The Last Five Years

Synopsis

The Last Five Years is a show about a marriage. It is told from two angles: from the man's point of view it starts at their first meeting and ends in the present, when the marriage breaks up. From the woman s point of view, it starts in the present and works back in time to the first meeting. Only at the wedding, in the centre of the piece, do the stories intersect. The relationship is between a 'nice Jewish boy' and an Christian girl in New York City. During a five year period, they fall in love, marry and their relationship gradually sours and they finally divorce.

Our Review:

26 July 2006

Less a musical than a song cycle, The Last Five Years is a raw, not to say bleeding, account of a short-lived marriage seen in double perspective: from his and her points of view. The music and lyrics are by Jason Robert Brown, one of a small clutch of American composer/songwriters who labour in the wake, and under the heavy influence, of Stephen Sondheim.

So personal is the show that it attracted no less than three lawsuits when premiered in Chicago in 2001, one of them from Brown’s first wife, who complained that he was airing their dirty linen in public. A revised version appeared Off-Broadway in the following year, and now Matthew White’s production at the Menier, the show’s UK premiere, constitutes the “definitive” account.

The two characters are mercilessly exposed from the start. The relationship between Jamie (Damian Humbley), a Jewish writer, and Cathy (Lara Pulver), a struggling actress and “shiksa goddess,” is enacted in scenes of...

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Latest User Review

86.136.129.202) - 13 August 2006:

Superb performances and very clever, thoughtful design, plus an original and moving score make this another hit for the Menier. Michael Coveney's review would be embarassing in its ignorance if a 12 year old had written it....

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