fiveyears.txt

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Title: The Last Five Years - Echo Theatrical Productions
venue :: The Pleasance Dome
category :: Musicals and Opera
Review :: by Ed Stack
4 gold bats

Is a musical. It's rubbish. No, I only had to say that because
I have a prejudice against musicals.  Although I was thinking 
the worst by the end of the first song entitled 'I'm hurting' 
(oh God) this musical dialogue charting couples falling in and 
out of a marriage over five years wasn't actually bad at all, save 
for the fact that the usual criticism, based on the principle of 
less is more, that it could have worked just as well or better as
a play. This applies especially to the urban drama that it was, 
in no way an outlandish or exceptional circumstance, and 
therefore slightly incomprehensible why the need to glorify 
it with the soaring melodies and exaggerated posturing of the
musical genre. The sung arguments of often tense and complex 
content could have worked excellently in spoken dialogue was my 
feeling at the beginning.   

Is this the case with musicals? That the exaggeration over time of
the emotions felt, cause the writers to deem a larger than life, 
musical accompaniment necessary, to sate the magnitude of the 
sentiments, having brewed for, what, say five years? Is a musical,
a dustbin turned vehicle, for songs overly warped by a songwriters
individual life events, such that a play must be found to be fit 
around the songs? Was this suburban writer Jason Robert Brown's 
extended apology to a love he had left? 

Despite the evident heartbreak at the centre, the treatment of 
relationship breakdown is not unbalanced and refers to the mutual
heartbreak of a relationship breakdown owning in part to external
circumstances, at least that is where any sympathy for the male 
character comes from, who eventually cheats on his wife, and 
leaves her. The two leads were good.  At first I thought the guy
(Nadim Naaman) was going to annoy me with his clean cut appearance
and overly technical precision, the starched costume so often the
mark of dressing up a dull show - but he acted well, sang very 
well, and this clean image was in fact integral to a complex 
character, and was well juxtaposed later with the other side of
his character as shown in a bar after a few drinks. The ranging
melodies and ponderings on each other's and their own feelings 
gave the audience time to reflect on some of the problems which
come the way of outwardly 'successful' couples and no doubt 
struck a few chords early on for those members of the fringe's
inevitably middle class audience lucky enough to be happily 
married, and, later on, unlucky enough to have been through 
a hard break-up.   

When the affair rears its ugly head we realise the woman's lament
'I'm hurting' at the beginning of the play - which begins at the 
end rather than start of the last five years of their life - is 
proved not a foppish or overly naïve self-pity, but the result of
real effort lost on Cathy's part and the grounds for genuine 
sympathy. Hannah Wilding's acting was charming and suited the 
role admirably, making her status as the aggregate victim in the
situation realistic rather than pathetic, and while her singing 
voice was very sweet and pure (I much prefer it when these profess-
ionals go easy on the vibrato, as she did) she acted up the a 
winning sense of humour of her character which did just enough 
to guard Cathy from coming across as weak, as might be argued 
from the script. 

The music itself functions dramatically, for example, with different
styles for each character, which helps to highlight their gradual
divergence. The man is a big thinking author who has just had a big
break. Ambitious, bright eyed and bushy tailed, he is characterised
by Gershwinesque and show-tune flavour to his sung monologues, 
while his girlfriend's are more introspective ballads a la Jewel
or Katie Melua.

Overall the musical aspect made a difference from the thousands of 
other gritty urban dramas that vie for contention in the fringe's 
gargantuan schedule, and the ostentaciousness and confidence of the 
man as opposed to the sensitivity and love of the woman was most 
effectively relayed by the contrast in the musical styles. 

This leads me to finally lay aside 'despite' and say because of the 
music, and its intelligent dramatic function, we really did get the 
sense of a couple dealing with real people's problems, problems which
abound for young marriage in a world of 'success' which doesn't seem 
to be kind to relationships if one or other gets overly caught up in 
it.

The band (Anna Morrison, cello, Peter Randall Guitar, Tom Kelly Piano, 
Katie Sharp) deserve special mention for producing very high calibre 
performance.  This is no surprise when one realises they are highly 
qualified musicians - and needed to be to pull off a varied and often 
challenging Tony Award winning score. They did so with a profession-
alism that gave you the suspicion the ease with which they took to 
the songs was not mere performance but artistry!

By Ed Stack