Web posted
May 24, 2007
A change of perspective
By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
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| Courtesy of Perseverance Theatre |
 The last five years: Flordelino Lagundino, left, and Salissa Cooper star in the second-stage play. |
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There are two sides to every five-year relationship and failed marriage. But what happens when you take those two sides, reverse one of them chronologically and let the stories play out in parallel but diverging paths and perspectives?
That's the structural premise of Jason Robert Brown's one-act musical, "The Last Five Years," a comedic analysis of romance between a highly successful writer (Jamie Wellerstein) and a struggling New York actress (Catherine Hiatt). Both are in their 20s.
As the play begins, Catherine chronicles the relationship backwards, end to beginning.
Jamie starts at the beginning and moves forward. They interact only for a duet in the middle - their engagement and wedding. The entire story is told in song.
"The Last Five Years" stars Salissa Cooper (the actress, Catherine Hiatt) and Flordelino Lagundino (the writer, Jamie Wellerstein) - both of whom were recently seen in the theater's spring production of "Tommy."
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Play
What: "The Last Five Years."
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, May 31-June 2; June 7-9.
Where: Perseverance Theatre's Phoenix stage.
Duration: 85 minutes, with no intermission.
Admission: $10.
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"They're both such strong singers, and both such strong actors, that you'll find the music starts to work for itself," director Colin Hovde said. "It's really quite beautiful. Really good music, when it's written well, it just takes you on a ride."
Hovde is a freelance director and producer in Washington, D.C. He recently completed the Kenan Fellowship at The Kennedy Center. He was in Juneau in early 2006 as the assistant director for the theater's main-stage production of "The Crucible" and the lead director for the second-stage running of "Tape."
Hovde has never seen a staging of the play. He was turned on to the story when he heard a classmate sing a few of the songs during vocal classes at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
"The songs are catchy and really pretty amazing," Hovde said. "I've always been fascinated by theater pieces that play with dramatic form and have a different way of approaching the structure of telling story.
"It's a very intimate and personal story, and it hits very close to home," he said.
Brown has been dubbed one of the smartest up-and-coming songwriters on Broadway. "The Last Five Years" won a Drama Desk Award for Best Music and Beat Lyrics after it premiered in Chicago in 2001.
Brown's ex-wife actually threatened to sue him before the play premiered, Hovde said. As part of their divorce settlement, she made him agree not to write about their relationship.
"He had to change two or three songs, but you can see that it's still a very personal story for him," Hovde said.
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