A charismatic Sean Yves Lessard as best-selling novelist Jamie Wellerstein cannot overcome a miscast “Shiksa Goddess,” lackluster direction, and poor sound mixing in Chalomot Productions’ well-intentioned but largely unsuccessful revival of Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years at the Hudson Backstage.

There’s nothing particularly new about the love story composer-lyricist-librettist Brown has to tell in this semi-autobiographical two-hander.

 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 (Lessard) story moves forward in time from his joy at finally meeting the seemingly unattainable woman of his dreams towards the final, painful realization that no matter how hard he tries, he can do nothing to rescue her from her insecurities.

 Aspiring actress-singer Catherine Hiatt’s (Catherine Rojo) 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 ought to pack an emotional wallop but sadly at the Hudson does not, in large part because 20-year-old musical theater performer Aaron Byrnes lacks the directorial experience this romantic two-hander requires and deserves.

For The Last Five Years to work (and for us to understand exactly what’s going on between these two starcrossed lovers), a audience must be aware of exactly where we are in the story, both chronologically and in terms of location, and there’s little sense of either here.

Where is Cathy when she sings “See I’m Smiling” or “A Summer in Ohio”? (Okay, the title gives the latter location away, but otherwise you’d never guess.) And how are we to know that Jamie’s “The Schmuel Song” takes place around Christmas with nothing in costume or set design to clue us in to that? As for the show’s lone duet, “The Next Ten Minutes” could be happening anywhere, and for the first time ever, I was unmoved.)

Adding to the confusion is a sound design (by Julie Ferrin with Flavio Diaz as sound technician) that so poorly mixes insufficiently amped vocals with music director Mike Walker’s overly amped keyboard accompaniment that if you haven’t already seen eighteen different productions of The Last Five Years like this reviewer and/or listened to the Original Cast Recording umpteen times, you’ll probably understand only an occasional lyric here or there.

No one receives design credit for what there is of a set, and staging the production in the wide-stage Hudson Backstage Theatre does a musical as intimate as The Last Five Years no favors.

Lessard’s long list of professional credits, powerhouse pipes, and acting chops serve Jamie well, though I can’t help wishing director Byrnes had brought out more of Jamie’s fun side. (“Shiksa Goddess” works so much better when the actor playing Jamie has fun with it.)

As for Rojo, the best I can say is that she tries hard, but not only is she all wrong for Cathy, her voice, though pleasant, can neither match Lessard’s nor do Brown’s music justice.

Lighting designer Matt Richter does his best to give the production a bit of a professional veneer and Sarajane Bradford inserts a bit of choreography to accompany Jamie and Cathy’s wedding vows, but Morgan Whittam’s costumes are more miss than hit.

Celina Lee Surniak is intimacy coordinator. Victoria Blas is stage manager and Lorenzo Flores is assistant stage manager.

Understudies Sophia Konat and Corydon Melgoza play Cathy and Jamie on March 28 and April 5.

If I didn’t love The Last Five Years so much, it wouldn’t mean so much for me to see it fizzle the way it does here. If you’ve seen the show before, wait for another production to see it again. And if you haven’t yet discovered its magic, this is not the time or place to do so.

Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.
www.chalomotproductions.com

–Steven Stanley
March 26, 2026
Photos: Syndey Belabin

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Tags: Chalomot Productions, Hudson Backstage, Jason Robert Brown, Los Angeles Theater Review