MANSFIELD – The ending of the emotional powerhouse musical, “The Last Five Years,” is laid bare at the very beginning.
The opening number of the show finds Cathy, a struggling actress, mourning the end of her marriage to Jamie, a rising novelist. The next song immediately cuts to Jamie, beyond ecstatic to have finally met the love of his life and the woman he could imagine marrying someday, Cathy. Yes, you read that correctly.
This sort of emotional whiplash lays the foundation for 75 minutes of storytelling through the performances of Matti-Lynn Chrisman and Ryan Shreve in the Theatre 166 production of “The Last Five Years,” playing for this weekend only.
As director Ryan Shealy tells it, the plot of “The Last Five Years” is relatively basic as it follows a couple’s relationship, but unfolds in the most unconventional way.
“We follow each member of the pair in a separate timeline – Cathy goes from the end to the beginning, Jamie from the beginning to the end,” Shealy said. “I’m in love with the storytelling of it…this is the first time I realized a musical didn’t have to be story A to B, you could jump around and spend more time with the characters.”
As its title suggests, the musical follows Cathy and Jamie through five years of ups and downs in their relationship. The characters live on opposite timelines except for one song in the middle of the show, where they finally sing together as the timelines intersect.
“This is one of the perfect shows for a black box space because it does take place outside of time,” Shealy said. “The focus is meant to be on the emotion, and not on the spectacle.”
It’s quite the lift for Chrisman and Shreve, who each sing six solos as well as two duets for a total of 14 songs. But both agree each has been a dream role.
“It’s always been a dream role for me, but I had no idea I’d get to play it so soon,” Shreve said. “Anything by Jason Robert Brown is pretty stunning musically, and I’ve always wanted to play Jamie for a long time.”
Chrisman was first introduced to Cathy and “The Last Five Years” in order to grow her voice while studying musical theatre at Kent State University. What started as a homework assignment quickly turned into a passion.
“I learned the rest of Cathy’s songs because they were awesome and they were perfect for me in a way that I was able to share real life with her, and when I acted as Cathy I had real reinforcement behind it because her and I share a lot of similar traits,” Chrisman said.
“And I think it’s really cool that Ryan and I get to do this together, because we both always wanted to do it and getting to do it with one of our really good friends (Shealy) is just perfect.”
Chrisman and Shreve last appeared in a show together during “Mamma Mia!” this past March, when an on-stage romance as Sophie and Sky spilled over into real life. This time, they’re taking precautions to make sure that “acting residue” doesn’t happen again.
“We made a pact at the beginning of this to not bring stuff home with us,” Shreve said. “It’s not method, per se, but a little bit of your character always comes home with you. No matter what show I’m doing, I always find some things coming back with me or I sound like a certain character.”
“We talked about it beforehand and we knew we needed to be hyper-aware of if we get into an argument, is this Cathy and Jamie arguing? Is this spillover?” Chrisman added. “It can be kind of difficult, but we both know it’s not real. And our relationship is nothing like their relationship.”
In fact, Chrisman and Shreve’s relationship with each other and with Shealy has proven extremely valuable in a shortened rehearsal time. The cast officially started rehearsals on Oct. 14 – one day after the closing of “Sweeney Todd” at Theatre 166 – and the show opens 11 days later on Oct. 25.
“It’s been fun because you feel at ease when you come in – we don’t feel the need to impress each other because we know what we can do, but sometimes it is hard to make that switch and be like OK, we have to do work now,” Shealy said. “I don’t think we could do this in such a short time without having the relationship we all have, because we have built-in trust already and we can jump in and get the work done and make something great.”
Both Chrisman and Shreve believe that a little communication could have extended Cathy and Jamie’s relationship well beyond five years. But just because we know the tragic ending doesn’t mean the story isn’t worth telling.
“I hope that when people come to see this show they evaluate their relationships a little bit more closely and see how they’re treating people, see the other person’s side of things a little better,” Shreve said.
“Because you are told at the very beginning that this relationship didn’t last, I think you automatically start to try to put the pieces together as an audience member and try to figure out why, and start to put the blame on someone,” Shealy said. “Hopefully by the time you get to the actual end, you see the blame doesn’t really matter, it’s the journey and the good times these people shared that turned them into other people.
“That’s ultimately what it’s about, two people that sadly outgrow each other.”
This story is brought to you in part by the Renaissance Theatre. For more information on upcoming shows, visit www.rentickets.org.
“The Last Five Years” at Theatre 166 will be performed October 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. and October 27 at 3 p.m. The production is part of the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center Black Box Series.
Tickets are $25 and are on sale now at the Renaissance Box Office, via phone at (419) 522-2726, and online at RenTickets.org. “The Last Five Years” is sponsored by Coffy Creations Photography and Nanogate Jay Systems, LLC.
