The Last Five Years is a song cycle by Jason Robert Brown about the five-year rise and demise of the marriage between Jamie Wellerstein (played by Steve Copps), a writer, and Cathy Hiatt (played by Kelly Copps), an actor. Steve and Kelly Copps are a married couple in Real Life.
Jason Robert Brown goes Merrily We Roll Along–the Stephen Sondheim musical told in reverse chronological order–one better. Cathy appears at the start of the musical as a broken-hearted wife whose marriage has ended. Jamie shows up as Cathy leaves the stage as a twenty-something writer looking for someone like Cathy five years in the Past. In alternating scenes, Cathy tells her story in reverse chronological order while Jamie tells his story in chronological order. The pair meet together for a duet in the middle of the musical and then the stories go their separate ways.
If you haven’t experienced a Jason Robert Brown musical, the songs are basically musical monologues sung by the characters to tell their stories and move the action along. In a post-musical session, Steve Coops told the audience he found Jason Robert Brown’s songs “dense.” I agree.
The Last Five Years with its twin trajectories–one going up with optimism and hope–the other going down with heart-break and disappointment–concludes with a bittersweet ending. GRADE: B+
MUSICAL NUMBERS:
- “Still Hurting” – Cathy
- “Shiksa Goddess” – Jamie
- “See I’m Smiling” – Cathy
- “Moving Too Fast” – Jamie
- “A Part of That” – Cathy
- “The Schmuel Song” – Jamie
- “A Summer in Ohio” – Cathy
- “The Next Ten Minutes” – Jamie & Cathy
- “A Miracle Would Happen/When You Come Home to Me” – Jamie/Cathy
- “Climbing Uphill/Audition Sequence” – Cathy
- “If I Didn’t Believe in You” – Jamie
- “I Can Do Better Than That” – Cathy
- “Nobody Needs to Know” – Jamie
- “Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You” – Jamie & Cathy