The Last 5 Years (2002 Off-Broadway Cast)
Jason Robert Brownburst on the musical-theater scene with a bang when his first Broadway show,Parade, won the Tony for original score in 1999. This new offering is more modest in scale thanParade, but it allows Brown to refine his skills. A two-character, one-act play,The Last 5 Yearsretraces a relationship through a complex structure that involves varying viewpoints and a chronology that unfurls backward and forward. Brown himself plays the piano and leads a small ensemble, while Norbert Leo Butz (Thou Shalt Not) and Sherie René Scott (Aida) sing the composer's heartbreaking melodies. Brown's lyrics need a bit of work (he can be oddly crass at unexpected moments), but he knows how to write songs that incorporate a pop sensibility and a distinctly theatrical narrative drive. That in itself is quite an achievement.--Elisabeth Vincentelli