'The Last Five Years' is a Jason Robert Brown song cycle that attempts to do something interesting with the simple story of a man and a women falling into and out of love. The two protagonists are placed at opposite ends of the relationship and where Catherine moves from the messy end to the promising beginning, her partner Jamie gets the chronological direction and the disappointment.
Each actor gets at least one angry song, soppy song and a comedy song along with the one duet when the two characters pass each other at their wedding and as an example of the versatility of the performer the show has a lot going for it. I saw Jamie Lee Pike and Christopher Pym and they were both very good although I felt Jamie got stronger as the evening progressed. This may have been because she is more natural at comedy than tragedy or it could be that the songs get better. Either way she seemed more comfortable when she was happier.
The score, as you would expect from 80 minutes worth of songs, varies from the very good to those that sound pretty much like any other recent off Broadway show but the highs are definitely higher than, for example, 'Ordinary Days'. The middle duet is very strong.
The setting on the tiny Tabbard stage was accomplished and made very good use of the space. The band played with gusto and the arrangement for piano and strings was magnificent although the balance between the actors and the music could have been more, well, balanced.
Unfortunately, clever though the structure of the musical is and pretty strong as the performances were, the structure seems to rob the situation of its power. Limiting the characters to single sided musical conversations has the knock on effect of limiting the exploration of the relationship. In fact, it seems to have the effect of making both the protagonists unsympathetic. She seems whiny and he seems selfish. Which, in turn, means that you leave the evening more intellectually impressed rather than emotionally moved.
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