Question about L5Y

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 2:55pm

i was reading the lyrics to goodbye until tomorrow/ i could never rescue and they both seem to be so in love with each other yet they are both like leaving each other. so whats going on. they both are so in love yet always seem to be fighting and leaving one another...wtf? lol.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 2:56pm

that's the beginning of cathy's story so she is excited about the prospect of love. jamie is talking about how he did love her, but now the relationship is ended.

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:00pm

the show moves in two directions...cathy's story is moving backwards from the breakup to the first time they meet while jamie's is moving foward from the time they meet until the time he leaves her. The two stories meet in the middle in "the next ten minutes".

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:03pm

wow the world makes so much sense now. lol.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:04pm

As Jamie says "I could never rescue you no matter how I tried...all I could do was love hard and let you go." He does love her, but the demands she put on him in the relationship were too great.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:06pm

having said that, I've wondered what you guys think about their break-up. whose fault is it? I can think of reasons to go either way, but I'm curious what you think.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:07pm

the point of the show is that it can be argued either way and in fact their was very strong audience reaction both ways when it originally played.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:16pm

I saw this with my wife and parents when JRB was trying it out in the Chicago area, and we heard a couple arguing on the way out about whose fault it was. We picked up the discussion in the car rise home, and after 4 years I still go back and forth each time I listen to it.

[dietcherryemma]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:21pm

I think that's the beauty of it. Instead of being a show that depicts love as this amazing fantasy, which is fun and beautiful, but completely unreal- it shows it as something beautiful that can end, but the fact that it ended doesn't take away from what it was when it existed. Oh, sigh. I love that musical waaay to much.

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:23pm

i've actually had that argument a few times with a friend of mine. Being involved in what i see as a smaller scale jamie-cathy relationship, she sides with cathy. Being unattached and having a soft side for the character of jamie (he really does have some great songs, doesn't he?), i side more with jamie, although darcey pointed out, it really does go both ways...

drs, what songs have you downloaded? do you have the whole soundtrack yet? it really is a good one....

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 3:47pm

i ordered the soundtrack from amazon and cant wait to get it! so far i only have a few, shiksa goddess, schumel song, goodbye until tomorrow/i could never rescue you, moving too fast, if i didnt believe in you, i can do better than that, and nobody needs to know. i wish i knew what was going on in each scene..ive memorized all of those songs already yet feel so stupid nto knowing whats going on lol

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 4:09pm

I like that JRB deliberately leaves the "whose fault is it?" debate open. If he had picked one person as being at fault, I don't think it would have felt like it was equally Jamie's and Cathy's stories. And it's also testament to what happens when real relationships fall apart. It's almost never just one person's fault.
Having said that, I see Jamie as being the most at fault. He's the one who begins to feel resentful after the marriage (in "A Miracle Would Happen") and ultimately cheats on Cathy which, to me, is an unforgiveable offense.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 4:09pm

rose- love your icon! elijah is damn hot!

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 4:14pm

Ain't he? *grrrrrrow*

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 4:29pm

lol love the sound effects. is it weird that i found him attractive in sin city even though he like..ate women? lol.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 4:47pm

which is why I posed the question. of course it's wide open, all real relationships are. I'm curious as to who YOU think is MORE at fault. I blame Cathy, but that may be because I identify so closely with Jamie.

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 5:49pm

Updated On: 2/7/06 at 05:49 PM

[Hoof]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 5:50pm

Of course, both are at fault. But, I agree with Rose- regardless of how much hurt and lack of support Cathy had for Jamie, he committed the adultery, which was the final straw. I think his choice cemented the end.

It's the saddest musical, but it's my favourite. So much depth in the plot and lyrics.

[Becky]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 5:55pm

I think the beauty of it is that even though they both love each other, they *both* are at fault. They both play a part in why the relationship doesn't work - and I like that it's not one side or one incident that led to their breakup.

After seeing the show the obvious reaction is to try to lay blame, and really, that doesn't work here...it just leads to interesting discussions.

[CJR]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 6:02pm

Aside from the getting married part, my most recent relationship WAS "TL5Y"..... Yeah, I cry my eyes out when I listen to this cd.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:27pm

"I blame Cathy, but that may be because I identify so closely with Jamie"
OurTime, I found this interesting because when my husband and I discussed this we both agreed that Jamie was more at fault, but he said that he identifies more with Jamie. I had posed the question because I wondered if I thought Jamie was more at fault because I identify so strongly with Cathy. I do think that they are both to blame, I just think that Jamie is more at fault seeing as he's the one who leaves.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 8:06pm

I also agree that it is open to interperetation. But being an unbiased listener, I have to side with Cathy. I feel Jamie is more at fault. While Cathy may have done things to progress the breakup, she did nothing concrete to definitively break it up. Jamie however, committed the adultery. It's Cathy's attitude, but Jamie's actions.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 8:36pm

The thing is, Cathy was on tour most of the time they were married. Obviously, she didn't want to be, but hey, it was a job. It felt to me like sometimes Jamie forgot about that. I think he comes off as very selfish in "If I Didn't Believe In You." He sounds very sanctimonious to me; I suspect he was already cheating on her by that point. I mean, if my husband was going to leave me alone on my birthday to go to an industry party where he would be flirting with women, I'd be pissed too.
Not that Cathy'e perfect. She was at first a little pushy (asking him to move in with her when Jamie wasn't ready), then resistant and a little resentful of his success (late in "Climbing Uphill"), but she eventually acclimated to the idea and agreed to marry him, right at the time when Jamie had reservations. I blame him for the actual disintegration of their marriage because he was the one that cheated.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 10:36pm

CJR- I CRY DURING IT, TOO! its so sweet/sad and ive never even seen it! lol.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 10:54pm

I really have to blame Jamie for the end of the relationship. Not only is he the one who committed adultry during their marriage, but he also showed no remorse or apologies for his actions.
But what I love about this play is that they are not two dimmensional characters. Jamie may have turned out to be extremely selfish at the end of the relationship, but The Shumel Song is so touching and precious, the lengths he goes to make this Cathy's best Xmas with the presentation of the watch, you can't hate Jamie because you know that his was once a terrific guy.