Inside the Yaamava\u2019 Theater, a casino-adjacent venue in Highland, Calif., a crowd of mostly women in their 20s and 30s assembled on a late April evening, cocktails in hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know how euphoric I am?\u201d one woman squealed to her friend.<\/p>\n
The Jonas Brothers were about to perform.<\/p>\n
Most of the fans had grown up with the group. They were there when the brothers became mid-2000s teen heartthrobs who sold more than 17 million albums; there when the band broke up in 2013 to pursue solo projects; and there when they reunited in 2019 and had their first No. 1<\/a> on the Billboard Hot 100 with \u201cSucker.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Nick, 33, is used to the fanfare that has followed him and his older siblings \u2014 Joe, 36, and Kevin, 38 \u2014 for the past 21 years. But backstage before the Highland concert, Nick was soft-spoken as he sipped a can of grapefruit La Croix and thoughtfully discussed his life. His vibe was more introspective businessman than cocksure rock star.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a certain indescribable thing that happens when the three of us make music together,\u201d he said. \u201cOur fan base has really stood by us, and our connection with them is so much deeper than just a successful song or a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s not surprising then that Nick is intent on defying the traditional boy-band-to-solo-star path. He\u2019s currently attempting something Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake and Harry Styles didn\u2019t: permanently return to the group that made him famous while also pursuing significant solo endeavors.<\/p>\n On breaks during this Jonas Brothers tour, Nick shot the holiday horror film \u201cWhite Elephant\u201d<\/a> and reprised his role as Jefferson McDonough for the third time in \u201cJumanji: Open World\u201d<\/a> (out Dec. 25). He also released his fifth solo album, \u201cSunday Best,\u201d in January and embarked on a mini solo tour.<\/p>\n Now, he stars with Paul Rudd in \u201cPower Ballad\u201d<\/a> (in theaters), a music-filled dramedy from John Carney, of \u201cOnce\u201d and \u201cSing Street\u201d acclaim.<\/p>\n When Carney began casting \u201cPower Ballad,\u201d he knew he wanted an actual musician in the role of Danny Wilson, a former boy bander who is desperate to escape his past. But when Carney floated Nick\u2019s name for the role, he was met with pushback.<\/p>\n \u201cA few other people were like, wasn\u2019t he a teen star? Will it Disney-fy the movie?\u201d Carney recalled in a video interview from Ireland. Instead, the director said, Nick \u201creally humanized it. He darkened it. He made the character mercurial and mysterious and enigmatic.\u201d<\/p>\n In the film, Danny crosses paths with Rick (Rudd), a wedding singer who never hit it big, and the two spend a tipsy evening jamming together. When Danny records a version of a song Rick played for him and it becomes a hit, a fight for credit ensues.<\/p>\n It helped that Nick had partially lived Danny\u2019s experience of longing for industry respect (minus the plagiarism). After Nick initiated the Jonas Brothers\u2019s breakup in 2013, he shaved his head, gained 20 pounds of muscle, released the sexually charged, multiplatinum solo tracks \u201cJealous\u201d<\/a> and \u201cChains,\u201d<\/a> and played a closeted M.M.A. fighter in the drama series \u201cKingdom.\u201d<\/a> He even considered dropping his last name and creating an alter ego to truly break free.<\/p>\n \u201cMy whole life,\u201d Nick said, \u201cwas leading up to me actually being able to do this with the context needed to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n GROWING UP IN WYCKOFF, N.J.<\/strong>, where his father was a Pentecostal pastor, Nick was the first Jonas brother to show a desire for the spotlight. He often roped his siblings into performing self-produced plays or required the entire family to attend his one-man shows in the basement.<\/p>\n Soon, a prepubescent Nick landed parts on Broadway in \u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d \u201cAnnie Get Your Gun,\u201d \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d and \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables.\u201d And he inspired his brothers to follow suit.<\/p>\n \u201cI brought a girl that I had a crush on to see Nick onstage, and she was like, \u2018That was amazing,\u2019\u201d Joe said backstage in Highland. \u201cThat day, I was like, \u2018I want to be a singer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At 12 years old, Nick released a solo Christian album with Columbia Records. Soon after, in 2005, Nick, Joe and Kevin were signed as a secular group to Columbia and later to Disney\u2019s Hollywood Records, where they put out three studio albums, heavy with teenage pining<\/a>. Disney also recruited the brothers to appear in the \u201cCamp Rock\u201d<\/a> TV films and their own comedy series<\/a> on Disney Channel.<\/p>\n Early on, Nick was positioned as the group\u2019s leader, despite being the youngest of the three. (There is also a fourth Jonas brother: Franklin<\/a>, 25.)<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, great, someone else, please. I don\u2019t need to lead. I just want to have fun,\u201d Kevin said backstage. \u201cHe was young, but his focus was being the best at what we were doing. And he still is that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n The Disney machine helped push their fame to new heights. Nick dated Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, and their fledgling relationships became teen tabloid gossip. And then there were the brothers\u2019 purity rings, which they wore for a time in a pledge of abstinence, that made them fodder for \u201cSouth Park\u201d and media pundits. The pressures of fame were intense.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I handled it OK to the degree that the armor never really cracked, but there were days that were really difficult, and I didn\u2019t have the tools then \u2014 the tools being therapy,\u201d Nick said. \u201cI just kind of went into my hard shell and waited till I was an adult to unpack it.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the Highland concert, I sat in the empty theater and watched the Jonas Brothers do a sound check with their band. The siblings were all consummate professionals, but only Nick chimed in with a series of performance tweaks: \u201cTry going from the F sharp to the E\u201d; \u201cInvert the end of the riff\u201d; \u201cBefore we go into the outro just hit the \u2018hey, hey, heys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The brothers have always played their own instruments and written or co-written their own music. But their audience was, initially, teenage girls \u2014 an oft-dismissed demographic presumed to lack critical taste \u2014 and Nick put pressure on himself to \u201cget better\u201d and prove his worth.<\/p>\n \u201cWith whatever level of admiration and success that we had, there was also equally, if not louder at times, or it\u2019s just what you\u2019re choosing to hear, criticism,\u201d he said in a follow-up video interview from a tour stop in Buenos Aires. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t hard to stay humble because I felt like I was always hearing more of that than praise.\u201d<\/p>\n Even now, his first days on a new project are anxiety-ridden. \u201cThe first call is never, \u2018Oh, I feel great about how it went today,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always, \u2018I think no one thinks I\u2019m good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But on the \u201cPower Ballad\u201d set, Nick delivered an understated performance that left his co-star, Rudd, impressed. One scene in particular, Rudd said in a phone interview, \u201cbroke my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the look in his eyes. He does it so subtly, and it\u2019s like, wow, that guy \u2014 not that guy, that actor \u2014 that actor knows what he\u2019s doing right there,\u201d Rudd said. \u201cIt was very apparent that there\u2019s real depth to him.\u201d<\/p>\n THERE SEEMS TO BE TENSION<\/strong> between the ambitious solo career that Nick is once again seeking and the nostalgic comforts of the Jonas Brothers, which have included them playing heightened versions of themselves in a campy 2025 Disney holiday film, \u201cA Very Jonas Christmas,\u201d<\/a> and reprising their \u201cCamp Rock\u201d roles for appearances in \u201cCamp Rock 3\u201d<\/a> this August.<\/p>\n But Nick doesn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n He now views the Brothers as a \u201chome base\u201d and said he has been inspired by \u201cthe K-pop model,\u201d watching how groups like BTS and Blackpink stay together as a unit, while also allowing their members to find individual success. Nick doesn\u2019t foresee them disbanding again.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re focused on legacy at this point as a family,\u201d he said. The trio started a podcast<\/a>, and Nick serves as a producer on many of his upcoming film projects through their production company, Powered by Jonas.<\/p>\n Nick, who is based in Los Angeles, also has a family of his own with the actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas and their daughter, Malti Marie, 4.<\/p>\n In a phone interview, Chopra Jonas said she was initially attracted to Nick\u2019s sincerity and kindness, and they have connected over a love of creative pursuits.<\/p>\n \u201cOn our honeymoon, we wrote two TV shows,\u201d Chopra Jonas said. \u201cWe were just sitting there by the beach and came up with characters and built a world, and then abandoned it along the way, of course. But the thing we do for fun is create.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Nick returned to Broadway to star in \u201cThe Last Five Years.\u201d<\/a> And recently, he\u2019s been quietly developing an original stage musical about Hans and Margret Rey, the married couple who created Curious George.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout eight years ago, I was at home, and I just had this sudden urge to figure out Curious George\u2019s origin story and who the creators were,\u201d Nick said. \u201cSo, I went down an infinite rabbit hole.\u201d<\/p>\n The show is still a work in progress, but Nick has already written four or five original songs and said he is collaborating with the Reys\u2019 estate, along with the playwright Peter Duchan (\u201cDogfight\u201d) and the producer Aaron Glick (\u201cPurpose\u201d). Separately, Nick hopes to develop a jukebox musical that uses the Jonas Brothers\u2019s catalog to tell an original story.<\/p>\n His long-term plan involves performing, writing and producing film, TV and music projects. (Despite having expressed an interest<\/a> in politics and a presidential run<\/a> in the past, Nick said that\u2019s \u201cabsolutely not\u201d a desire anymore.)<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the big picture vision,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then when something comes in and is great, I scrap it all and go, I want to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n