The Last 5 Years, written and directed by Jason Robert Brown, is a love story with an unusual structure that has been seen all over the world, with its London premiere at The Menier Chocolate Factory in 2006.
Cathy and Jamie are a young couple in New York; set in the nineties but with no particular ties to the decade, it’s a familiar story of a young couple falling in and out of love over a half decade. The way The Last 5 Years is told is what makes it unique, Jamie’s story starts at the beginning, moving forward, while Cathy’s starts at the end and moves backward.
Playing Cathy, Samantha Barks is a delight to watch and listen to, she is fast becoming (if not already) musical theatre royalty, and it’s not hard to see why. Her superb vocal talents would be enough to carry the show, but her emotional performance is just as beautiful.Jonathan Bailey was born to be a leading man; he has an undeniable talent that endeared him to the audience within minutes. Despite playing ‘Jamie,’ a somewhat self-obsessed character, Bailey lifts every redeeming feature and brings it front and centre so that the audience are in the palm of his hands. He has the gift of being able to tell a story through a natural physicality; ‘The Schmuel Song’ is a wonderful example that was utterly spellbinding to watch.
The Last 5 Years allows us to view a tragic love story from each end of the spectrum, that first flush to the bitter end, but we also see it in reverse order which seems to make it all the more heartbreaking. Exquisite performances from both Samantha Barks and Jonathan Bailey make this production an indisputable triumph.
