Second Stage revival of The Last 5 Years

[Phillytheatreguy10]

Who would you like to see cast? I have a girl in mind, but can't pinpoint a guy. So my pick for Kathy is Anneliese Van Der Pol! Yep its a trend! Annaleigh Ashford would rock it out too!

[suspendabledisbelief]

I though Caissie Levy would make a good Cathy.

[bjh2114]

This couldn't happen since he's signed on for Cinderella, but I think Santino Fontana would be perfection in the role.

[Wynbish]

^ THIS! This this this!

I don't know if he can riff like Norbert, but he's a great singer and has the look.

There was a plea going around tumblr and Twitter for a Laura Osnes/Steve Kazee version.

[Jordan Catalano]

I can see Will Chase being very good in this.

[somethingwicked]

Betsy Wolfe and either Steve Kazee or Santino Fontana would be the best possible casting for this production, though all three of them are unavailable.

[Wynbish]

Him, too!

Wesley Taylor could sing the stuffing out of it!

[RippedMan]

Please. It's 2nd. It's not going to be some dream casting.

[JohnyBroadway]

Matt Doyle could probably sing the crap out Jamie too. What about Celia Keenan Bolger?

[Jon]

Will Chase is way too old and doesn't read Jewish at all. Jamie has lines about being in his 20's.

[Jordan Catalano]

Ah, you're right.

[somethingwicked]

Jamie ages from 23 to 28 over the course of the story. Cathy ages from 26 to 31, though her part of the narrative is obviously told in reverse chronological order.

[Wynbish]

Cathy's a shiksa cougar? Nice!

[Jordan Catalano]

Paging Miss Stritch!

[JBroadway]

I would pay an infinite amount of money to see Stritchie do Climbing Uphill

[jdrye222]

Santino is a nice idea. The trick with LAST FIVE YEARS is that they have to be FANTASTIC actors... not just singers. Norbert and Sherie were magical perfection in every way. It's going to be hard to match that.

I know if I were the casting director, I'd want on my short list:

Robb Sapp (1st choice... he's underworked and very talented)
Santino Fontana

[Jon]

The main trick of casting (and direction) is that Jamie must be lovable, despite being a self-absorbed, insensitive asshole.

[After Eight]

This show is so bad it doesn't matter who they cast.

The more pressing question is why is Second Stage reviving it?

[Jordan Catalano]

Oh, you didn't like it?

I'm shocked.

[After Eight]

^

Uhhhhh, it ran a whopping two months off-Broadway.

Who DID like it?

Even Glory Days was more tolerable.

[Jordan Catalano]

Oh, and that's a fact?

[After Eight]

^

That it ran two months?

Absolutely.

That even Glory Days was more tolerable?

Well..........

Absolutely!

[mamaleh]

I agree that Will Chase is probably not the best choice, but only because he's a bit too mature. But I posit that there's no such thing as "reading" this way or that. If Caissie Levy can be suggested as the "shiksa goddess," certainly all bets are off.

Do/did Paul Newman, Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Rudd, Natalie Portman, Selma Blair and Jackie Hoffman all look alike? Hardly. A few years ago I saw Colin Hanlon as Jamie at George St., and he was wonderful in the role. Let's just let actors act.

[dtzumbrunnen]

Ummm.... Didn't it open within a few weeks of 9/11? Pretty sure that's a big factor in why there wasn't a longer initial run.

[DeNada]

Regardless of your personal feelings about LAST FIVE YEARS as a show, I think a revival makes a lot of sense. Yes, it's probably a cult musical (and we all know how well those go down when revived...) but it's a pretty big cult. JRB and the show are much better known than they were back in the day, and this will presumably be on a smaller scale again than the original production - the theatre has 100 fewer seats, for one (unless this is supposed to play the Helen Hayes in 2013?).

I think it will be as much of a commercial success as is possible for Second Stage to have.

Of course I like the show so I am bound to be biased towards it, but I genuinely think it's a sensible programming decision financially.

[Wynbish]

What about Colin Donnell?