Last Five Years, in reverse?
Last Five Years, in reverse?
#1Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:00pm
Do you think the Last Five Years would work if you did the show in reverse? I was just listening to it and thought about it.
Does anyone know how Jason Robert Brown went about writing it? Did he write it the way the show is presented or did he write some of the songs first and then ordered them later?
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#2re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:02pmI know that he wrote "The Next Ten Minutes" last; he says so on his website.
#2re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:02pm
I guess it COULD work in reverse, but not NEARLY as well. The dramatic structure is so perfect as it is.
Actually, I take it back. I don't think it would work at all in reverse.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#3re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:05pm
I once rearranged it into a reverse playlist. It doesn't fit quite so neatly, and it only had me feeling marginally more sympathetic towards Cathy, so not an overall resounding success.
#4re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:05pmOr how about starting with Shiksa Goddess and then alternate from there?
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#5re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:07pmOh how about making Cathy "Kenny" and have it be about two men?
#6re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:08pm
What, having it chronologically? I tried that too, it was a godawful mess (well, as close to a godawful mess as such wonderful music can be 
).
Pardon? Me? Get a life? Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life! :P
#7re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:09pmGo away, Joe. We know about your geography!
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#8re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:10pm
What makes The Last Five Years so special - apart from the fact that JRB's score is quite brilliant - is its unique concept. Messing with it would destroy its raison d'etre.
Also, to quote the cliche -"if it ain't broke, don't fix it". TLFY is a masterpiece.
#9re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:10pmI might be wrong, but wasn't the idea of the different stroytelling chronology Daisy Prince's Idea?
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#10re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:11pmNo really it would work. "Kenny" dates a guy who looks like Tom Cruise, they have a non-traditional wedding. i think it's much more powerful this way.
#11re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:14pmIt might make the line about "a pair of Breasts" have some interesting meaning.
#12re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:16pm
I think it was Daisy Prince, but while it's nice to have come up with the idea, JRB's the one who put it into full, brilliant working order, ergo deserves as much credit as he gets. IMHO. 
#13re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:16pmAlso, Having Kenny "Play anita at the Matinee" really makes his character sound so much more desperate about the state of his/her career.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#14re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:20pmWell Jaime is Bisexual. He still cheats on Kenny with a woman. It makes it real tragic.
#15re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:21pmAnd who is this "daddy" Kenny is talking to in 'Climbing Uphill"?
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
snl89
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/4/05
#16re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:24pm
yeah, I've never actually tried it in TOTAL reverse, but I HAVE listened to Cathy's songs backwards, and I must say that it DID make me understand where she was coming from more. However, I agree that I don't think it would flow as nicely if it had been done in reverse. Maybe it's just because I feel like my favorite Cathy songs are toward the end and Jamie's songs are pretty much strong all the way through. It's wierd... I'm just not quite as much a fan of Cathy's "sad songs". So I feel like if it was reversed, you'd kind of start to loose interest toward the end, whereas Jamie's songs get more and more captivating and emotional as they go on. So yeah, I just think it's perfect the way it is.
But again, I DO recommend to everyone listening to Cathy's songs the opposite way at least once- it really does make you a bit more sympathetic toward her! Mostly because you really don't realize how HOPEFUL she is throughout.. most of it, and how incredibly hard she's working to try and save the marriage, until you listen to it the opposite way. When you listen to it the way it is, and when it's intertwined with Jamie's songs, she starts to seem a little bit annoying and clingy. But then when you listen to it the other way, you see her hopefullness and realize that.. she kind of realize does have a point. Compared to her, Jamie gives up on their marriage VERY easily.
I'm still a Jamie fan though- I'm prob biased because I enjoy his songs more, but I also think that, even if he IS in reality a jerk, he's so damn charasmatic that he makes you sympathize with him anyway.
#17re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:25pmOh, they both have flaws, but I've always thought Jamie was a jerk.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#18re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:30pmIt is playing here in Denver and I will see it next month. I will have to keep this in mind!
#19re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:30pm
See, I'm an aspiring actress with a dream to be successful, and a need to maintain her independence, and wishing that her partner would support her in the ways she felt she needed support. Yet I STILL identify more with Jamie. That's the reason I started messing with the format in the first place; I thought I was maybe latching onto him because it was easier to feel his character growing, thanks to the structure. But even messing with the structure, I still cared more for Jamie. I reckon it's more to do with the writing; I understand Jamie is basically how JRB was at an earlier place in his life, therefore there is probably more genuine emotion inadvertantly shoved into his songs than Cathy's. That's the only satisfactory answer I can come up with for preferring the philandering jerk to the character who is legitimately like me.
I'm not making sense. I have too much sugar in me. ;_;
Updated On: 4/7/08 at 05:30 PM
#20re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:35pm
The Last Five Years is one of my favorite shows. I wish I could've been able to see it.
I don't think it would work, in my eyes, any other way than seeing Cathy broken in the beginning and completely at the top of her life in the end. The first time I heard a few of the songs, I made the mistake of not listening to them in order. Then, on a train ride to Pennsylvania I had the time to listen to the whole CD from beginning to end, and it was so powerful and heartbreaking/warming.
What a masterpiece.
#21re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:47pm
Some mentioned previously, and I am too lazy to scroll down and check who... said that it was so unique. Remember that Craig Lucas and Norma Rene along with Stepehen Sondheim did this with a little show called Marry Me A Little that was a huge hit on the small theater circuit in the 80s. It was many of his cut songs put together for a two person show --
A man and a woman single and alone in their drab studio apartments in Brooklyn on a Saturday night, fantasize and soliloquize in song. For theatrical expediency or gimmickry, the setting consists of only one apartment. The two keep passing each other, but do not meet: He's supposed to be upstairs; she, downstairs. However, they join in duets of love, longed for and unfound.
Sure it is not EXACTLY the same but JRB must have gotten some ideas from this....
#21re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 5:47pmdarn tootin' double posting
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#23re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 6:13pm
I don't get how everyone can like Jamie and hate Cathy so much. He's a self-absorbed jerk who won't even see his wife's show or stay for her BIRTHDAY when she's very willing to work things out, cheats on her, and ditches her at parties to go flirt with other women while she's left to talk about what it's like to be blessed with being on the arm of such a genius. He just regrets that he's married when he's famous because now he can't reap the benefits of being adored by so many women. And he says that he's supportive, his actions don't show it; he drags her along to a party to celebrate him and how awesome he is when she is feeling depressed and worthless. Some supportive husband. Ughhh.
I don't think Cathy is clingy; I don't think that she asks too much, and she put up with far more of Jamie's crap than I would have. Her concerns are legitimate: Jamie DID cheat on her, and I don't believe for one second that he only slept with that girl because Cathy pushed him into it. That's not how it works.
Also, sometimes I get the feeling that people project Norbert Leo Butz onto Jamie; because they love the former, they love the latter.
#24re: Last Five Years, in reverse?
Posted: 4/7/08 at 6:22pmbut if all your wife did was whine and moan and groan about her career, wouldn't you want to go ahead and talk to girls who were interested in you and not so moody all the time, too? even for just some small party?
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