Since high school, my favorite musical has been The Last Five Years. The show follows a couple through their failed marriage on two separate timelines. Jamie moves forward, and Cathy’s account is backwards. The two never directly interact except for when their timelines intersect at their wedding.
I suspect I like it so much because it’s an autopsy of Cathy and Jamie’s relationship, and I love to snoop and psychoanalyze. Unlike other shows, the score is easy to follow without seeing it performed, so the storytelling aspect has my heart as well.
Well, The Last Five Years has been out for 25 years now, and in celebration, the show was revived into a concert that stops in London, New York City, and the Hollywood Bowl.
Luckily for me, my mom is a Ben Platt fan girl, so when Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler brought The Last Five Years 25th Anniversary Concert to Radio City Music Hall, she had her eyes on tickets before I even sent her the Playbill article.
The sold-out show was advertised as a concert, but this depiction was immediately shattered not a minute into the show, as Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler met in the middle of the stage and immediately kissed. While it was a surprise, given that TikTok commentary suggested going into the show thinking of it as a concert, I am incredibly glad that it was a full-fledged performance.
This was a fantastic choice and was supplemented by a wonderfully simple set that drove the story forward. I would go as far as to say that the staging and blocking choices of Platt and Zegler’s performance were far superior to those of the recent Broadway adaptation starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren.
I saw Jonas and Warren on Broadway at their closing show, where their two characters shared the stage together and interacted at inappropriate times, which was confusing and made the show hard to follow.
One of my favorite things about The Last Five Years is how we only see one side at a time. We don’t get to see Cathy or Jamie’s reactions to one another in real time, which emphasizes the miscommunication and the idea that there are two sides to every story. So, the Broadway adaptation was not only confusing, but I felt that it undermined the point of the show.
Beyond the impeccable staging, however, it was no surprise that vocal powerhouses Platt and Zegler did the score justice, adding new range to the songs.
Despite having listened to the album and available renditions of the score dozens of times, Zegler’s rendition of “I Can Do Better Than That” painted Cathy in a more deliberately desperate way, giving me new insights into the couple’s psychological makeup. Zegler comedically played into Cathy’s neediness, emphasizing that Cathy pushed Jamie for a relationship, more so than other Cathys who tend to take a more reserved approach to the role.
I liked her take on Cathy as a very enthusiastic, overbearing, and emotionally immature wannabe actress. It felt real and fun, but then a man had to go and ruin everything.
The show’s writer, Jason Robert Brown, directed and produced the concert. He even sat on stage as the pianist. Typically, this would be a very exciting and meaningful choice, but given that The Last Five Years was based on his own marriage, Jason Robert Brown’s presence made me question if he shifted the tone of the performance.
Under Brown’s shadow, Zegler’s emphatic Cathy felt like just another crazy woman, and Jamie played the victim.
While uber talented, Platt simply did not deliver the emotion behind Jamie, a repressively aggressive and egotistical character. His rendition was much softer and almost pitiful, which upset me because I hate siding with a man, especially a cheater.
When watching Jonas assume the role of Jamie, I was thrown into an angry frenzy watching him journey through his relationship. He portrayed Jamie as shallow and selfish. Platt’s take had me feeling bad for Jamie, which feels like a very forced choice by the man whom the character is based upon.
Perhaps I’m just a man-hater and cannot fully understand the motivations of dismissive cheating husbands, but Platt quite literally cowering after cheating on his wife and opting for a sad version of “Nobody Needs to Know” that ended with him half-heartedly banging on his chest, felt distortive of reality.
Ultimately, it is Brown’s show, and it was interesting to see and feel that this is how the characters were meant to be portrayed, even if I dislike and disagree with the implication that Jamie was at equal fault with Cathy.
While I harped on the acting of the performance, at the end of the day, it was a concert, and I cannot argue that the music was disappointing. The instrumentalists on the stage, even pianist Jason Robert Brown, played beautifully, and the vocals were nothing short of extraordinary. I mean, I’m critical, not crazy – Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler are incomprehensibly good singers.
It was truly a gift to see Zegler and Platt perform, especially given that it was one of my favorite shows. I’m excited to re-listen to the performance when a live recording is released on April 20th. Overall, the show was incredible, and it pushed my thinking about the characters, their relationship, and the true intent behind The Last Five Years.