Variety:
The Last Five Years
(Musical -- Minetta Lane Theater; 399 seats; $60)
An Arielle Tepper and Marty Bell presentation in association with Libby Adler Mages/Mari Glick and Rose/Land Prods. of a musical in one act by Jason Robert Brown. Book, lyrics, music and orchestrations by Brown. Directed by Daisy Prince.
Cathy - Sherie Rene Scott
Jamie - Norbert Leo Butz
By ROBERT HOFLER
There's nothing so antique as a four-poster onstage at the Minetta Lane Theater, but Jason Robert Brown's new musical, "The Last Five Years," could easily be retitled "I Do! I Don't!" I fail to recall how long Mary Martin and Robert Preston stayed married in the 1966 two-hander tuner by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, but it seemed like forever (never a plus onstage) when I saw them on tour. Life as well as the theater moves faster these days, and so the dating, marriage and inevitable divorce endures an intermission-less half-decade that lasts just 83 minutes in "The Last Five Years." Short, bittersweet and nearly perfect, Brown has come up with a winning combination of music and book that could run longer than the couple he so artfully dissects.
The last five years is actually her story; his is the next five. Cathy
(Sherie Rene Scott) begins at the end of their relationship and moves backward
as Jamie (Norbert Leo Butz) sings of their first date and then goes
forward to the divorce. He is a young Jewish novelist of enormous success;
she is the somewhat aimless shiksa who becomes a performer at his insistence
and finds herself stuck on tour in Ohio. Their respective stories meet
briefly in the middle at the wedding in which they sing their first of
only two duets, "The Next Ten Minutes."
Taking the leap with such high concepts, writers usually crash-land.
Brown soars, making the conceit imbue every encouraging, optimistic step
forward with an anticipation of its mortality. Under Daisy Prince's direction,
that pervading sense of doom is never more poignant than during "The Next
Ten Minutes," which begins with Jamie in a rowboat in Central Park as he
points out the apartment buildings of the rich and famous to an imaginary
Cathy, who only later appears in the person of Scott. He proposes, she
accepts, and
they are married. Then Cathy steps into the receding rowboat as she
remarks on the Central Park West landmarks pointed out to her by an imaginary
Jamie, who is no longer present in the person of Butz.
None of this would work without a score that is replete with infectious tunes as well as a couple of patter songs that reveal a jaded showbiz humor that could not even be hinted at in Brown's last show, "Parade," about anti-Semitism in the South. Brown also orchestrates here, using a six-person combo of piano, percussion and strings that is nothing less than sumptuous.
Perhaps he should rethink some of his recitative, however. Maybe it's better to have your characters talk rather than sing about choosing just the right photographer for your head shots. Also, for anyone who's OD'd on Woody Allen movies, must the Jewish guy always save the shiksa from her own radically diminished sense of self?
As for Scott and Butz: Contrary to popular myth, they do make Broadway performers like they used to. In addition to the necessary and considerable chops required for "The Last Five Years" -- it's almost nonstop singing - these two give the impression they could walk into any straight play, not sing a note and still carry the show with considerable humor and pathos.
"The Last Five Years" is structured into 14 scenes. For clarity's sake,
Prince has wisely chosen to present them as distinct set pieces of hesaid/she
said. Christine Binder's elaborate lighting design provides the
necessary transitions against Beowulf Boritt's gargantuan circular
set, which is as impressive as it is threatening to look at for an hour
and a half. Complete with floral bouquets, an empty beer bottle and a couple
of dozen white folding chairs, the scene of a wedding has been rolled on
its side as if some huge marble sundial had just broken lose from its stand.
The whole thing looks ready to tumble into the audience. I got the point
at first glance, but my fear lingered all night.
Set and costumes, Beowulf Boritt; lighting, Christine Binder; sound,
Duncan Edwards; musical director, Thomas Murray; casting, Mark Simon; press,
Barlow/Hartman; general manager, Roy Gabay; production manager, Kai Brothers;
production stage manager, Patty Lyons. Opened March 3, 2002; reviewed March
2. Running time: 83 MIN