‘Last Five Years’ a unique drama on rise, fall of a relationship

Harlequin Productions’ staging of Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years,” opening Thursday, takes the bidirectional musical in a new direction.

The show tells the story of Cathy and Jamie’s relationship from their first meeting to the end of their marriage, with a twist: As Jamie sings his side of the story from beginning to end, Cathy sings hers from end to beginning.

“They are only singing to each other, and with each other, in that moment when he proposes to her and they get married,” said Linda Whitney, the show’s director and Harlequin’s artistic director. “They do cross paths there, and the promises and all the hopes and wishes and the romance are shared in that number.”

This production’s twist on the already inventive script: The show’s stars are also its musical directors and pianists. Harlequin stalwart Aaron Lamb and Katherine Strohmaier of Seattle accompany each other throughout the 90-minute one-act show.

“That adds an element to the relationship,” Whitney said.

So does the actors’ history together. The two are longtime friends. It was Lamb, who both acts and directs for the company, who suggested that Whitney cast Strohmaier and that the two could serve as each other’s pianists.

“I would never have thought that up on my own,” Whitney said, laughing. “ ‘I want you people to not only sing it, but also accompany each other.’ But since they wanted to do that to themselves, I’m supporting them.”

The duo worked together on the music for a few weeks before they began rehearsing with Whitney — and they even sang it together long ago.

“When we were roommates a decade ago in Jersey City (New Jersey), we had bookshelves full of musical theater scores and would pull one out and sometimes play and sing through an entire show,” said Strohmaier, an adjunct professor at Cornish College whose vast performing credits include singing with the Seattle Symphony. “We realized while playing through ‘The Last Five Years’ that we could feasibly do a production wherein we were the actors and musicians.”

To complement the unusual approach to the show, Whitney is keeping the staging simple and even abstract. The piano will move from place to place on the company’s 24-foot revolve, and projections will set the scenes.

Playing Cathy, who moves backward in time, felt daunting at first, Strohmaier said in an email interview this week.

“At this moment in the process, I’m working on isolating each vignette to distill it to what’s happening at that phase of the relationship,” she said.

Whitney said she’s come to appreciate how much the unusual structure adds to the production.

“When we follow a love story, we tend to overlook the individual experiences of the two partners,” she said. “In this play, the individual experiences are explored more thoroughly. It’s a more thoughtful look at the road map of the relationship.”

This also adds poignancy, she said.

“When we come to the end of the piece, she is at the beginning of falling in love with him, and he has just written her a goodbye note,” she said. “They’re actually both in the same place of anticipation and longing and fear.

“It’s a really interesting moment, when we already know everything that has happened and is going to happen to her.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 12:24 PM with the headline "‘Last Five Years’ a unique drama on rise, fall of a relationship."