\n<\/p>\n
Jonas as a \u201cmahvelous novelist\u201d is a bit of a stretch, however. Jonas as a Jew \u2014 and not just a Jew but one who affects a Yiddish accent to sing his demented version of a shtetl folk tale \u2014 is even more of one. \u201cThe Schmuel Song,\u201d as the shtetl number is called, is always a bit of a problem anyway; the only semi-dud in the sung-through score, it barely makes sense even when read word by word with a magnifying glass.<\/p>\n
Sung by Jonas, it\u2019s basically incomprehensible \u2014 to be fair, that\u2019s at least in part because of the generally murky sound. David Zinn\u2019s set, a weird abstraction of platforms and flowers, doesn\u2019t help either. Only the aptly harsh, psychological lighting, by Stacey Derosier, and Dede Ayite\u2019s sociological costumes, give him shadings and layers.<\/p>\n
But if he starts out too blandly likable, he improves as time reveals Jamie\u2019s narcissism and self-righteousness. His mellow croon slowly becomes a sputtering belt. Still, I only came to dislike the character as much as Brown evidently intends when he exuberantly leaped onto the couple\u2019s bed with his boots on. The cad! But by then it was too late. Cathy had walked off with the show.<\/p>\n
More often than not that is the case with productions of \u201cThe Last Five Years,\u201d and it\u2019s to Brown\u2019s great credit that he has shaped the story to favor the woman even though it is basically his own. He\u2019s the ur-Jamie.<\/p>\n
But whereas the selection we hear from Jamie\u2019s novel is meh, Brown\u2019s achievement is unmistakable. The music (now somewhat over-enhanced with the addition of several musicians on a crowded elevated platform) is rapturous and difficult but not randomly so; it\u2019s rapturous and difficult because love is too. The lyrics specify and condense both feelings in often scathing, always memorable phrases. Indeed, when Jamie sings to Cathy, near the end of their marriage, \u201cI will not lose because you can\u2019t win,\u201d you may gasp at its cruelty. And yet you may feel, as I did, that Warren\u2019s Cathy could have sung the same thing.<\/p>\n
The Last Five Years<\/strong>
Through June 22 at the Hudson Theater, Manhattan; thelastfiveyearsbroadway.com<\/a>. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n