the role of Aaron Burr in the Chicago company of Hamilton.
The Last Five Years received its first off-Broadway production in 2002, starring Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott as the show's central couple Jamie and Cathy. The musical was revived in 2013 at Second Stage Theatre with Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor and went on to receive a film adaptation in 2014 starring Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick. The story follows the couple through their five-year relationship, with each character moving through time in opposite directions.