Verity Hunt-Ballard as Cathy and Josh Piterman as Jamie in 45 Dowstairs’ The Last Five Years. Photograph by James Terry Photography.
Jason Robert Brown’s two-hander musical The Last Five Years is very popular. Since premiering Off Broadway in 2002 this intimate show about the disintegration of a relationship between a successful writer and a struggling actor has been performed all over the world, including several Australian productions. It was revived in New York a few years ago and received a film adaptation by director Richard LaGravenese in 2014. This latest production comes from The Vic Theatre Company and features local music theatre stars Verity Hunt-Ballard (Mary Poppins, Sweet Charity) and Josh Piterman (Cats, West Side Story).
Cathy’s (Hunt-Ballard) story begins at the end of the relationship with the melancholy ‘Still Hurting’ whilst Jamie’s (Piterman) first song ‘Shiksa Goddess’ details the couple’s happy beginnings. Song by song and scene by scene the story progresses both forwards and backwards as Jamie deals with the sudden fame thrust upon him after his debut novel is published and as Cathy tries to make a living as an actor, slowly fading into the background and coming to resent her partners fame. The two characters timelines briefly intersect in the middle of the piece when they decide to get married in the romantic duet ‘The Next Ten Minutes.’ It’s a clever way to tell this particular story and demands a lot from the two lead performers.
Any production of The Last Five Years relies on the chemistry and talent of the actors playing Cathy and Jamie. This is a well written musical with a celebrated contemporary score so it’s pretty hard to muck it up. Thanks to the dedicated and nuanced work of Hunt-Ballard and Piterman this new production mostly succeeds.
As Cathy, award winning performer Hunt-Ballard is sensational. She sings with gusto, nails the humour in the role – her various audition scenes are hilarious – and traces Cathy’s journey with skill and great attention to detail. Her hammy performance of ‘A Summer in Ohio’ is a highlight, greatly assisted by Michael Ralph’s appropriately cheesy staging, and her emotional transition from being devastated in ‘If I Didn’t Believe in You’ to giddiness in the glorious ‘I Can Do Better Than That’ in a matter of seconds demonstrates just how versatile an actor she is.
Piterman starts off a bit shaky as Jamie. He is handsome and charming but his operatic tenor isn’t that well suited to the material. Piterman does eventually find his feet dramatically and his voice definitely hits all the right notes. He has good chemistry with Hunt-Ballard and the two are totally believable as a pair of lovers. The sarcastic ‘A Miracle Would Happen’ is delivered in a refreshingly conversational way and allows the audience some insight into Jamie’s personality and state of mind. However, his final solo ‘Nobody Needs to Know’ is overwrought and goes on too long.
It’s a shame that these two solid performances are let down by less successful production elements. The set looks like it came straight out of an Ikea catalogue; several connected shelves littered with lamps, photo frames and other apartment trinkets hang over a drab double bed, which is wheeled in and out of at various times throughout the show. It all looks a bit unnecessarily crowded and most of the time serves no obvious narrative purpose. The placement of the central stage area within the versatile 45 Downstairs floor space doesn’t really allow for discreet offstage wings leading to some slightly awkward and distracting entrances and exits.
The other major issue with this Last Five Years is the sound design. The music sounds tinny and not at the correct level in the overall mix. For a show that is almost completely sung through this is quite disappointing, especially when the band sounds so great (when you can hear them). Also, why have them hidden behind a curtain for the performance? Perhaps having the band positioned on or around the stage area might have eliminated these sound issues. It was great that the musicians came onstage for a bow at the curtain call; this is something I’d like to see more of, but if we can’t really hear them properly during the show the gesture becomes a bit moot.
After producing wonderful seasons of Loving Repeating and The 25th Annual Putman Company Spelling Bee over the last few years this latest production from Vic Theatre is a slight misstep for the company. Still it’s hard not to enjoy this wonderful modern classic when the cast assembled here is so accomplished and captivating.
Rating: 3 Stars out of 5
The Last Five Years
Written and Composed by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Chris Parker
Musical Direction by Daniel Puckey
Featuring Verity Hunt-Ballard and Josh Piterman
45 Downstairs, Melbourne
25 November – 11 December 2016​
