Review: THE LAST 5 YEARS at Fulton Theatre

The Fulton’s current production of The Last 5 Years reminds me of lyrics from the musical, Gypsy…

“Do something special. Anything special

You're more than just a mimic. When you got a gimmick,

Take a look how different we are!”

The gimmick of The Last 5 Years is that the story is told simultaneously forwards and backwards by the two character cast of Catherine (Carrie St. Louis) and Jamie (David Toole).  In and of itself, playing around with a timeline can be a very rewarding and poignant choice.  It’s almost impossible not to compare the show to Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along!  However, Merrily has several advantages that makes it work for me, a lot better.

First, Merrily takes place over twenty years, not five.  There are extensive opportunities for significant growth and change over that long of a period of time.  In contrast, there are probably a lot of people who haven’t totally cleaned out their refrigerator in five years.  The inherent dramatic stakes are not just as high.

Secondly, 5 Years makes the unfulfilling choice of having the show be mostly a game of theatrical ping-pong.  First one character has a monologue or sings a solo, then the other.  Back and forth.  Back and forth. The two only really share the stage halfway through the show during their wedding scene.  It is challenging for the audience to develop much empathy or appreciation for them as a cohesive couple when they are overwhelmingly alone in their thought and words.

Lastly, and most importantly, Merrily is very deliberate in calling back to lyrics, melodies, props and phrases that take on new meaning and provide additional insight as the story develops.  5 Years does this very superficially, if at all.  For example, why does Catherine take Jamie’s electric guitar down off the wall and pack it up?  I was anticipating, at some point, he would serenade her with it.  Yet this never happens.  I’m not even positive that he plays the guitar.  This was just one of the show’s many Checkovian guns never fired or even pointed at someone.

Both St. Louis and Toole have fantastic voices. The five-piece orchestra was energetic and immediate. It is a shame that they were all wasted on songs that are largely unremarkable. 

Fulton has done some remarkable small-scale musicals on their fourth-floor stage. Shows like Next to Normal and Five Guys Named Moe easily prove that not every show needs to have a big cast or a bigger budget to be entertaining and engaging.  Unfortunately, The Last 5 Years isn’t in that same category for me.

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