The Last Five Years Song-Cycle Musical

In partnership with Kensington Arts Theatre, the Arts Barn is proud to present The Last Five Years, a contemporary song-cycle musical that ingeniously chronicles the five year life of a marriage.  The Last Five Years takes a frank look at the break up of a marriage.  Parental guidance is suggested for teens and older due to language and mature subject matter.

Written by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Songs for a New World), The Last Five Years is an intensely personal look at the relationship between a writer and an actress told from both points of view. The show is presented in "forward time" as we follow the story of their relationship from Jamie's perspective, starting with their first meeting and following through with their wedding and ultimate breakup. At the same time, Cathy relates the story in "reverse" - starting with their breakup and moving backwards in time until their first meeting at the end of the show. Made up mostly of solo turns, with beautiful music and alternately humorous and heartfelt lyrics, it is only in the middle of the show that Jamie and Cathy come together as Jamie proposes and the two are wed.  Musicals about relationships are nothing new, but The Last Five Years manages to reinvent the familiar formula and offers up one of the brightest, freshest scores of the new century.

The show was named one of Time magazine's top 10 shows of 2001, and Brown took home Drama Desk Awards for both Best Music and Best Lyrics.