Cathy, played by Jordin Moore, in a scene from The Last Five Years by Hamilton Musical Theatre. Photo / Kerry Blakeney-Williams
Cathy, played by Jordin Moore, in a scene from The Last Five Years by Hamilton Musical Theatre. Photo / Kerry Blakeney-Williams
Not all love stories have a happy ending, even those that start out beautifully. So, what happens when love fades? For composer Jason Robert Brown, it made rich material to turn into a musical.
In The Last Five Years, Brown explores the emotional stages of the relationship between budding writerJamie Wellerstein (Jono Freebairn) and aspiring actor Cathy Hiatt (Jordin Moore).
The music and action explore their emotions and perspectives at key points over five years.
Jamie (Jono Freebairn) and Cathy (Jordin Moore) on their wedding day. Photo / Kerry Blakeney-Williams
It’s told through a clever structure and it’s useful knowing this set-up before you go.
Cathy’s story starts at the end of the relationship, and Jamie’s starts at the beginning, with all the excitement of a first meeting.
The emotional ride is given extra punch for both characters as we know from the start how this all ends, but we want to understand why?
It’s an interesting change of pace for Hamilton Musical Theatre (HMT) which has been growing in strength with successful runs of large shows like Sweeney Todd, Hairspray and Young Frankenstein.
The musical, written in 2001, has had a resurgence with a film in 2014 and the songs popping up on TikTok.
I think the choice shows confidence, with HMT past-president and co-director Mel Martin-Booker, describing it as something she’d long wanted to do. She’s been joined as co-director by Kate Martin-Booker, both women bringing a lot of experience to the role.
As a two-hander, there’s a lot for the leads to do but Moore and Freebairn are very capable performers who bring charisma and energy to Cathy and Jamie and manage the technical and perforrmative aspects of the play structure extremely well.
It is obvious that a tremendous amount of work has gone into the detail and nuance of the stage movements that reveal character and mood and indicate the passing of time.
Due to the split structure, dialogue and singing are often directed at an unseen opposite, via space use, phones, clever use of space and movement around the stage. When the characters meet in the middle of the story, there’s a real sense of connection which feels exciting.
Moore is a delight on stage.
She has a strong ability to convey emotion naturally and confidently as Cathy’s experiences are wound back. She also shows deft touch with humour in several scenes including an excellent “audition” which gets a great response from the audience.
Unlike larger musicals where the power of the ensemble occasionally overrides the lyrics, in this show, almost the entire narrative is carried in the lyrics and solos, guided by vocal director Kirsty Skomski.
Jordin Moore as Cathy. Photo / Kerry Blakeney-Williams
Moore is excellent here with six solos and three duets. Her voice shows power and control and skilfully conveys the many emotions and details as Cathy’s story plays out, from the slower sad songs to the lively numbers.
