Thursday, March 28, through Sunday, April 7
The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
A lauded stage work in which, according to the New York Times, “music, words, and performance meld into a spectrum of clashing emotions” and composer Jason Robert Brown “confirms his sparkling facility as a composer, fluidly mixing diverse styles,” The Last Five Years plays locally in a March 28 through April 7 presentation at Moline's Black Box Theatre, the two-character piece described by Variety as “bittersweet and nearly perfect.”
Named one of Time magazine's 10 best plays of 2001 and winner of a Drama Desk Award, The Last Five Years is an intimate yet emotionally powerful musical about two New Yorkers in their twenties who fall in and out of love over the course of five years. The story explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress, and Brown's telling of the tale employs a form of storytelling in which Cathy's story is told in reverse chronological order (beginning the show at the end of the couple's marriage), and Jamie's is told in chronological order (starting just after the couple have first met). The characters do not directly interact except for a wedding song in the middle as their timelines intersect, and in the years since The Last Five Years' debut, the show has enjoyed professional and regional successes nation- and worldwide, as well as a 2014 film adaptation starring Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick and Tony nominee Jeremy Jordan.
Directing The Last Five Years for the Black Box Theatre is the company's co-founder David M. Miller, who previously helmed such musicals as Baby, Rock of Ages, and Clue: The Musical for the venue. Its two-person cast is composed of Zach Hendershott and Kathryn Jecklin, the former a veteran of the Black Box's Next to Normal and Quad City Music Guild's Willy Wonka, and the latter from the Black Box's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the Circa '21 Speakeasy's The Rocky Horror Show. (Kailey Ackermann, of Quad City Music Guild's Annie and Into the Woods, will portray Cathy in the March 31 and April 5 presentations.) And with Argus/Dispatch entertainment writer Jonathan Turner serving as The Last Five Years' music director and keyboardist, the show's live band will also boas Michael Wahlmann on cello and Josephine Trenary on violin.
The Last Five Years runs March 28 through April 7 with performances on Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., admission is $16, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 or visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
