- Written & Composed by Jason Robert Brown
- Originally Produced for the New York stage by Arielle Tepper and Marty Bell
- Originally Produced by Northlight Theatre Chicago, IL
- Director Aaron Posner
- Music Director William Yanesh
- Music Supervisor Jon Kalbfleisch
- Set Design Daniel Conway
- Costume Design Kathleen Geldard
- Lighting Design Andrew F. Griffin
- Sound Design Matt Rowe
- Production Stage Manager Julie Meyer
From first date to final good-bye, The Last Five Years chronicles the highs and lows of modern marriage in an intimate, honest and richly moving musical portrait.
Through the course of 14 songs, rising novelist Jamie and struggling actress Cathy separately tell their own account of their five-year relationship. From the whimsical optimism of Jamie’s “Shiksa Goddess” to Cathy’s crushingly vulnerable “Still Hurting,” the young lovers explore their emotionally complex romance through beautifully haunting music and original, ingenious lyrics.
Directed by Washington’s own Aaron Posner, Jason Robert Brown’s (Parade, Songs for a New World) contemporary song cycle features an eclectic variety of music including pop, jazz, classical, folk and rock sung by Signature favorites James Gardiner (Chess, [title of show]) and Erin Weaver (Xanadu).
“Bittersweet and nearly perfect.” – Variety
“Mr. Brown’s score offers a mix of smart, conversational lyrics with a fetching array of pop-rock tunes and rhythms.” – The New York Times
The Critics are Raving about The Last Five Years
Performance run time is approximately 90 minutes.
Note: This show replaces the previously-announced production of Crimes of the Heart in Signature’s 2012/13 season.
The Cast
James Gardiner (Jamie Wellerstein) SIGNATURE: The Boy Detective Fails, The Hollow, I Capture the Castle, [title of show], Chess, Les Misérables, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Merrily We Roll Along, The Witches of Eastwick, Saving Aimee, and various cabarets. BROADWAY: Glory Days (book writer). DC AREA: Ford's Theatre: Liberty Smith, A Christmas Carol (Associate Director); Olney Theatre Center: Little Shop of Horrors (2013 Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Musical), You're A Good Man Charlie Brown; Adventure Theatre: Winnie the Pooh; Woolly Mammoth/UM: The Distance From Here; Kennedy Center: The Phantom Tollbooth, The Brand New Kid; Round House Theatre: A Prayer for Owen Meany; Studio Theatre: Dog Sees God. REGIONAL: Williamstown Theatre Festival; Everyman Theatre. TEACHING: George Mason University, Adjunct Faculty. UPCOMING: Signature Theatre: Company, Spin, Miss Saigon.
Erin Weaver (Catherine Hiatt) SIGNATURE: Xanadu (Kira, Helen Hayes nomination). NATIONAL TOUR: Les Misérables. DC AREA: Folger Theatre: Comedy of Errors (Luciana), Arcadia (Thomasina, Helen Hayes Award), The Tempest (Miranda), The Comedy of Errors (Luciana); Round House Theatre: A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage (Mary); A Wrinkle in Time (Meg). REGIONAL: CalShakes: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Arden: Into the Woods; Two River Theater: Our Town; Mary's Wedding; You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown; People's Light: The Miser, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Treasure Island, Jack & The Beanstalk, Robin Hood, Gossamer. EDUCATION: University of the Arts, BFA with honors.
Creative Team
Aaron Posner (Director) ADAPTAIONS Anton Chekhov’s Stupid Fucking Bird, Chaim Potok’s The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev; Kurt Vonnegut’s Who Am I This Time? (And Other Conundrums of Love); Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion; Mark Twain’s A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage (with James Sugg). ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Arden Theatre Company, Philadelphia; Two River Theater, New Jersey. DIRECTION: Folger Theatre, Theatre J, Round House Theatre, Seattle Rep, The Alliance, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Milwaukee Rep, California Shakespeare Theatre, American Player's Theatre, many others. AWARDS: three Helen Hayes Awards, two Barrymore Awards. EDUCATION: Northwestern University.
William Yanesh (Music Director) DC AREA: Washington Savoyards: A Grand Night for Singing; Adventure Theatre MTC: Winnie-the-Pooh, Pickle-Chiffon Pie; Montgomery College: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Assistant Musical Director); DC Fringe: Medieval Story Land (Incidental Music).
Jon Kalbfleisch (Music Supervisor) SIGNATURE (Resident Music Director): Saturday Night concert, Side by Side by Sondheim, Sunset Boulevard, Show Boat, First You Dream, Les Misérables, Anyone Can Whistle, The Visit, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Merrily We Roll Along, The Witches of Eastwick, Into the Woods, Assassins, Pacific Overtures, The Highest Yellow, Elegies, Allegro, Follies, 110 in the Shade, Grand Hotel, Putting It Together, Forum, A Stephen Sondheim Evening, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Fix, Sunday in the Park with George, Passion, Cabaret, Wings, Company. BROADWAY: Les Misérables (Associate Conductor). DC AREA: Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, National Theatre, Warner Theatre, Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre. REGIONAL: Mark Taper Forum: Putting it Together; Martin Guerre, James Joyce’s The Dead. OTHER: Carnegie Hall, Lawton Philharmonic Orchestra, Capitol Hill United Methodist Church. TV: “Good Morning America.” AWARDS: Grammy nomination; Bernstein MASS, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, pianist. Five Helen Hayes Awards and 21 nominations. EDUCATION: Master of Music, SMU.
Daniel Conway (Scenic Design) SIGNATURE: Hairspray, Sunset Boulevard, Dirty Blonde, Chess, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. DC AREA: Shakespeare Theatre: The Merry Wives of Windsor; Studio Theatre: Sucker Punch; Folger Theatre: Cyrano; Round House Theatre: Double Indemnity. REGIONAL: Ford's: Sabrina Fair, Arden Theatre: Cyrano; Milwaukee Repertory: The Diary of Anne Frank. AWARDS: Two Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Set Design (12 nominations). TEACHING: Head of Design and Production division of The School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies at The University of Maryland. UPCOMING: Milwaukee Repertory: A Christmas Carol; Studio Theatre: The Aliens; Kennedy Center: The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg; Arden Theatre: A Raisin in the Sun; Signature Theatre: Company, Spin.
Kathleen Geldard (Costume Design) SIGNATURE (selected): Shakespeare’s R&J The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Xanadu, God of Carnage, Brother Russia, Really Really, The Boy Detective Fails (world premiere), The Hollow (world premiere), Side By Side By Sondheim, Art, Sunset Boulevard, Walter Cronkite is Dead, (world premiere), Chess, Sycamore Trees (world premiere), Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. DC AREA: Studio Theatre: Invisible Man, Sucker Punch; Woolly Mammoth Theatre; Round House Theatre; Imagination Stage; Adventure Theatre; Olney; Folger Theatre; Everyman Theatre; Theater J; Rep Stage. REGIONAL: La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Centerstage, Children's Theatre of Charlotte, Vineyard Playhouse, Studio Arena Theatre. DANCE: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. AWARDS: 2012 Bay Area Critics Circle Nomination for Ruined, Berkeley Rep; 2012 IRNE Nomination for Ruined, Huntington Theatre; 2009 Helen Hayes Nomination for The Neverending Story, Imagination Stage; named Artistic Associate for Signature Theatre, 2011.
Andrew F. Griffin (Lighting Design) DC AREA: Folger Theatre: Henry V, Othello (Helen Hayes Award nomination); Woolly Mammoth Theatre: You for Me for You, The K of D, The Last Cargo Cult, A Girl’s Guide to Washington Politics; Synetic Theater: King Lear (Helen Hayes Award), Tempest, Jekyll and Hyde, King Arthur, Othello, Dracula, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Dante, Host and Guest; Theatre J: Race; Olney Theatre Center: You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Bad Dates; Everyman Theatre: All My Sons; Imagination Stage: P.Nokio, The Wind in the Willows, Ferdinand the Bull; Adventure Theatre: Winnie the Pooh, Big, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, If You Give a Pig a Pancake. REGIONAL: Tricities Opera: La Bohème; Toledo Opera: Il Trovatore; The Delaware Shakespeare Festival: The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III.
Matt Rowe (Sound Design) SIGNATURE: Dreamgirls, Dying City, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Xanadu, God of Carnage, Brother Russia, Really Really, Hairspray (Helen Hayes nomination), A Second Chance, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South, The Boy Detective Fails, The Hollow, Side by Side by Sondheim, Art, And the Curtain Rises, Sunset Boulevard, Walter Cronkite is Dead., A Fox on the Fairway, Chess, Sycamore Trees, [title of show], Sweeney Todd, Show Boat, First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb, Dirty Blonde, Giant, The Little Dog Laughed, Les Misérables, Anyone Can Whistle in concert, The Visit, The Happy Time, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Glory Days, Merrily We Roll Along, The Witches of Eastwick. DC AREA: Kennedy Center: First You Dream (Associate Sound Designer), Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred!); Nobody’s Perfect. MetroStage: The Last Five Years.
Julie Meyer (Production Stage Manager) SIGNATURE: Dying City, Xanadu, Really Really, A Second Chance, The Boy Detective Fails, I Capture the Castle (21/24 workshop), Art, Sunset Boulevard, Walter Cronkite is Dead, Chess, Tamar and the River (21/24 workshop), [title of show], I Am My Own Wife, Show Boat, Dirty Blonde, The Boy Detective Fails (21/24 workshop), Giant, Glory Days, Les Misérables. OFF-BROADWAY: Flipside: the Patti Page Story. REGIONAL: Lyric Theatre: Stephen Schwartz’s new musical Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook, Some Enchanted Evening, Disney’s High School Musical, Oklahoma!, Evita, Singin’ in the Rain, Once On This Island; Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre: Jane Eyre, Little Me, Dirty Blonde. EDUCATION: Rutgers University, MFA, Stage Management.