LAST FIVE YEARS Movie Q&A---Ask Away! — Page 2

No idea why they wanted to make this into a film. I find this musical very dull unless you have perfect casting-Sherie/Norbert. They would have done better to film the revival and shopped it to PBS.

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How do they let the audience know when the times change?

What was your favorite song in the film?

Same orchestrations as the stage version?

While presenting it in chronological order would definitely amp up the mass appeal and success possibility, might that defeat the purpose?

The thing that made the property worthwile to begin with was the novel stoytelling technique, rather than the plot or characters, so without that going for it it's sort of just another stereotypical bittersweet romance story with some catchy songs.

My question: did the film make Jamie any more likeable? He always seems like such an awful jerk in the stage play.

The thing that made the property worthwile to begin with was...

I'm gonna stop you right there. What made the property worthwhile to begin with had bugger-all to do with the actual content. That this was an independent film makes this only marginally less true. What made the property worthwhile to film was that it was a successful enough stage property that people might buy tickets to it. Period. End of report. This is always the case, has always been the case, will likely always be the case -- dollars and cents. Sure, someone involved might have a passion for the property, but they also like making their money back. (Witness Michael Butler and Hair; while he didn't do so well with the motion picture, he hand-waves the scant resemblance to the stage play because it made people curious about the play, yadda yadda.)

And for those who have never seen L5Y before and do even a modicum of research, the ticket purchase will be about the "based on the musical" tagline, so they can feel sophisticated in this world which increasingly cries for a veneer of sophistication without the actual experience.

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Updated On: 12/16/13 at 05:10 PM

I was referring to the original reason for writing it, not the reason for it being filmed.

Although on second thought, stereotypical romance movies with much less substance are hugely successful, so my point is a bit pointless.

Taking out the interesting timeline concept, I believe, would draw people away from the movie if that was the route they went in. Seeing as this is an independent movie and will most likely not have a wide release, it is fans of the show who will make up most of the film's audience. If they changed that then people probably would be very upset because you are changing what made this show/story different.

I hope they represent the story's concept in the promotional material because that will make it stand out. I don't think people are going to want to see a movie musical about a couple whose relationship falls apart depressingly. The forward/reverse storyline is very interesting and a cool perspective to present this typical storyline in.

Not to me. She seemed selfish, and not understanding of his career. She was pissed off that she wasn't as successful and still had to do ****ty theater in Ohio. I think she took that out on him.

No, when things start getting a bit difficult for her and she's understandably upset, instead of responding in a validating way he complains that she's "bringing him down" and forces her to attend a party where he flirts with other women in front of her. Everything's always about Jamie, so Cathy can't possibly just want to stay home because she's sad, it has to be that she wants him to fail like she did.

Sorry, I HATE Jamie.

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Updated On: 12/16/13 at 10:56 PM

"...the ticket purchase will be about the "based on the musical" tagline, so they can feel sophisticated in this world which increasingly cries for a veneer of sophistication without the actual experience."

Sing out. I find this show, like most of Brown's output, to be less sophisticated than a suburban prom.

This is a musical that has never worked for me as a whole. The whole time reverse thing, while fairly fresh at the time, lost its impact rapidly on stage and got stale quickly for me. The times I have seen it it had the emotional impact of a typical Wildhorn show, but musically it really is a wonderful piece

I'm sorry, newintown, but that is just plain sexist and offensive.