Poetry Friday: Moving Too Fast by Jason Robert Brown

I would love to be in this production someday. If I didn't have the role of Kathy, I'd want to direct it.

The Last Five Years has a cast of two. The man, Jamie, is a hopeful writer; the woman, Kathy, is a struggling actress. This is the story of their relationship, from meeting and dating to marriage - and the dissolution of that marriage.

Jason Robert Brown created something extremely emotional. First of all, 95% of the story is told in soliloquies, but I call them songologues because they are sung. Then he added another twist: the characters are moving in opposite directions on the timeline. Kathy starts the play with a song about Jamie's leaving, so she's at the end of the marriage, but then Jamie sings, and it's five years earlier and they are having their first date. As she tells her story in reverse, he moves forward, so they meet halfway through, during the proposal and wedding. This song, The Next Ten Minutes, is their only duet. The play ends with Jamie leaving, singing about how he could never rescue Kathy, so sad, and with Kathy arriving home after their first date, singing about how amazing everything is, so happy, so hopeful.

I discovered this online last year, thanks to Google Videos and YouTube, which showed me the first Chicago production with Lauren Kennedy and Norbert Leo Butz. When the show moved to Off-Broadway, Lauren was in South Pacific, so the role went to Sherie Rene Scott. It's Sherie and Norbert you'll hear on the official soundtrack. I prefer Lauren.

Oh, and you may see different spellings of Kathy and Cathy because the name was changed from Kathleen to Kathy between Chicago and Off-Broadway - Brown's ex-wife noted some similarities between herself and the character - and I'll be darned if any website or anything spells it the same way twice. ;-)

Oddly enough, another of my coveted roles is also Kathy - Singin' in the Rain.