A Contemporary Musical!
The Last 5 Years
by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Oanh Nguyen
Musically Directed by Rob Blaney
- 01/19/06 ARTICLE: O.C. Metro
- 01/30/06 ARTICLE: North Orange County Magazine
- 02/03/06 REVIEW: Orange County Register
- 02/09/06 REVIEW: Back Stage West
- 03/03/06 REVIEW: Fullerton Observer
- More Press on The Chance
THEATER ARTICLE
'Proof’ and ‘The Last Five Years’ Return To OC
by Christopher Trela, OC Metro
January 19, 2006
South Coast Repertory presented David Auburn's acclaimed drama “Proof” in January 2003. Laguna Playhouse presented Jason Robert Brown's quirky musical "The Last Five Years" in January of 2004. Now, in January 2006, both plays return to Orange County at different theaters.
First up is “The Last Five Years,” running Jan. 26 through March 12 at The Chance Theater in Anaheim. This play, penned by Brown, (Tony Award for Best Musical Score in 1999 for his Broadway debut, “Parade”) was originally produced off-Broadway in 2002 and then became a major hit in regional theaters around the country. It's a sung-through musical that documents a young couple's marital rise and fall. The catch to this play is that her story starts at the end of the relationship, while his begins on the day they met.
The story takes two sides. The first is that of a Jewish 23-year-old Columbia graduate whose first novel hits the big time. His story starts from the first meeting and ends in the present, when the marriage breaks up. The other tale is of a young gentile goddess whose acting ambitions are overshadowed by her newly-famous husband. Her story starts in the present and works its way back to the first meeting. Only at the wedding, in the center of this one-act intermission-less show, do the stories intersect.
The music and lyrics are not so much traditional musical theater songs as they are lyrical glimpses into the souls of two people experiencing the joys and heartbreak of modern romance. A few plot points seem fuzzy, but they can easily be overlooked by audiences caught up in the novelty of the experience.
For tickets, call (714) 777-3033, or www.chancetheater.com. ...
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THEATER ARTICLE
An Unconventional Love Story
The Chance Theater opens their 2006 season with "The Last Five Years"
by Julie Engebretson, North Orange County Magazine
January 30, 2006
A lack of communication often suffocates even the most promising of love affairs. In its latest offering, The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills delves into the subject of true love with a fresh and honest look at the modern relationship. Running from January 26 through March 12, the theater presents "The Last Five Yeas," a contemporary musical by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown.
The show's director, Oanh Nguyen is also the artistic director and co-founder of the critically acclaimed Chance Theater. A dedicated writer, actor, director and theatergoer, Nguyen conveys a child-like fascination with the capacity of live theater to affect an audience in compelling ways.
"We strive to bring to the stage something that makes people come in and know that they're in for a wonderful evening," Nguyen said. "We want to offer something that makes people yell and scream, or remember why they exist on this planet, or just laugh and forget that they are several thousand dollars in debt."
"The Last Five Years" promises to draw a range of emotion from viewers. The show chronicles Cathy (Jocelyn A. Brown) and Jamie's (Bob Simpson) five-year relationship, artfully following two plots at once: Cathy's story starts at the end of their relationship, while Jamie's begins when the couple first met. Jamie is an exitable author who finds early success with his writing. Cathy is an actress anxiously awaiting her one big break. The two artists meet, fall in love and even get married, but an ever-widening chasm hinders their growth as a couple.
"We want to tell a story about two people in the modern day who are perfect for each other, and who love each other, but can't seem to communicate," Nguyen explained. "[An inability to communicate] is our biggest problem. All day we send e-mails and we're on 'myspace' - but to turn to the person that you live with and actually have a conversation is becoming increasingly difficult and uncommon."
In the throes of marital strife, feelings like temptation or annoyance are openly expressed by one character, while the other is always narrowly out of earshot - physically and emotionally. Only the audience bears witness to the characters' most truthful confessions.
"Jamie and Cathy rarely speak to each other, and if they do, they're only fighting and not listening to what the other has to say," Nguyen said. The theatrical element most noticeably lacking in the play is, ironically, the very thing needed to save their waning love: dialogue.
For its innovative plot and piercing relevance, "The Last Five Years" has the potential to move audiences more powerfully than traditional spectacle-driven oldies like "Oklahoma!" or "Chicago." A sparse set and intimate audience seating keep Jamie and Cathy at the center of attention for the duration of the play - a burden Simpson and Brown handle well. Their chemistry and outstanding comedic timing will beg tears of tender empathy and fits of laughter from start to finish, and finish to start.
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THEATER REVIEW
A Ballad To Love's Ups And Downs
From 2002, the unusual musical "The Last Five Years" gets a forceful, poignant workout at Anaheim's Chance Theater
by Eric Marchese, O.C. Register
February 3, 2006
Most musicals about romance trace a growing love story sequentially. Some depict a romance as it's dying. "The Last Five Years" does both, simultaneously - and therein lies its allure.
When he wrote the story, music and lyrics for the 2002 show, Jason Robert Brown based the tale of Jamie, an aspiring novelist, and Cathy, a struggling actress, on himself and his ex-wife. As "The Last Five Years" begins, Cathy sings about the end of the couple's marriage. The next song is Jamie's. He has just met, and become entranced by, Cathy.
Each of Jamie's songs depicts the relationship through courtship, marriage, settled married life, strife, separation and divorce. His songs alternate with Cathy's, whose songs work backward through the same five-year period.
At the Chance Theater, the emotional tug created by this unusual dynamic is powerful, as director Oanh Nguyen and musical director Rob Blaney forge this compact, intermission-free one-act into something forceful and, ultimately, poignant. This is no "he said, she said"; the story told by each character is of two people in love but ultimately mismatched, a microcosm of so many couples.
Much of Brown's music is inspired by the standard sounds of rock, jazz, and rhythm and blues, leaving most of this score as indistinct as other contemporary musicals. No, it's the lyrics - and what they say about the hopes, dreams and problems of these two little people - that give "Five Years" its oomph.
Those lyrics include "covered with scars I did nothing to earn" (a bitter Cathy after the divorce), "I've found a woman I love and an agent who loves me" (Jamie, with self-referential irony), "off on a trip to Jamie-land" (Cathy's semi-sarcastic take on her husband) and "will you spend the next ten lifetimes with me" (a tender Jamie, proposing to Cathy).
In the play's opening scenes, Bob Simpson's Jamie is bouncy, cocky and self-satisfied - never more so than when singing the funky, jazzy "Moving Too Fast," while Jocelyn A. Brown uses a pure, delicate pop-vocal style to give voice to the still-raw wounds Cathy feels - a style that serves her even when expressing Cathy's anger at her husband's self-centeredness or her dawning realization that the person you love may not measure up to the love you feel.
The magic the play works is in the way both characters seemingly take each other's place from the play's opening to its conclusion. It's hard to imagine the emotionally battered Cathy reflecting Jamie's early optimism, yet here's Brown, mid-play, looking hopefully to Jamie as the one thing she can count on even as her work as an actress misfires and, even later in the play (five years ago), brimming with hope, optimism, self-confidence and even exuberance.
As moving, if not more so, is watching the almost juvenile Jamie burrow ever more deeply into his career ambitions, in effect cutting himself off from his wife. From his clownish first few scenes, Simpson morphs into soft-spoken and humble (while proposing to Cathy), then sarcastic and angry (when she refuses to attend a party for his first novel's publication). At the end of the road, he's sober and guarded, subdued and inward-looking.
With a singing style that recalls the work of Sarah McLachlan, Brown effects a broad emotional range, from dreamy lyricism to the lightly comedic "A Summer in Ohio," in which she's at once sexy, funny and charming, all in an unshowy fashion that girds songwriter Brown's thesis that Cathy, no matter how talented or attractive, desperately seeks validation from others.
Also without having to try too hard, Simpson just seems naturally funny, never more so than when the Jewish Jamie tops a tiny Christmas tree with a Star of David, then sings (in Yiddish dialect), the funny and poignant "Schmuel Song." The gentleness Simpson's Jamie shows Cathy takes us by surprise, as does Jamie's eventual angst, captured by the haunting waltz tune that opens and closes the show and is used in the song where the couple become engaged.
Though the two characters share only a few of the 16 songs, Nguyen keeps his two performers proximate in relation to one another for nearly the entire show - a wise move that keeps us from siding too closely with either character. With song as the chosen communication mode of "The Last Five Years," the music itself is a crucial element.
Performing from onstage, Blaney, on piano, Kyle Cahill on guitar and Jerry Motto on bass guitar provide subtle, unobtrusive support for the pair of actor-singers, giving the words they sing that much more impact.
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THEATER REVIEW
THE LAST 5 YEARS
by Shirle Gottlieb, Back Stage West
February 9, 2006
One of the most fascinating things about theatre is how many ways there are to produce the same material. The Last 5 Years is a perfect example. As there have been many versions of this award-winning musical in the Southland, readers are familiar with composer-playwright-lyricist Jason Robert Brown's innovative concept and how difficult it is to perform. Against all odds, the gutsy 99-Seat Chance Theater has met the challenge and mounted Brown's opus on a shoestring budget. Thanks to the creative intimate vision of director Oanh Nguyen, this two-person tug-of-war love story is an astonishing success on many levels.
First and foremost is Bob Simpson's tour-de-force performance as Jamie, the nice Jewish boy who becomes a world famous novelist much too fast. Simpson dramatically sings up a storm, clowns around, breaks our hearts, and commands stage and audience with dynamic skill. Second is Jocelyn A. Brown as Cathy, the Irish-Catholic girl who struggles to become an actor. Though her voice is lovely and her acting convincing, she doesn't embody the "Shiksa Goddess" Jamie falls "head-over-heels in love with at first sight." Nor do her clothes (designed by Sherry Linnell) enhance her appearance. That aside, Brown's sensitive delivery of her vulnerable character is impressive in comic routines and tragic ballads. Clarity is extremely important because this character-driven musical relives the couple's relationship in an unusual time frame: Cathy begins at the breakup and works back to when they met; Jamie starts with their first date and moves forward to the present.
With the exception of two powerful duets that Simpson and Brown nail—"The Next Ten Minutes" when Jamie proposes and "Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You" when they divorce—the scenes are sung to the audience as up-close intimate solos. A fabulous trio backs them up on John Robinson's minimal set enhanced by Jon Langrell's lighting. Rob Blaney directs from the piano, Kyle Cahill plays a mean guitar, and Jerry Motto underscores the beat on bass.
Presented by and at The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Jan. 26-Mar. 12. (800) 838-3006.
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THEATER REVIEW
THE LAST 5 YEARS
by Elliott Rosenthal, Fullerton Observer
March 3, 2006
Sometimes a product is good but it is the presentation of it that sells. When Jason Robert Brown wrote “The Last Five Years,” he produced a pretty good, if familiar product. That product is the plot of the play now on stage at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills. It is about a nice Jewish boy named Jamie, played by Bob Simpson, who does what every Jewish mother dreads: he falls in love with, and marries, a good Irish Catholic girl, Cathy, played by Jocelyn A. Brown.
Jamie is an aspiring writer who is beginning to achieve a measure of success while Cathy, a struggling actress, is having trouble making her mark. The plot describes the last five years of their relationship and marriage.
That, essentially, is the product. The presentation…… the manner in which this story is told, however, is unique and interesting. The story is told musically by the two characters. They tell it singing fourteen different songs. There is no dialogue. That in itself is not very unusual; it happens all of the time in opera. However, Jamie relates his tale from the beginning of his relationship with Cathy while Cathy begins at the end of their life together. And……and this is unusual ….they do not address one another directly except for a brief time that depicts the middle portion of their life together. Following that, Jamie resumes relating forward and Cathy relates backward. It is an interesting concept executed very well by the actors.
A very simple set, designed by John Robinson is quite effective and the lighting design by Jon Langrell is interesting and imaginative. A pair of translucent screens at opposite side of the stage convey time and mood change. Music to accompany the songs is provided by Rob Blaney at the piano, Kyle Cahill on guitar and Jerry Motto on Bass. Oanh Nguyen directs the play which runs until March 12.
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