The Last Five Years - Review

St James Theatre, London


****


Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Jason Robert Brown

Samntha Barks and Jonathan Bailey

At the heart of almost every musical is the progression and development of a love story that can be often entwined with twists, turns and sub plots. Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years however goes further than that, offering an audience the ambitious conceit of focussing solely upon the relationship itself and how, before their eyes, it simultaneously both forms and unravels.  

Opening with two lovers sharing a kiss, for Samantha Barks' Cathy, an aspiring actress it is her tragic last, while for writer Jamie, played by Jonathan Bailey it is a trepidatious first. And thereby hangs the bittersweet time-bending vortex of Brown's work. As his show plays out, Jamie's story runs forward in time, watching the relationship grow and then decay, as Cathy's perspective is in reverse, opening with the couple parting as their marriage ends – their two timelines only tanatalisingly coinciding at the "half-way" moment of their wedding day - and her story ending on the heartbreaking excitement of newly discovered love.

Both Barks and Bailey are magnificent, mastering the show's anti-romantic chemistry. With only the pivotal wedding day scene pitching them opposite each other in real time, rarely do they elsewhere even share the stage, with the plot's developments and its roller-coaster of emotions typically being played out in alternating solo numbers.

Barks tackles Brown's complex score with ease. Arguably as good as it gets, Barks' take on I Can Do Better Than That is a highlight of the evening, truly defining her as one of today's leading ladies. Equally, Bailey's quasi-autobiographical Jamie bursts onto the stage like a ball of fizzing testosterone, nailing the outer-cool veneer that masks a molten tumult of desire. The pair's comic moments come naturally, even when least expected, with the honesty in both Barks' and Bailey's work making the contrasts of heartbreak and hysteria even more poignant. 

In a rare treat for the capital, Brown himself has crossed the Atlantic to direct his work with an incisive precision. The set-up is clear from the beginning with a progression that is so carefully constructed that each step of this love story really leaves one wanting to discover the next chapter. For sure, Brown's beautifully detailed score does a lot of the work for the actors, but with the man himself directing, every nuance is sweetly elicited. 

For the most part the show is enhanced by Derek McLane's design. Two simple sets of typical New York window panes creating the sense of separation. Annoyingly though, other pieces of scenery awkwardly squeak their way on stage and are a minor distraction. 

Any score with such complex melodies demands a musical director that can give it life and with his 6 piece band. Torquil Munro does exactly that. With the majority of stand-alone numbers exceeding 5 minutes and limited text, The Last Five Years is no mean feat for both its actors and musicians alike. 

Already extended to December and with a stellar cast and the writer himself directing, this production of The Last Five Years is an exquisite display of musical theatre performance. A show for both connoisseurs and fans alike and not to be missed.

Runs until 3rd December
Photo credit: Scott Rylander

Something Rotten! - Review

St James Theatre, New York


****


Music and lyrics by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick
Book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell
Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw

Brad Oscar and  Rob McClure

Readers with sharp memories will recall that Mel Brooks' The Producers begins on Broadway outside the opening night of Max Bialystock's latest show Funny Boy, A Musical Version Of Hamlet. So….fast forward to today and Something Rotten! is born of a similar mock-Shakespeare stable. Set in that cliched world of olde Elizabethan England that many Americans believe still exists on the other side of the Atlantic it's all ruffs, Tudor beams and, for British readers of a certain age, a bit of an American take on Carry On Shakespeare.

We meet the Bottom Brothers (Rob McClure and Josh Grisetti), two playwrights continually frustrated with living in Shakespeare's shadow. Nick Bottom is desperate, just for once, to trump the Bard at writing, so cheatingly consults soothsayer Nostradamus (fabulous work from Brad Oscar) asking what Shakespeare's greatest hit will be.

Nostradamus informs Bottom that not only will Shakespeare's greatest hit be a show called "Omelette" (think about it….), but that also, in the future, audiences will enjoy a new theatrical genre to be known as “musical”. This lead in not only allows Oscar to steal the show’s first half with the irresistibly funny number A Musical that sends up most of the classic Broadway shows brilliantly, it also sets the the scene for the Bottom Brothers to set about creating Omelette – The Musical.

From there flows a string of corny gags as the show references classic Shakespeare quotes and misquotes and much like Mel Brooks' creation of a preening pouting Fuhrer in Springtime For Hitler, so too do Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick send up Will Chase’s William Shakespeare even further by camping him up as a leather clad sex god, bestriding the stage reciting suggestive sonnets.

The show’s melodies are memorable for their style and the dance routines are superb. The script however, is no Spamalot. Whilst there's a modicum of wit in Shakespeare's self-proclamation that he "put the I Am into iambic pentameter" it's extinguished by the Ensemble telling Nick Bottom "Don't be a penis, the man is a genius". Oh, and the act one closer has that bottom-scraper of a title, Bottom's Gonna Be On Top. Classy, not.

Of course no one in modern theatre knows better than Nicholaw how to put on a show. The dance work is lavish and stunningly drilled and the theatre was packed with Americans who for the most part were sobbing with laughter. Packed with industry references and in-jokes, if you know your musical theatre, you’ll love the show. And confessing a guilty secret…this Brit really rather liked it too.

On Broadway until December, and then touring across the USA

Photo credit: Joan Marcus