Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
✭✭✭✭✩
by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Daryl Cloran
CanStage, Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs, Toronto
April 22-May 29, 2004
At a time on Broadway when recycling movies and song catalogues as musicals counts as creativity, it’s refreshing to find an original musical about complex characters written for intelligent adults. After its short Off-Broadway run in 2001, The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown has had over 100 productions. The pointed lyrics, cerebral concept, sophisticated style and bittersweet tone all reveal the strong influence of Stephen Sondheim. Anyone interested in where the serious, non-tour-group musical may be headed should see this show.
The story traces the five-years relationship of Catholic singer-dancer Cathy (Blythe Wilson), who can’t break into Broadway, and Jewish writer Jamie (Tyley Ross), who has just had his first big success. The show’s numbers are all solos alternating between Cathy and Jamie with a few moments of their wedding day as the only duet. Paralleling the direction of their careers, Jamie’s songs move forward from their first date to their breakup, while Cathy’s songs take the opposite course. Unhappily, such a rigorous concept, once you get it, starts to feel claustrophobic. Director Daryl Cloran reinforces the sense of existential isolation by having each actor sing as if to the other who is absent.
Ross and Wilson both give vibrant, dynamic performances. Wilson commands a greater dramatic range and is superb in nailing each note, each mood and the sense of each rhyme. Ross gives Jamie lots of zest and boyish charm but can’t quite find the darker side of a man who rationalizes his unfaithfulness.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-04-29.
Photo: Tyley Ross and Blythe Wilson. ©2004.
2004-04-29
The Last Five Years