The Half Five Years
Tina's no Sucker, and I'm Still Hurting.
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In the final scene of Jason Robert Brown’s beloved two-hander The Last Five Years, a husband sings a song to the wife he’s leaving called “I Could Never Rescue You.” But in the musical’s current revival, it seems like Adrienne Warren, who plays the wife, should be singing it to the production as a whole—and especially to her costar Nick Jonas, who’s in hopelessly over his head as the husband. Warren’s stupendous performance comprises only 50% of the show; for all her prodigious gifts, she could never rescue the other half.
I’ll admit that, ever since seeing the original production of The Last Five Years back at Chicago’s Northlight Theater Company in 2001 (when I was obviously only one year old because I am absolutely positively still 25), I’ve always found the building blocks of this musical more impressive than their finished product.
Its central conceit is fascinating. It charts a couple’s five-year relationship from alternating his and hers perspectives, but we get actress Cathy’s story in reverse chronology, starting with her discovery of a “Dear Jane” letter, and writer Jamie’s point-of-view from their first meeting and then sequentially forward. Other pieces have employed the he said/she said device, and still more have presented stories in reverse chronology; however, The Last Five Years may be the only musical to blend both, adding yet an additional layer by giving us Jamie’s side chronologically. It’s incredibly interesting and admirably ambitious, but also narratively destabilizing and—at least for me—not, as a whole, emotionally fulfilling.
The emotional gratification comes in the individual songs, which include some of Jason Robert Brown’s best (and certainly most accessible) work. Cathy gets better and more consistent music, which I suppose is some sort of musical theatre justice since the storytelling paints her to be an insecure wreck with no one to blame but herself for her failures. To loosely quote the theatergoer my friend Ava and I discussed the show with as we tried to hail cabs, “I never want to see another show about a man who’s trying to save a woman by teaching her she just needs to believe in herself.” Nevertheless, the songs Brown uses to share Cathy’s experience are all excellent. Surely, they’re the main reason the musical has amassed such a devoted cult following, particularly among Musical Theatre Girls. After all, if you’re skipping between tracks on an album, watching clips on YouTube, or excerpting music for auditions or a cabaret, it won’t bother you that a back-to-back string of self-pity arias are not only a downer, but start to feel repetitive. Jamie has some great stuff too, especially his introductory number “Shiksa Goddess,” but his material in the second half of the show isn’t as distinctive or melodic.
Above all else, though, The Last Five Years is a fantastic showcase for its two actors. The role of Jamie was originated by that tiny maelstrom of talent Norbert Leo Butz who not only sang the shit out of it, but also expertly and fearlessly navigated the character’s tricky dramatic arc. In the premiere, Cathy, more specifically Irish Catholic before a legal dispute with Brown’s ex-wife necessitated some revisions, was played by Lauren Kennedy. Her bright and pingy belt seemed to have no ceiling and was just as much the stuff of my 2001 gay boy dreams as Sam Rockwell’s split in the Charlie’s Angels movie. Whatever issues I had with original director Daisy Prince’s occasionally muddy staging, she deserves to be commended for eliciting two such grounded and emotional performances. Revival director Whitney White can’t overcome the limitations of her Jamie, but shapes a clearer narrative, in spite of some embarrassingly clunky moments moving bodies around David Zinn’s puzzling set and a couple of annoying metatheatrical choices.
When Kennedy decided to play Nellie Forbush in Trevor Nunn’s revival of South Pacific at the National Theatre in London rather than continue with The Last Five Years to NY, she was replaced with that “travesty of a leading lady” (Patti LuPone’s words, not mine) Sherie Renée Scott who…did her best. Which, confoundingly, was enough for a lot of people. Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan headlined the film adaptation, in which he handled the music extraordinarily well and she proved to be so multitalented that she could mostly overcome miscasting. (I realize that sounds shady, but she genuinely was quite effective.) I did not see the 2013 off-Broadway revival, which featured Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor.
And now, in the musical’s Broadway debut, we get the aforementioned Warren and Jonas. I recognize that Jonas is, or at least used to be, a major pop and television star, so it’s quite possible that this revival would not have been financed without his name attached. And given his beginnings as a Broadway kid, I was cautiously optimistic that he wouldn’t be terrible, mostly assuming he’d fit into the Michelle Williams in Death Becomes Her mold as a strong singer and bad actor. The opposite turned out to be true. Although no one would confuse him with Daniel Day Lewis, his acting is adequate, at times even rising to the level of “fine,” while his singing…well…actually IS about as good as Daniel Day Lewis’s. Almost. His voice is small, limited in range, and neither beautiful nor exciting. It also doesn’t help that Jonas emits no Jewish sensibility whatsoever, which, in a show that is at least partially about the implications of being in an interfaith relationship, raises serious problems. The fact that the three highest profile Jamies—Butz, Jordan, and Jonas—have all not been Jewish strikes me as highly problematic, and recalls Sarah Silverman’s fantastic discussion of anti-Jewish trends in casting, but that’s another discussion for another day. Regardless, Butz was at least able to convincingly portray “Jewish.” Putting Jonas in Woody Allen-esque glasses for a scene or two only serves to emphasize his soft Christian rock vibes.
Warren’s tour-de-force could not exist at a farther extreme. (Wouldn’t it be something if, despite months of showmosexual debate around “Audra vs. Nicole,” Adrienne ended up taking the Tony?) She massages the score with a lush variety of vocal colors, sharing parts of her voice that she was not able to incorporate in her performance as Lorelle in the national tour of Dreamgirls, which is where I first discovered her, or her Tony-winning turn in Tina, which I missed and have only been able to experience on recordings. It’s quite possibly an even better, and certainly more varied, interpretation of Brown’s music than Kennedy’s, which I previously thought was superlative. Remarkably, the impact of Warren’s singing is matched by the impact of her acting. As Cathy, she takes in information with such specificity and emotional transparency, you can practically see her imaginary scene partners. In fact, Jonas probably does his best work as Jamie in Warren’s mind’s eye.
At one point during the performance, Ava leaned over to me and, referring to Warren and Jonas, whispered, “She is eating him up.” Yes. She is, in fact, making such a meal out of him, somebody better send her some antacid. And the audience a menu. Because the total experience left me wanting more.
the not-a-bottom line
🌈🌈 ½ (out of five)
a guide to ticket-buying
Through my TDF membership, for a Tuesday night performance, I was able to get a pair of center dress circle seats in row D for $62 each. Perfectly fine view. I’m glad I didn’t pay more.
a key to the pictures
The film adaptation is available to stream for free on several platforms, the highest profile probably being Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu), and through a variety of subscription services, such as BroadwayHD and Peacock. It can also be found in that jungle we should all really be boycotting.
An archival video of the original Northlight production has leaked to YouTube. It’s a wonderful watch to see Kennedy as Cathy, Butz’s virtuosic turn as Jamie, a different version of “Shiksa Goddess,” and some versions of the songs with different lyrics.
A wonderful fan synthesized clips of Butz and Scott’s production into a semi-complete video of the NY premiere.
I saw that production at Northlight the summer my parents got divorced and it hit hard. It was the first time I saw a musical actually break some of those norms you mentioned. Core memory for sure.
Your criticisms of Nick Jonas sound Warren-ted.
And isn't Jeremy Jordan's mother Jewish?