The Last 5 Years
Jason Robert Brown‘s one act musical The Last Five Years is a clever little show in which one character, Cathy, starts singing at the end of her five year relationship and works backwards. Meanwhile, Jamie, her partner, starts from the beginning, with the two characters only interacting in the middle.
Staging is simple yet effective, and the use of two clocks, each telling different times until the very end, are a startling reminder that our characters are no longer in synch.
The band, made up of violin, two cellos, guitar, bass and piano sounded great but did drown out the actors on one or two occasions. bHowever, this is a thoroughly enjoyable show and a couple of microphones for the actors are all that is needed to make it near perfect.
– Julie McNicholls
