by Mike Hoban
‘The Last Five Years’ – Written byJason Robert Brown; Directed by Leigh Barrett; Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord; Lighting Design by Karen Perlow; Sound Design by Andrew Duncan Will; Costume Design by David Lucey. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston at 40 Clarendon St., Boston through December 5th, 2021
As anyone who has gone through a divorce or bitter breakup can tell you, there are few things in life that can generate such deep emotional pain. Fortunately for music and theater fans, it’s also a great source of material for creative artists. Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years mines this fertile territory via a clever framing device that allows the audience to witness the joy of a young couple’s budding romance while simultaneously experiencing the soul-crushing agony of their breakup.
This musical two-hander tracks the relationship between aspiring actor Cathy Hiatt (Kira Troilo) and rising star novelist Jamie Wellerstein (Jared Troilo, real-life husband to Kira), with the story being told in unique fashion: While Jamie tells the tale from their first date through to the breakup of their marriage, Cathy begins at the bitter end and works backward to the hopeful beginning. So the only time the actors interact directly with each other is at the midway point of the show – their wedding day.
The musical opens with a forlorn Cathy agonizing over the end of the marriage with “Still Hurting”, a challenging number that combines her deep pain with a dose of finger pointing that still-wounded lovers inevitably engage in. That is contrasted with the next song, the bouncy “Shiksa Goddess”, where despite knowing that he’s breaking his mother’s heart and that his grandfather is surely rolling in his grave, the Jewish Jamie is head over heels for the gentile girl of his dreams. As the stories unfold, we see Jamie’s career skyrocket as Cathy’s acting career never quite leaves the launching pad. As she struggles to find work in regional theater productions in Ohio, Jamie is the toast of the literary world in the Big Apple, and the physical and emotional distance begins to take its toll on the marriage. It doesn’t help that all the attention he’s receiving leads to Jamie developing a wandering eye (and eventually it’s a lot more than his eye), which only adds to Cathy’s insecurity.
Like most breakup stories, there are no real villains, just individual perspectives. It should be noted that the musical is based on the first marriage of Brown, who is Jewish, to the Irish Catholic Theresa O’Neill, who sued him for defamation of character before the show was supposed to open at the Lincoln Center in 2001. Much like A Star Is Born (minus the out-of-control alcoholism) the strain of having two artists in a marriage – one successful, the other not – proves to be too much and the marriage crumbles.
Brown’s songs are often comically infused, with “A Summer in Ohio” (Kira) and “The Schmuel Song” (Jared, with an interpretation that reminded me, oddly enough, of Gene Kelly) being comic standouts. While the overall production effectively paints the portrait of a love gone south, the structure of the play, with each actor performing solo, is what keeps it from reaching its full potential. Kira’s relatively soft voice, which has served her well in many other roles, does not appear to be a good match for the compositional style of Brown, particularly the opening number. Some of the problem lies with the theater itself, which on one hand is the most intimate of Boston spaces, but this is not the first time I’ve wished that the performers were mic’d for a show. The material seems more well-suited to the full-throated Jared, who has been a go-to leading man in Boston theater for a decade, and it creates an uneven feel to the production at times. Not surprisingly, some of the best numbers come while the couple is singing in tandem (“The Next Ten Minutes”, “Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You”), and the connection between the two actors is touching.
The production is buoyed by music director Dan Rodriguez’ five piece band, and the minimalist set design by Jenna McFarland Lord is imaginative – with its revolving stage and two large gold rings hovering above the stage, representing a Ven diagram tells us all we need to know about how little the couple truly connects by the bitter end. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.lyricstage.com/show-item/the-last-five-years/
