THE LAST FIVE YEARS Previews- Page 4

[Dan6]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 12:58pm

quizking101 said: "Other Specs People Will Ask About:

Run Time: From start to finish, it was 85 minutes. Started 8:07 and ended at 9:22.

Sounds like 75 minutes…which I think would make it the shortest show currently on Broadway.

 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 1:14pm

I’ve only seen the movie. Aren’t they together a lot in the movie? Not just “The Next Ten Minutes.” I didn’t realize it’s not usually done that way. Do people not like the movie for that reason?

[ChiDoc]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 1:40pm

CATSNYrevival said: "I’ve only seen the movie. Aren’t they together a lot in the movie? Not just “The Next Ten Minutes.” I didn’t realize it’s not usually done that way. Do people not like the movie for that reason?"

My take on the movie is that there was essentially no way to film the material without having them both in every scene, but that robs the material of one of its theatrical strengths.  The movie is fine, but it’s not really a reflection of the show (although perhaps an accurate reflection of this production).

[George in DC]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 1:45pm

Dan6 said: "quizking101 said: "Other Specs People Will Ask About:

Run Time: From start to finish, it was 85 minutes. Started 8:07 and ended at 9:22.

Sounds like 75 minutes…which I think would make it the shortest show currently on Broadway.

"I think "Oh Mary" is around that, depending on who is playing Mary. If I remember correctly, Ms Gilpin's performance ran almost 10 minutes shorter than when Cole did it.

 

Updated On: 3/20/25 at 01:45 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 2:16pm

George in DC said: "Dan6 said: "quizking101 said: "Other Specs People Will Ask About:

Run Time: From start to finish, it was 85 minutes. Started 8:07 and ended at 9:22.

Sounds like 75 minutes…which I think would make it the shortest show currently on Broadway.

"I think "Oh Mary" is around that, depending on who is playing Mary. If I remember correctly, Ms Gilpin's performance ran almost 10 minutes shorter than when Cole did it.

"

I did mean 9:32. 
 

And yes, because Betty steamrolled through a lot of bits and improv that Cole did, the whole show ran about 10 minutes shorter.

[inception]

Posted: 3/23/25 at 11:00am

The Jonas Brothers have announced a tour starting in August.  So while this is currently only on sale through June, it definitely looks to be a limited run.

https://consequence.net/2025/03/the-jonas-brothers-jonas20-living-the-dream-tour/

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/23/25 at 4:09pm

I believe the production itself might have a longer life, beyond these two. 

[Huss417]

Posted: 3/23/25 at 4:22pm

Jordan Catalano said: "I believe the production itself might have a longer life, beyond these two."

That would be great if it happens as I would prefer to see anyone else than Jonas.

[Feathah]

Posted: 3/23/25 at 8:36pm

Hey I usually just lurk but a quick post to say - in the production with Sherie and Norbert they did share the stage at the same time and several points and interacted during The Shmuel Song. They didn’t exchange lines but Sherie and Norbert were both onstage and playing off each other.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/25/25 at 10:31pm

Just saw this tonight.

Adrienne Warren is truly a star. If any single one of her songs were in a larger musical, it would be a huge highlight of that production- and here we get them, again and again. Her voice is warm and glorious, her acting heartfelt and emotional. I cannot imagine anyone not falling in love with her Cathy, and the audience certainly seemed to- "I Can Do Better Than That" is a powerhouse performance that easily got the biggest response from the crowd.

Nick Jonas is... really never better than fine? He seemed to struggle vocally at the beginning of the show, which meant "Shiksa Goddess" and "Moving Too Fast" somehow barely made an impression despite being two of the best-known songs in all of JRB's work. He got better as the night went on, both vocally and in performance, and really seemed to come alive as we entered the second half of the show. By then, though, it's kind of too late- the star has long since been eclipsed by Warren.

I was sitting, wondering why people took issue with interaction between Cathy and Jamie, because for the first half there really wasn't any, save "Schmuel Song" which, I thought, really does need Jamie to be playing off of somebody onstage with him for such a long, storytelling number. But then, Whitney White has Cathy remain onstage after "Climbing Uphill," apparently working on her audition material, while Jamie directs "If I Didn't Believe in You" at her. The issue here is that in this moment, it is extremely unclear where in the timeline Cathy is. She sometimes reacts to the hurtful things Jamie is saying, sometimes she doesn't. Jamie's impetus for the song seems to be Cathy singing her audition song, which he treats as if she has started an argument with him. It is just... muddy and unclear.

Unclear, also, is the staging of "Nobody Needs to Know," which totally obfuscates Jamie's infidelity. If I hadn't known that's what the song is about, I would've assumed Jamie was just waking up alone because Cathy was in Ohio. It's a shame because this is Jonas's strongest moment- he sounds great and is giving a good performance on this. Meanwhile, at some point in previews, the choice was made to have the various years announced during the appropriate transitions - "Year One," "Year Two," etc. I found this to be demonstrating remarkably little faith in the audience to follow this show, and at odds with some of the confusing staging decisions in the second half that muddied things.

So yeah, this is an uneven production. The upshot is that Warren is a powerhouse and the band sounds fantastic- which for such a minimal show is certainly a lot.

(also baffling- the pre-show playlist of contemporary pop songs? I mean, I'm never going to really object to hearing "Good Luck, Babe!" but ... why for this?)

Updated On: 3/25/25 at 10:31 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 3/25/25 at 10:48pm

Also, the original Off-Broadway production is easily findable online.... Sherie and Norbert share the stage a lot and direct songs to each other, so I'm not really sure where this idea that the characters must be in isolation from one another except for "Next Ten Minutes" came from.

Updated On: 3/25/25 at 10:48 PM

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 3/25/25 at 11:14pm

Jordan Catalano said: "…I wanna know why that show was directed that way. Will the people who don't know this show ever know how great it could be? Oh God, I wanna know whyyyyyy whyyyyyyy - Lord I wish I could understand.

But anyways. First thoughts - Warren is wonderful. I think she's miscast maybe only because she comes off so much stronger than he does and it messes up the balance but I'm going to have to think on that one. Jonas is...fine. I guess. This is not the role for him, though. The show's fatal flaw though is Whitney White's direction which seemingly pretty much abandons the shows framing device of alternative timelines. Or if it doesn't abandon it, it blurs it to the point that even someone like me who knows this show VERY WELL is confused as to what is happening. This is what we heard from almost everyone leaving -"What was thatabout?" I don't think you can have these two in so many scenes together and interacting with each other, even singing with each other a couple lines a few times, while keeping the basic plot of the show clear…”

100% agree with these thoughts from Jordan. What a huge miss on direction. I know the show word for word and felt sorry for the audience who may have been seeing this for the first time and getting very confused. It didn’t help that half of the lyrics, from both leads, were indecipherable. 
 

I haven’t seen anyone mention that there was a very odd voiceover several times saying “Year One” or “Year Five”, etc in a robotic female voice, I’m assuming to help clarify what is unfortunately very unclear in this production. Maybe this was recently added, but it was strange, random and inconsistently used. 
 

Things did become enjoyable in the last 20 minutes or so, starting with Warren’s I Can Do Better Than That, which got the first huge reaction from the audience. Much too late. 

Updated On: 3/25/25 at 11:14 PM

[bluetuna]

Posted: 3/26/25 at 12:02am

I saw the show tonight.  The robotic voice was jarring the first time, and it sounded like it didn't project fully that time, so I wasn't sure at first what was said.  It was unclear when the decision was made to have that announcement, because it felt random.  Perhaps projecting their name and the year on a side of the stage during a scene might make clearer the chronological and reverse chronological-telling of the story.  I felt bad for anyone who didn't know the musical already, as I'm sure they were lost.

There were a lot of microphone issues, primarily with Jonas.  They were very pronounced particularly during "The Schmuel Song."  I felt Jonas and Warren didn't have the best chemistry overall, but their chemistry was strongest in this scene.  However, I felt like Jonas would go out of the "Schmuel accent" (i.e., stereotypical old Ashkenazi Jewish man from Eastern Europe) prematurely.  I don't know if this is a production decision or just a discomfort for Jonas with "appropriating" an accent, but he would start a line in that accent and almost immediately drop it.

I'm not sure if someone has said it already, but some lyrics were updated, I'm assuming for cultural sensitivity.  Some that popped out to me as having been rewritten were "if you once were a man" and "connected to the Gatti clan" in "Shiksa Goddess," and the "gay midget" in "Summer in Ohio" being changed to a dentist.

Warren's delivery of "I Can Do Better Than That" got the biggest applause tonight.  She's got a very powerful voice, but that made it somewhat more challenging to see the vulnerability and hurt in songs like "Still Hurting."

[LucyEth]

Posted: 3/26/25 at 1:59am

From the second this production was announced it's seemed hilariously imbalanced and miscast.  Is it in any way believable that such a powerhouse as Warren would, as the lyric says, "follow in his stride instead of side by side" when the Jamie in question is Nick Jonas?  This particular Cathy is going to slink off to Ohio, put up with Jamie's BS and whine when he leaves her?  I'm sorry, no.  This particular Cathy is going to wipe the floor with his cheating butt, kick him to the curb and start dating one of the truly worthy guys that her friends have been trying to introduce her to for the last five years.

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 3/26/25 at 1:24pm

bluetuna said: "…Perhaps projecting their name and the year on a side of the stage during a scene might make clearer the chronological and reverse chronological-telling of the story.”

I thought the same thing. Projections would have been more effective and less silly. (I laughed out loud at the first robot announcement. It reminded me of a department store elevator floor announcement.)

I'm not sure if someone has said it already, but some lyrics were updated, I'm assuming for cultural sensitivity. Some that popped out to me as having been rewritten were"if you once were a man" and "connected to the Gatti clan" in "Shiksa Goddess," and the "gay midget" in "Summer in Ohio" beingchanged to a dentist.

They also updated “these are the people who put Linda Blair in a musical” to Nene Leakes. (I was thinking they should have referenced Nick Jonas 😁)

I was also confused by the random guitarist who sat and played next to Nick during Moving Too Fast. It was another odd directorial move that was done only that one time. 

and why was Adrienne sitting on what I think was a miniature apartment building at the beginning and end of the show? 

Updated On: 3/26/25 at 01:24 PM

[dshnookie]

Posted: 3/26/25 at 10:53pm

Random question - I’ve been taking notice of the show’s Instagram stories, namely the curtain call videos.

In one, Nick in a white tee and black dress shoes

The next, white tee and barefoot

Followed by, white tee now under a blazer and white sneakers 

What’s going on with Nick’s final scene in the show to merit these nitpicky costume changes? 

[Kad]

Posted: 3/27/25 at 10:59am

As of Tuesday, he appears getting dressed in a suit during "I Can Do Better Than That" (Cathy helps him with his tie).

In "Nobody Needs to Know," he gets out of bed with a white tshirt, dress pants, and barefoot. He then stayed in that for the rest of the show.

Not sure why he'd have a blazer for the curtain call, unless he wanted to be less casually dressed for that. On Tuesday, there was no blazer, which made sense as it matched Adrienne's costume at that point.

Updated On: 3/27/25 at 10:59 AM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/28/25 at 6:40pm

Jordan Catalano said: "I believe the production itself might have a longer life, beyond these two."

If they're chasing after more non Jewish pop stars can I get David Archuleta as Jamie for a couple of weeks?

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/28/25 at 7:08pm

I think Jordan Donica or Isaac Cole Powell would be wonderful. 

[singer234]

Posted: 3/28/25 at 7:13pm

Andrew Barth Feldman may be a hair too young but would be so great.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/28/25 at 7:53pm

singer234 said: "Andrew Barth Feldman may be a hair too young but would be so great."

These characters are kind of deceptively young- Jamie is stated as being 23 at the start of the action. It would be interesting to see a production that leans into their youth in casting.

[someoneinatree2]

Posted: 3/28/25 at 9:21pm

I bet jonas is aware that curtain call is the lewk you see most on social media