THE LAST FIVE YEARS Previews — Page 5

I was today's matinee and sat two rows behind Jason Robert Brown (actually two unrelated points, we were both at the same performance of Old Friends later in the day.)

Anyway, going into seeing it I was most concerned about Nick Jonas as an actor. He's not a great performer in a musical theater context, but given my low expectations him being fine was good news. Jonas seemed most comfortable on stage when he had choreography to perform, he's much less convincing seeming naturalistic doing normal mundane activities around the house. I didn't buy him as Jewish but I bought a ticket assuming that would be the case and am not going to get hung up on it.

Adrienne Warren I thought was acting circles around the part she was given. Cathy is underwritten. 50% of the show is supposed to be from her perspective but her defining personality traits are being unhappy about her career direction and wanting Jamie to pay more attention to her. That still sounds like Jamie's perspective, not Cathy's.

The biggest problem though was I just confused what was going on most of the time. For context, I've listened to the soundtrack a bunch of times, like many of the songs, but never seen the movie or a stage production. So for example during Nobody Needs To Know, based on the lyrics it sounds like Jamie had just cheated on Cathy, but since its staged with Jamie talking to an invisible woman in bed, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be Cathy or another woman like the book editor he's talking to.

If you've never seen The Last Five Years before and want to go, I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia page first. The insert telling you what year a song is taking place didn't fill in the narrative holes.

Art Isn’t Easy said: "I disagree with the majority of comments about the production itself, I thought White’s direction was intelligent and sure-handed throughout - there really isn’t *that* much you can do with this thing, it’s a vehicle for the songs, but I actually loved the new setting for The Next Ten Minutes and thought the design (especially the stunning lighting) was right on."

How is her direction sure-handed when it throws out the entire conceit of the structure of the show? It's entirely the opposite. She didn't trust the material enough to let it speak in the way it was intended. Yeah yeah JRB is involved and blessed it and blah blah blah. Doesn't mean it doesn't take a lot of the magic away from the jump.

It seems like a lot of people have an idea in their head of what this show was/is supposed to be when fully producer onstage that's not necessarily been historically true for its past productions-and I'm thinking that really, the issue is a lot of people have just never seen a fully staged production of this show before outside the film version. I'm not saying that's the case for everyone and that the criticisms aren't valid, but the show is the show....seems to me a lot of complaints about the directorial confusion are baked into the material itself. Now, this production may not do a good job at all of clarifying that, but I see a lot of complaining from Gen Z'ers on TikTok about how it's not faithful to the structure of the narrative when they were toddlers during the Second Stage off Bway production, let alone the original. Maybe it just doesn't translate that well to a fully staged production in terms of narrative. Or maybe this one sucks, or maybe both are a little true.

This was … a mixed bag, for me. As much as I love this score, this has never been a great musical. It’s more so a great showcase for two talented performers and on that level, the production (mostly) succeeds.

Come for Nick Jonas, stay for Adrienne Warren. He does, indeed, get stronger as the show goes on, but he has some real struggles enunciating and just isn’t a very good actor. (The sound design is spotty and doesn’t help, to be fair.) Unsurprisingly, Adrienne fares much, much better. Damn, she can sing (even if she is somewhat miscast).

Agree that the direction is uneven (and I love Whitney White, generally). The orchestra sounded phenomenal. The revised lyric mentioning NeNe Leakes really sent me into orbit.

All that aside, what an awful audience. I swear, no less than twenty people in my sightline got up and down for bathroom breaks throughout the 95 minute running time. (IN THE MIDDLE OF SONGS!) Lots of cell phones / talking, etc. The TikTok girlies just do not understand proper theater etiquette, I fear. Broadway ushers have their work cut out for them these days.

Updated On: 4/6/25 at 09:53 PM

This is the best revival on Broadway and why aren’t we talking about Adrienne Warren wining the Tony?

I’ve read this thread from day one: production and Nick have gotten tighter and exceeded my expectations for both. I know this piece inside and out, so I had no problem following (…and are we so dumb as a people that this would be difficult to follow without a previous reference)?

Nick is very very good. Better than that, really, he’s just not able to play against the hottest firebrand on Broadway. He won me over until Nobody Needs to Know, just so wilted.

I’ve said I really wanted a black woman to dig into this role. Cynthia killed for her one night, but clearly needed time with it. Adrienne has lived with this role. Her octave choices…worked, so incredibly GDW! Her choice to make this more of a variable circumstance…worked. Jamie is still the asshole, but Adrienne made me focus on the fact that they’re both assholes, really.

This was easily my favorite revival of the year. I want Adrienne to get her second Tony. She is a true Shiksa Goddess.

Updated On: 4/5/25 at 11:48 PM