Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Theatre Harrisburg brings Broadway to Harrisburg with Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years,” a high-concept romantic musical dramedy by Theatre Harrisburg Director TJ Creedon and Music Director Mitchell Sensenig-Wilshire.
Driven by a melancholy score that lands beautifully on the ears with almost every note, the plot itself doesn’t follow a traditional storytelling trajectory. Wife Cathy tells us her side of the story backwards, performing a post-mortem of their break-up. Husband Jamie starts his story at the beginning (like a normal person) and moves forward with a successful career, eventually transitioning himself into a different love story. The couple tells their love story through alternating songs, with strong musicianship holding this play together.
Before we meet our divorcing couple, we sit inside their New York City apartment. Their mementos are strung together, cobbling together the stuff of life – stuff that later becomes “marital assets” and must legally be divided in half. For the short time we peek under the covers of their life together, the coverage seems sparse and disjointed, indicative of their short, messy relationship.
Then we meet Cathy Hiatt (Kayllen Cox), seated at a table for one, reviewing Jamie’s goodbye letter at the end of the love story. With the show’s opening number “Still Hurting,” it’s clear that the playwright is working out personal demons through his script. Cox’s anguished voice belts out throaty and bitter over the sad strains from the Pit (Andrew Vinton, violin; Andrew Jackson, Luke Winter, cellos; Ben Carraher, guitar; Sensenig-Wilshire, keys) visible behind her. She gracefully carries those strong emotions throughout her entire performance.
Next we meet Jamie Wellerstein (Joshua Schriver), singing “Shiksa Goddess.” You might find the title and lyrics problematic. I find them hilarious. Not only does Schriver flesh out Jamie’s character through this song, but he also showcases his compelling singing chops. Although he seems nervous at first, it only shows in his body language. Nerves don’t diminish his voice. By the end of Schriver’s first solo, he is smiling and confidently waving at a friend in the audience.
All 15 songs in the score are passionate, growing from a gutturally honest place. Even the numbers with jokes embedded sound sad from the wistfully straining strings playing like a lullaby, singing the marriage to sleep. They capture the human side of romantic love as much as they tell Cathy and Jamie’s unique love story. Of the entire score, which will be finding its way onto my playlist, my favorite is “The Schmuel Song,” based on a fable Jamie published, expressing his belief in Cathy’s dreams.
The couple meet in the middle for only one brief scene, emoting the duet “The Next Ten Minutes.” The emotional midpoint of the show, this is the only duet where Cathy and Jamie share the same moment in time. Cox and Schriver emote true chemistry during their proposal and wedding, sharing a sense of hope for their future.
Every love story has its confessions. Here’s mine… I typically have a hard time following time-jump stories, so I brought my husband as my plus-one because his brain can do that thing. But even he had trouble following the time sequences in spots. Unfortunately, what his brain cannot do is open his teeny-tiny heart to appreciate the musical romance genre. So yada yada yada… Our tradeoff is that I accompany him to a Super Bowl party, watch whatever teams are playing, and pretend I care about one of them winning. All this to admit… I was grateful for the synopsis in the program for “The Last Five Years.” Without it, we would have been completely lost instead of just a little lost. Even if you don’t track every detail of the play’s he-said/she-said, the stunning music makes it worth chipping the ice off your car in time for the house lights dimming.
Something that may have helped the audience to better track the independent timelines: introduce more drastic changes to the characters’ costumes and hairstyles. There is an Every(wo)man vibe around this couple, hinting that a dissolution like theirs could happen to any relationship. But for a couple set in NYC, I would have liked to see them don flashier wardrobe choices to better reflect their environment, especially by year five together. And perhaps more flowy fabric choices would have allowed the actors freer stage movements. Admittedly, five years is not a long time to show physical changes during a play that isn’t even long enough for the audience to enjoy an intermission, but more visual variations would have helped to ground the audience as the timeframes shifted.
If you go, be sure to get there a little early to take selfies in the lobby’s photo-op prop booth with your own plus-one. Are you Team Cathy or Team Jamie? Some language and themes may be too mature for younger viewers. Whomever you bring, may your plus-one be more willing to play along than my sweetheart, although I’m sure Team George will perk up Sunday after kick-off. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.
“The Last Five Years” runs through Feb. 15 at the Krevsky Center, 513 Hurlock St., Harrisburg. For more information on show times and tickets, visit https://theatreharrisburg.com/shows/the-last-five-years/.
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