“The Last Five Years”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - June 2010

The Last Five Years is a little chamber musical for a man and a woman. It is almost completely sung through, and the story of this couple’s five year relationship is told simultaneously both backwards (by her) and forwards (by him). In most productions they are rarely on stage together, but in this production on the BTF Main Stage Director Anders Cato has decided to keep them on stage together throughout. They very seldom even make eye contact, but both are continually present. I cannot imagine it any other way.

The couple, Jamie Wellerstein (Paul Anthony Stewart) and Cathy Hiatt (Julie Reiber) are in their 20’s and it is clear at the start of their relationship, and when the decide to marry halfway through, they are very much in love. What is not clear is what breaks them up, other than they may be too immature to have made the commitment in the first place. He is an increasingly successful novelist. She aspires to be an actress and the financial success of his books allows her to quit temping and pursue acting full-time – a difficult and depressing endeavor for even the most talented and well-connected. Two creative young people are always a combustible combination.

The Last Five Years is the creation – book, music and lyrics – of wunderkind Jason Robert Brown (1970- ). Or at least he was a wunderkind. Now 40 with seven major works to his credit and on his second marriage he has entered into a new phase of his life and career, but when he wrote this show, his third, about a decade ago he was still young and brash – like Jamie – and impatient to “…have perspective on [his failed first marriage] without having to wait twenty years…” The Last Five Years, which premiered in Chicago in 2001, is a shamelessly autobiographical work about his first marriage to Theresa O’Neill, who threatened to sue because the show was so close to the reality of their relationship. Brown states seeing a strong production of this show is “…like having a knife pushed into my eyeballs” because it revives such clear memories of that difficult period in his life.

O’Neill’s threat and Brown’s eyeballs may provide the definitive answer to the question: When is An Autobiographical Show Too Autobiographical? An idea I began to ponder when I reviewed It’s Jewdy’s Show a few days ago.

The Last Five Years was not a huge commercial success in New York, running only two months in 2002, but it’s original cast album has sold briskly and it has proved very popular with regional theatres in the ensuing years because, as musicals go, it is cheap to produce requiring only two performers, one set, and a small band. (At the BTF the five musicians, including musical director and pianist Rick Bertone, are on stage with the actors.) And it is popular with young actor/singers because it provides two powerhouse showcase roles. It features a lively score, although its not one you come out of the theatre whistling, which is very well performed here.

Stewart and Reiber are damned near perfect as the ambitious Jewish Jamie and his Shiksa Goddess Cathy. They are both experienced and talented performers with wonderful singing voices and great stage presence. It is not surprising that Brown has created more entertaining numbers for his stage surrogate, Jamie, while Cathy comes across as a bit of a whiny PITA, but Stewart and Reiber make both characters likeable and sympathetic. I particularly enjoyed his energy on Moving Too Fast and her presentation of I Can Do Better Than That, an hilarious audition number.

All of that is the good news. The bad news is that set designer Lee Savage as trapped all this talent and energy in a God-awful green box of a room with walls absolutely perpendicular to the audience which makes for some awkward sight-lines. Jeff Davis’ bilious lighting does little to alleviate the institutional look of the place. One wonders if Jamie and Cathy have driven each other mad and are now confined to wander the halls of some mid-century suburban bedlam, endless recounting their failed marriage in song.

Laurie Churba Kohn’s costumes barely rise above the level of ordinary.

The Last Five Years is a show written by a young man about a time in his life when he was even younger. It is about a young, childless couple and Jamie’s earlier success removes financial problems from their relationship. I am not sure how many of the mostly gray-haired, long-married folks, most parents and grandparents, in the BTF audience will really relate to or care about this golden couple who break up just because they can. Brown’s works have been presented frequently by community theatre groups in the Albany area – this year alone there was a highly acclaimed amateur production of Parade and dueling youth theatre productions of his 13, one of which featured a visit and workshop with the composer – but the BTF is the first of the big regional houses which serve the older, tourist audience to present his work. It will be interesting to see who buys tickets and how the show catches on.

Click HERE for a complete photo gallery of this production.

The Berkshire Theatre Festival’s production of The Last Five Years runs June 22-July 10 on the Main Stage, just off Rts. 7 & 102 in Stockbridge, MA. For tickets contact the BTF Box Office at 413-298-5576 or visit www.berkshiretheatre.org for more information.

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