Intensely emotional and personal, the chamber musical The Last Five Years tells the bittersweet story of two young artists, from their first date to their last goodbye.
One of the most popular off-Broadway musicals, “The Last Five Years» by the three-Tony-winning American composer Jason Robert Brown, is presented for the first time in Greece, in an ambitious production of the Alternative Stage of the National Opera.
The New York story of an unusual love comes to life for six unique performances, on 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13 May 2023offering an unforgettable musical theater experience.
Intensely emotional and personal, the chamber musical The Last Five Years tells the bittersweet story of two young artists, from their first date to their last goodbye.
In the musical, Cathy, a young, aspiring actress, and Jamie, a vain, up-and-coming writer, meet, fall in love, marry and break up.
The unique narrative scheme set up by composer and playwright Jason Robert Brown begins with Cathy narrating the above journey from end to beginning, while Jamie follows a straight linear narrative, from beginning to end.
Through a series of beautiful songs, the audience follows the course of this relationship, in an environment where the past and the present are intertwined in a web of memories and actions, with the couple meeting in the same space and time only at the moment of their wedding, which takes place in the middle of the show.
The Drama Desk award-winning work, which was named by Time magazine as one of the ten best musicals of 2001, is presented at the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Theater at the SNFCC under the musical direction of the experienced Michalis Papapetrou, translated and directed by an expert in the genre, the versatile comedian and librettist Dimitris Dimopoulos, while the lead roles are performed by Vasia Zacharopoulou and Paris Paraskevadis, who were chosen after an open audition from over 160 performers.
The six-member musical group consists of Mislav Rezic (electric guitar), Manos Anagnostopoulos (electric bass), Michalis Papapetrou (piano), Dionysis Verviciotis (violin), Alexandros Botini, Fabiola Okheda (cello).
The music of the project is an eclectic mix of sounds and influences, where pop-rock is ideally combined with jazz, classical music and folk with elements of country. The directorial approach of Dimitris Dimopoulos guarantees an unusual musical theater experience, outside the stereotypical confines of American musical theater.
He notes:
“Every presentation of The Last Five Years relies on the skills and chemistry of its two leads. My aim and desire as a director was to create in the rehearsal the space where Vasia and Paris will create her Cathy and his Jamie. Ready now, we step on stage and find ourselves in the set designed by David Negrin (who also designs the costumes) and lit by Christos Giogas, a stage space where the memories of the past and the actions of the present coexist and unfold simultaneously, as the last five years of the couple’s life together are experienced as a memory for Cathy, but unfold as a present experience for Jamie. This special find by Jason Robert Brown creates the theatrical condition of the couple meeting in space and time only in their wedding scene. If we managed in this scene to make the audience forget the end of Kathy and Jamie’s relationship, which is revealed in the first scene, then we succeeded».
The musical premiered at Chicago’s Northlight Theater in 2001 to great success, and the following year was just as successfully transferred to the Off-Broadway alternative venue to rave reviews. It has since been translated into several languages and performed in many countries around the world.
Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown is considered one of the most important creators of the modern American musical. It has been characterized as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim(Philadelphia Inquirer), while his “exquisite, triumphant music for the theater” (Chicago Tribune) is heard around the world, whether in the hundreds of productions of his musicals presented each year or in his own explosive live performances.
The New York Times refers to him as “a leading figure of a new generation of composers who embody high expectations for the American musical»
Source :Skai
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