Last Five Years (with Lisa Brescia) Review

[commasplice]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 6:54pm

Hi everybody. I just got home from the 2:00 matinee of the Skylight Opera in Milwaukee’s production of The Last Five Years, starring Lisa Brescia and Michael Deleget. I’ve loved the score for this show for so long, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing a production for a long time. If you’re in the Milwaukee area, make an effort to see this production. It’s fantastic.

The Skylight Opera is a small, beautiful theatre – perfect for this show. I bought a $15 gallery seat, which puts you about as close to the stage as the first few rows, but higher up. It’s an awkward angle (I was leaning over the edge the entire time because lights were slightly obstructing my view), but I’m actually glad I sat there, since it was so close. I considered moving to one of the empty more-center seats when the show started, but it didn’t turn out to be a problem in the long run. I noticed that there were a lot of older couples there, which I found surprising, but they all seemed to love the show. It made me so happy to see this one pair of old ladies in the dress circle giving it a standing ovation at the end.

The set looked a lot like the set I’ve seen in pictures of the NY and IL productions, and it works very well. It’s very simple – a series of stairs and platforms for the characters to move around on, and during “The Next Ten Minutes” it rotates for the boat to come on and offstage. What I thought was a nice touch was that at the beginning they had a projection screen to come down and explain that Jamie and Cathy tell their stories in opposite order, since not everyone reads their program beforehand and knows that going in (like me, the first time I listened to the CD, I was so lost until I read the booklet). The orchestra was excellent.

The cast of this show was outstanding. They sang and acted the songs beautifully.

Lisa Brescia as Cathy was wonderful. I’ve never really heard her sing before other than a few Aida clips, but wow, her voice is absolutely gorgeous and she was so perfect as Cathy. Her voice, her movements, everything about her performance was what I was expecting in a Cathy and more. I was tearing up in “Still Hurting” and crying at the end of “See I’m Smiling”, which I’ve never done before. She also made me like the one song I usually skip over when I’m listening to the CD, “A Part of That”. I don’t know why I’ve never really liked it, but seeing Lisa pace the stage mimicking shoveling food into her mouth with “handful after handful or Doritos” just made me laugh. Her “Summer in Ohio” was very funny, as was “Climbing Uphill”.

And Michael Deleget as Jamie! I adored him (I may be slightly biased because I also love the character). He has an amazing voice and is someone to watch out for in the future. At first I was a little wary of his performance, because he plays Jamie as a little bit of an earnest, goofy sort of guy at first (throwing air punches in “Moving Too Fast”, all sorts of different movements like mimicking shooting a gun in “Shiksa Goddess”), which I’ve never really thought of him as in those exact terms (or I just never pictured the blocking that way), but it worked really well, especially when you contrast him to the Jamie he is at the end. He acted the part impeccably from beginning (it was the first thing I noticed about his performance, when he came out and said, “I’m breaking my mother’s heart!”) to end. “The Schmuel Song” was especially good (and his imitation of a grandfather clock). It hurt to watch him in “Nobody Needs to Know”. (On a completely superficial note, he’s also very good-looking.)

I never really realized just how much this show breaks my heart until I saw it all play out onstage. All the little things, like how Cathy or Jaime act a certain line or the expressions on their faces, just sting that much more compared to just listening to the recording. Two scenes really killed me: at the end of “The Next Ten Minutes” when Jamie leads Cathy into the boat and she sails away with him just watching her, and at the very last “goodbye”, with Cathy looking so happy and hopeful, and Jamie giving her one last, sad glance, suitcase in hand, before he leaves the stage.

At this show I also stagedoored for the first time (they came out to the lobby, though, rather than outside). I’m very glad I did. There weren’t a ton of people there. Lisa’s mother was there (what a cute lady!) and Lisa came out with this giant, gorgeous vase of flowers she said was from a woman in NY who had seen her a bunch of times in Aida. Both she and Michael couldn’t have been nicer – they happily signed and took pictures and talked to everyone that was there. It was very nice to be able to meet them and tell them what a great job they did. They were both very sweet.

But anyway – if you’re in the area, GO! If I weren’t leaving for spring break at the end of the week, believe me, I would be back next weekend. I was very impressed with the production.

http://skylightopera.com/season.last_five.php
Updated On: 3/13/05 at 06:54 PM

[ashley0139]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:04pm

I'm so glad you liked it! I saw a local production of it last weekend, and I completely agree with you that you get so much more emotion watching it. Although I think that happens with most shows. Anyways, it's now becoming one of my favorites. Glad you enjoyed it! Lisa Brescia rocks, too.

[ShuQ]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:09pm

That's cool that Lisa's doing that. She loves doing Sherie's parts! HaHa. I loved her as Amneris.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:10pm

Awesome, thanks. She told me she was going this, and I was so sad that it wasn't in New York.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:11pm

ShuQ- interesting... you're right about the sherie's parts thing. I didn't think of that.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:13pm

It's just L5Y and AIDA, right? Sherie's done tons more.

[commasplice]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:20pm

She's from Milwaukee (which I didn't know til today), so I think it's nice that she gets to be "home" for a while. Plus, you lucky people in NY have to share with we less fortunate every once in a while I hope she can do it in NY too someday. She was wonderful.

And yeah, I think it's just L5Y and Aida.
Updated On: 3/13/05 at 07:20 PM

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:50pm

every time i've seen Brescia (she's done a lot of Paper Mill, including ACTOR LAWYER INDIAN CHIEF, which by that point may have been titled COWBOY WALTZ) she's been terrific. She probably does very well by that score, she's a singer who can really interpret a lyric. The understudy for SRS in L5Y did it in Boston i think---Nicole Van Geisen (sp?).

[luvWICKED416]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:56pm

ALIC wasn't @ Papermill.. it was @ Goodspeed in CT

[Jwei123]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 9:07pm

I love Lisa.

[ShuQ]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 9:08pm

Yes...it's just those two but I just think it's interesting. That doesn't happen often.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 9:10pm

for some reason, in various forms, i thought it had played both. i know the last one was at Goodspeed and i think Brescia was in it, but i saw a workshop with her and i thought it was Paper Mill. i never saw Goodspeed's. But the workshop might have just been in NYC in general. i get the workshop readings locations confused sometimes.

[eslgr8]

Posted: 3/14/05 at 2:36am

This Angelino envies your being in Milwaukee for that performance. I've read a lot about Lisa on this site and she must have been wonderful. I saw a really good production in the San Diego area last December (a 90 minute drive) and like you stayed to talk to the two actors, they were that good! I plan to become a L5Y junkie and see it whenever and wherever I can! (I'm seeing a North Hollywood production on Thursday.) As you've said, as good ast the original cast recording is, seeing the show live is so much more rewarding. YOu were very fortunate to have this chance to see two great performers in this show!