Last Five Years Question

Lately I have become obsessed with my copy of The Last Five Years. I know the storyline and everything, but I was just wondering if someone could explain to me how this is staged. It seems like the two characters are rarely on stage together, is this true? If I could just get a brief outline or something of how this show looks visually that would be great.

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I've always wanted to stage it with a big timeline across the foot of the stage and have the characters deliver their songs where they fall on the timeline, gradually getting closer to each other, then gradually drifting apart, literally. However, because I am not in fact a director that vision isn't going to come to fruition anytime soon.

On the other hand, I think it was a very particular choice on Brown's part to have them separated, ie., never on stage together, save for the wedding scene and finale, because it reinforces that we're getting two sides of the story that don't necessarily mesh perfectly.

How much dialouge is there? I assumed the majority of it was sung but I could be wrong.

There are a couple phone calls of dialoge but that's pretty much it. It's an amazing and moving show to see. The two times I have seen it, the characters were actually on stage together during See I'm Smiling and Schmuel Song (he's telling her a story), though neither said anything and their back was to the audience, in addition to the other two. In one of the productions I saw, they had two large clocks suspended from the fly and the hands moved with each song. Very cool. It's really and amazingly beautiful and moving show.

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Updated On: 1/20/06 at 08:19 PM

There is seriously no dialogue..the off-Broadway was staged where they were onstage at the same time, using each other as props if you will, but they were only in the same time perion during The Next 10 Minutes. For instance, in The Schmuel Song, Jamie really is singing to Cathy, she's sitting at the tree with him..and See I'm Smiling they are sitting on a dock together, it's really interesting the way they did it.

I have a question. The only song I have heard from this show is A Summer In Ohio and I love it, as soon as I can I will buy this cast recording, but since I don't know the storyline, could anyone explain what is this song about in terms of the context of the show?

It's a letter Cathy is writing to Jamie while she's in Ohio doing summer stock.

Also, on some thread about 6 months ago I put the songs and story in "chronological" order. You could try searching for that too.

Updated On: 1/20/06 at 01:02 AM

I didn't think the original (in Chicago) made much sense, the staging at least. And even in New York, I didn't think "Next 10 Minutes" made sense.

I just directed the show (it plays one more weekend), and we've staged it in the round (it's a circle piece, blah blah blah). The only time I had them in the same time period at all was the 20 seconds or so of Next 10 Minutes that they sing together. But there are other times when I had them on stage together, though in their respective time periods. For example, right before "you know what makes me crazy, I'm sorry..." in See I'm Smiling, Jamie has a monologue on the phone. Halfway through I had Jamie go and sit next to Cathy on the opposite side of the boxes that were establishing the pier for her. When his phone call was over and Cathy started singing, Jamie continued what he was doing in his world while Cathy continued in her world. It just so happened that where Jamie was sitting is where Jamie (in Cathy's world) would have been sitting, so we had a cool moment (in my opinion) when Cathy is singing "you, and you, and nothing but you" to Jamie in her time period, but it looks like she's singing it to the Jamie we're seeing. That's one of my favorite moments of our show.

That was much longer than I intended.

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