Both musical and emotional, International City Theatre’s (ICT) streaming production of “The Last Five Years” plumbs the depths of love and marriage, but with a very unusual structure. Written and composed by Jason Robert Brown, the musical tells of a man and woman meeting, marrying, then drifting apart—alternating not only between his and her perspectives, but between the wistful end of a relationship and its inspired beginning.
Gabriela Carrillo brings her soaring voice to the role of Cathy, a struggling actress, with John Battagliese as the energetic Jamie, a writer whose novel finds early success. The play opens with Cathy packing a box of Jamie’s things after he has left their home, singing of her hurt. We then meet Jamie, crooning of being over-the-moon in love with Cathy after their first date five years earlier.
And so the story unfolds back and forth through time as we get to know how each character feels at different points in their relationship. They “meet” at their wedding about halfway through, after which Cathy’s songs continue backward to their first date and Jamie’s continue forward until he moves out. You can slice the poignancy with a butter knife by the end.
Brown’s ability to conjure so much emotion through clever lyrics and varying music (musical direction by Graham Sobelman), while characters are separated, works well with ICT’s production constraints. The two actors had to be filmed separately due to pandemic safety guidelines and then digitally combined against virtual backdrops.
Directed by Jamie Torcellini with video design by Jessie Vacchiano, we see and hear Cathy and Jamie in various well-designed virtual scenes—mostly New York apartments, streets, subways and parks—except for Cathy’s interlude in Ohio purgatory while acting in a painfully small production 40 miles outside Cincinnati. Costumes (designed by Kim DeShazo) vary as well, fitting each character’s situation, sometimes changing within a song.
While ICT’s technical crew expertly makes “The Last Five Years” visually engrossing, the two talented actors engage us emotionally through strong vocals—Carrillo’s is especially rich—and expressive delivery, especially Battagliese sparkling as Jamie.
We feel for both characters as they invest their hearts and hopes in each other—though at different times in the back-and-forth narration—and as they navigate the relationship’s dissolution. With the end at the beginning and beginning at the end, their bond becomes like a wedding ring that circles back on itself, forever enclosing the last five years.
International City Theatre’s “The Last Five Years” is available to stream on demand from June 3 through June 20, on every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (“dark” on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Tickets are $35 per household and can be purchased at ICTLongBeach.org.
