Jayde Mitchell and Jackie Bonsignore and Bryan Mittelstadt and Margaret Berkowitz deliver four breakout star turns in the eighteenth production I’ve seen of Jason Robert Brown’s mesmerizing romantic musical two-hander The Last Five Years, Sierra Madre Playhouse’s first traditional stage production since its reimagining as a performing arts center and one I made it a point to see with two equally fabulous casts.

There’s nothing particularly new about the love story composer-lyricist-librettist Brown has to tell. A man and a woman meet. They fall in love. They marry. They begin to have problems. They grow further and further apart. They separate and divorce.

What sets The Last Five Years apart from other similarly themed plays and movies and musicals is its unique chronology.

Up-and-coming novelist Jamie Wellerstein’s story moves forward in time from his joy at finally meeting the “Shiksa Goddess” of his dreams towards the final, painful realization that no matter how hard he tried, “I Could Never Rescue You.”

Aspiring actress-singer Catherine Hiatt’s version of events, on the other hand, is told in reverse chronology, beginning while Cathy is “Still Hurting” from their breakup, then flashing all the way back to “Goodbye Until Tomorrow,” sung just after the couple’s first date, when there were still countless tomorrows awaiting them.

The result: Joy and sadness alternating side-by-side and an ending that packs an emotional wallop unlike any other musical I’ve seen.

Brown’s libretto works particularly well because, even though we have already spent the first half of the show seeing the end of Jamie-&-Cathy from Cathy’s point of view, it’s not till the second half that the reasons for their breakup are revealed.

Director Josh Shaw isn’t entirely successful at making The Last Five Year’s dual-timeline format as clear as I’ve seen this accomplished before, and since neither the show’s one-sheet playbill or preshow announcements clue audiences into the musical’s central conceit and the website blurb is frustratingly vague about it (“Cathy and Jamie’s love story unfold[s] in a unique and compelling way”), I’m guessing that those unfamiliar with the musical might find themselves scratching their heads throughout much of the show about what exactly is going on here.

On the decidedly plus side, director Shaw adds his own unique touches throughout the production. (The watch Cathy removes at the very start is one, the couple’s devastating final face-to-face goodbyes are another.)

And I can’t but rave about the performances he has elicited from four recent arrivals to the L.A. musical theater scene.

Mitchell, who gives Jamie a tousle-haired boyish charm, isn’t afraid to take chances and go wild in a tour-de-force “Shiksa Goddess,” and his oh so charming “The Schmuel Song” and his stunning “If I Didn’t Believe In You” mixes pain and anger and regret in equal measure.

The exquisite Bonsignore (think a young Jennifer Connelly) is as delightful and quirky and charming in “I Can Do Better Than That” as she is alternately wistful and rage-filled in “I’m A Part Of That” as she is heartbreaking early on in “Still Hurting.”

Mittelstadt had me rooting for Jamie from moment he flashed his million-dollar smile in a performance that, while more reined-in than his counterpart’s in “Shiksa Goddess” was no less dynamic or captivating or ultimately devastating in a “Nobody Needs To Know” that had me wiping away tears.

Power-piped Margaret Berkowitz gives Cathy the sunny blonde appeal of the role’s originators Lauren Kennedy and Sherie Rene Scott in a performance that lights up the stage like nobody’s business as she takes Cathy from heartbreaking loss in “Still Hurting” to hope-filled promise in “Goodbye Until Tomorrow.”

Music director Joshua Foy scores top marks, both for his vocal coaching and his piano prowess, whether accompanied by Jessica Chen on violin, Jon Lee Keenan on bass, Alexander Elliott Miller on guitar, and Betsy Rettig and Derek Stein on cello, or all by himself, though because unamplified upstage vocals can get drowned out at Sierra Madre Playhousewhen all five instruments are playing, I found the single piano accompaniment more effective this time round.

Doubling as set and prop designer, Shaw makes good use of a pair of furnished, paraphernalia-appointed side stages, though the mostly bare upstage playing area might benefit from some locale-establishing rear screen projections.

Completing the production design, Hailey Springer gives both casts a bevy of scene-appropriate costumes to wear as Grace Berry provides a vibrant lighting design throughout the show.

Bri Westad is stage manager and Carolyn Wasson is assistant stage manager. Colton Bassett and Jeanne Marie Valleroy are substitute stage managers. Todd McCraw is technical director and Berrie Tsang is company manager.

The Sierra Madre Playhouse website indicates which performances feature a full orchestra and which feature a solo piano but not, as it ought to, who is scheduled to perform when.

There was a period about fifteen years back when new productions of The Last Five Years seemed to keep popping up everywhere in town, but it’s been a while since audiences have been offered a live production to celebrate and savor.

Loving The Last Five Years as much as I do, I jumped at the chance to experience it twice more in a single weekend, and no matter which cast you elect to see (and I highly recommend seeing both if you can), anyone in search of laughter and tears and some of the most memorable songs Jason Robert Brown has ever written need only head on over to Sierra Madre Playhouse to relish them all.

Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. .
www.sierramadreplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
May 17 and 18, 2024
Photos: Luis Luque/Luque Photography

Tags: Jason Robert Brown, Los Angeles Theater Review, Sierra Madre Playhouse