Casting An Off-Broadway Revival of The Last Five Years Because Nobody Else Is

Courtesy of Radius-TWC

AKA 1,000+ words of Nickels geeking out over Jason Robert Brown and pretending she's qualified to be an Off-Broadway casting director. Huh. I indulge in my favorites way too much when I write this blog.

On my first blog entry, a commenter suggested I do a post about underrated movies and I was like "Ooh, that's a good idea!" Theeeeeen I realized that the last movie I watched in theatres was Pixar's Toy Story 4. Then before that, it was Smallfoot. Then Paddington 2, Boss Baby, Cars 3, and Paddington. Let me remind you that I'm the eldest child and I have two younger brothers, hence all the animated movies with the targeted audience of: not me. But I have to admit, I enjoyed Paddington series so much that I watched both movies at least three more times. No regrets though, that little bear is the cutest little guy ever.

Courtesy of Studio Canal
JUST LOOK AT HIM!!!

But besides that, the only movies that I have under my belt (and are not made for children ages 4 through 10) include The Shining, Arrival, and Million Dollar Baby, all of which are stunning movies but not underrated enough/at all for me to bring to this blog. But if you haven't seen all three of those films I HIGHLY recommend you check them out because they are top-notch. I could talk about all three of them all day.

As you can tell, I'm not a frequent movie-goer. I haven't even seen Infinity War nor Endgame. No, I'm not joking. I'm giving you five seconds to silently judge and shame me.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Wow, I can't believe you really think that about me. That hurt my feelings a little bit.

I'm just messing with you guys. But I digress. Back to what I was saying, I really wanted to give the people what they want and do a movie post. I'm planning to do one for a certain genre of movies for a certain time of year (wink wonk coming to you probably February of 2020), but I wanted to do one sooner. So here is a movie post. Kinda. It's more like an underrated musical-movie-movie musical-etcetera hybrid.

Courtesy of Ghostlight Records

The Last Five Years is my absolute favorite. I first discovered it as a musical through my voice teacher and I wouldn't stop listening to the Original Off-Broadway Cast Album (POWER DUO Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz as the leads). I also wouldn't stop belting each song ver. ba. tim in the middle of my kitchen at 11 pm. Sorry about that, mom and dad.

Courtesy of Richard Termine
L to R: Sherie Rene Scott, Norbert Leo Butz

Then I found out that it was turned into a movie and that it was on Netflix so you can imagine how shook to my core I was. Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan? Consider me sold. I bawled like a baby when I watched it for the first time with my mom.

Essentially, The Last Five Years is a fully sung-through musical: there is no dialogue in between, only music. You may be familiar with other sung-through musicals like Les Misérables or Hamilton, though sung-through shows aren't the majority of musicals. It's a love story between a young couple and their relationship as it is affected by the decisions they make and the state of success in their respective careers. 

If it feels like it sounds familiar, some people have found similarities between this film and La La Land. And now that I've told you that it's associated with La La Land, I guess I just revealed that yes, it has a sad ending. Oops. Spoiler alert. There's going to be a lot of spoilers in this post, but to be honest, there is no way I can explain the plot of this story without spoiling it.

What sets The Last Five Years apart from any other romance sob story is two major things. Firstly, the composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown creates such an intimate atmosphere by only having two characters in the ENTIRE show, Cathy Hyatt and Jamie Wellerstein, the couple.

Courtesy of Radius-TWC
L to R: Jeremy Jordan, Anna Kendrick

You're probably wondering, "Nickels, that didn't prove anything. It still sounds exactly like a regular cheesy romance movie."

Valid argument. But just wait.

Jason Robert Brown takes such a simple love story (actually inspired by his own love story) and but shakes it up a little. Despite only having only two characters, they virtually never appear on stage together because of the show's structure. Cathy sings her story backwards, from the end of their relationship to the beginning, while Jamie sings from beginning to end. The story isn't told in chronological order: Cathy starts off the show heartbroken with her chilling power ballad "Still Hurting" which is followed up by "Shiksa Goddess", where Jamie sings about all the Jewish women he's tried to be with (yes, Jamie is Jewish), then ultimately finding love with Cathy, who isn't Jewish (AKA Shiksa), when they were just a young couple.

The only time that Cathy and Jamie sing together is in "The Next Ten Minutes" when they meet in the middle of their story, their wedding day. AND THE ONLY LYRIC THEY EVER SING IN COMPLETE UNISON IS "I do " here, then "goodbye" in "Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You."

Cue the waterworks.

Anyway, given the structure, it doesn't translate the best into a screenplay, but I love the movie counterpart nonetheless. Director Richard LaGravenese does take a few creative liberties that I really love, like his use of color (if you watched that video, its the final song of the movie so notice how the color fades at the end and we see Cathy walking up the steps of their apartment: it takes us full circle and brings us exactly to the beginning of the movie) and his nods to the theatre community through cameos. He also took some routes that... I didn't love. But let me reiterate, ANNA KENDRICK AS CATHY HYATT AND JEREMY JORDAN AS JAMIE WELLERSTEIN. YES.

I could geek out more and talk about Jason Robert Brown's brilliant use of musical and lyrical themes throughout the show, but I promised myself I'd keep the gushing to a minimum. Can I even classify this whole mess as a "minimum" anymore? Whatever. Nevermind that. I'll just do it in another blog post. Look! A double post. Crazy!!

So I thought, "How do I make not just me blabbing about The Last Five Years for 5 minutes?" Well, this show was last revived Off-Broadway in 2013 with Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor, so hypothetically, it wouldn't be revived so soon. But this is my blog, I get to make the rules here and I decided that I'm going to cast another revival because I'm sELf InDuLGenT. We established that already, folks.

Eva Noblezada as Cathy Hyatt

Courtesy of Walter McBride

Eva is basically the opposite of Cathy, who is a failing actress desperately holding on to her relationship with Jamie but suffering from severe insecurities as she watches her husband succeed.

This two-time Tony nominee (MY QUEEN) already has a bunch of experience with sung-through musicals: Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, and currently Hadestown as Eurydice. When I saw her on Broadway as Kim in Miss Saigon back in 2017, I had my jaw dropped the entire time. Her talents are beyond words.

Just look here. Err, listen, I guess. AND YOU BETTER LISTEN WELL. Because did you hear how she was belting her heart out in "Gimme Gimme" from Thoroughly Modern Millie and then decided to completely flex on us plebs with her C6-E6 in "Phantom of The Opera." Her vocal versatility is absolutely on point and she's also quite possibly the cutest human being ever.

Derek Klena as Jamie Wellerstein

Courtesy of Walter McBride

I mean, how could I not? Did I mention this blog post was totally for my own pleasure? He's currently preparing for the Broadway premiere of Jagged Little Pill and his past credits include The Bridges of Madison County, another show with music written by Jason Robert Brown. So he's basically perfect for it.

Just listen to him singing "Moving Too Fast", one of Jamie's songs in The Last Five Years. I know you're convinced. You have to be. That riff on the lyric "full speed ahead"? COME OOOON!!

Out of all the universes in this huge expanse of space, there is going to be one where Derek will play Jamie Wellerstein, the young, famous, and somewhat egotistical Jewish author. I sure hope it's ours because I need to hear him singing "Nobody Needs To Know" before I die, please.

I feel like if he and Eva were paired together for this, it'd give off such a modern and edgy vibe to The Last Five Years—kinda like the Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Henry production—and I would pretty much give an arm and a leg for tickets.

Courtesy of Jenny Anderson
L to R: Joshua Henry, Cynthia Erivo

If someone at Broadway is reading this and wants to actually turn my dreams into a reality (as if) then you can 100% take the credit for this legendary duo I've created.

I just want to let you know that if you made it this far, I really appreciate you. Musicals and movie musicals aren't everybody's thing and if it isn't yours, I respect that! And I especially respect the fact you stayed for this whole ride.

If you want to listen to the Original Off-Broadway album here it is! There's also the movie soundtrack. Unfortunately, Netflix took the movie off of their site (THISMAKESMESOANGRYICANTBELIEVEITTHISISAPERSONALATTACK) but if you can buy it, rent it, get it at your local library, please check it out! But whatever you do, do not watch this pirated version I found on YouTube. Don't touch it. Wink. Wink.

"Goodbye Until Tomorrow",

Wait. that's not right.

Until next time,
Nickels :)