With The Last Five Years, the plight of the Self-Obsessed
Urban Hipster has officially been documented in every medium known to
Shins fans. Whether the world needed a musical version of Annie
Hall is a question I won’t even attempt to answer here: My job is
simply to assess how well Stumptown Stages handles Jason Robert Brown’s
material. And the answer is… about as well as can be expected from a
medium-sized theater company in a medium-sized town. Solid talent, a
whole lotta heart, and some truly atrocious production design.
The Last Five Years tells, in a loopy, nonlinear narrative,
the self-pity drenched tale of Jamie (Dale Johannes) and Kathy (Sara
Catherine Wheatley), an ambitious young couple in New York City. It
opens with Kathy bemoaning the end of her relationship—she’s not
ready for it to end, she tells us, but Jamie has moved on. The show
proceeds to revisit some of the highs and lows of, you got it, the last
five years of the relationship, from the halcyon puppy love days to the
jealousy and resentment that accrue as Jamie becomes a successful
writer while Kathy’s career stalls in the washed-up-actress lane.
Brown’s lyrics manage to balance the maudlin tendencies inherent to
a musical about romance with some astute observations about jealousy
and possessiveness in male/female relations (though I gotta say, Kathy
gets the short end of that stick).
There’s virtually no spoken dialogue here, and the show’s two
characters only rarely address one another directly. Rather, they belt
out song after expository song while wandering around a set of
staggering conceptual banality. (One can only assume that Janet
Mouser’s round stage and round projection screens—upon which
backgrounds are occasionally displayed—are intended to represent
the turning wheels of time. Director Kirk Mouser at one point attempts
to inject some dynamicism into the affair by having Jamie construct and
mount a pedestal of the boxes that clutter the set. It doesn’t really
work.)
Both actors do a fine job: Wheatley’s got a sweet voice and a knack
for wry humor, though her upper register can be overpowering in such a
small theater space. Johannes handles the show’s big numbers with an
engaging energy, though he flags when it comes to telegraphing more
subtle emotions.
At an hour and a half with no intermission, the show can feel a bit
punishing—particularly given the set of pipes on
Wheatley—but fans of musicals probably won’t be disappointed.
Alison: I ponder your use of the word non-linear and your understanding of the story line. When Kathy comes on stage she is telling her story from the end of the relationship and going backwards in time. Jamie comes on stage and tells his story in normal chronological order. The only point during the play when they are in the same time, the same event, is in the middle — at the wedding, and that’s the only time they talk to each other. Brilliant new treatment of a common story line.