A Note from the Director:
In the play you are about to watch, there is the tale told of an old tailor named Schmuel who, with the help of a magic clock, hems his past and sews shut the gaping holes in his heart.
Sadly, it's only a fairy tale.
This is not a play about divorce. That's the first thing you need to know. Yes, it follows the construction and dissolution of a marriage between two likable and charismatic artists on two separate timelines, his from beginning to end and hers from end to beginning, and does so in truly spectacular and heartrending fashion. Yes, love and marriage and the limitations of love and marriage serve as the backdrop and framework of the play. But it is as much about divorce as The Godfather is about crime.
In fact, one of the first things that impressed me about what is, in my opinion, objectively Jason Robert Brown's greatest work (so far, anyway), is the depth and breadth of its themes. It's about love and grief and time and youth and growing up and time and art and envy and time and ego and New York City and time and how the all-consuming stars that light your way when you're 23 can become the embers of a lost love at 28 and my God, how can you explain these tragedies but to say it's a mystery and be glad for the Things That Don't Fade and don't you wish you could get it all back?
That's The Last 5 Years.
I don't believe in telling audiences what to feel. All I ask is that you listen, that you befriend Jamie and Cathy and let them tell their sides of the story. How you come out the other end of this hour and a half is up to you. Make the most of it, feel and learn and embrace, because once it's gone, it's gone.
And there's no such thing as magic clocks.
Thank you. Enjoy the show.
Brian Robert Harris
