Photo: NBC
Reba McEntire reminisced on her Broadway days with global pop superstar Nick Jonas during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night (December 2).
McEntire made her Broadway debut in 2001, playing Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun. Jonas was also making his Broadway debut when he appeared in the musical’s cast with McEntire. He was 9 years old. Jimmy Fallon shared a throwback photo of the two artists while chatting with McEntire. She remembered Jonas as “the sweetest,” and “the cutest little rascal.”
“All the kids that were on Annie Get Your Gun when I was on Broadway in 2001 were so sweet, so well-mannered and so professional,” the legendary country artist said. “It just blew me away. …And he’s such a great mentor on The Voice. I learned a lot from him.”
McEntire and Jonas marked a full circle moment when they reunited on The Voice earlier this year. The Jonas Brothers star, who previously served as a coach on the show, was a battle advisor for Team Reba. He told her at that time that “you were like my advisor [while working on Annie Get Your Gun]…so I appreciate you having me here.”
“I love to encourage,” McEntire said of her experience on The Voice in an interview with iHeartCountry earlier this year. “I can’t tell anybody, ‘Don’t do this. Go get a job. You’re not suited for this.’ But the way that we get to do the – I don’t say critique – advice, it’s helpful advice. It’s not tear-down. We want to lift up. We want to inspire. We want to encourage, not tear down. They get enough of that out there in the world.”
During her conversation with Fallon, McEntire also spoke about how she kickstarted her career in the 1970s, the new season of Happy’s Place and more. Watch McEntire’s appearance on The Tonight Show here: