Framing the program for the Sterling Playmakers’ production of The Last Five Years is a tidy collage of 16 photos — photos you might find on an Instagram feed, in a photo album, or propped on a mantle. In The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown shuffles these memories into an alternate chronology, telling the story of Jamie Wellerstein, a burgeoning young author, Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress, and the trajectory of their five-year relationship from the end to the beginning.
Earning Brown a Drama Desk Award for his composition in 2002, The Last Five Years makes sure to fill its lyric quota, relaying its bittersweet story exclusively through songs by turns humorously chatty and vocally rigorous but always catchy. Originated by Norbert Leo Butz and Lauren Kennedy, Jamie and Cathy have quickly become characters embedded in the Broadway stock through productions centering successful young actors of various stripes, including Adam Kantor, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeremy Jordan, and, in its upcoming Broadway revival, Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren. Names like these all speak to the challenge of casting a production as ambitious as this: a two-person show with minimal staging, complex emotional topography, and Brown’s characteristically demanding compositions. Thankfully, this is a challenge the Sterling Playmakers have met face on.
Both in their Playmakers debut, Chelsea Williamson and Noah Mutterperl prove stars of a caliber rivaling Jamie and Cathy’s predecessors. For a show with myriad separations between its characters — Jamie and Cathy share only three duets, and even then, they sing across time — Williamson brings a cogent immediacy to Cathy’s emotional arc. Her earnestness from the celebration to the mourning of her relationship underscores Cathy’s vulnerability and reluctant dependence on Jamie. Her insecurities feel all the more palpable through Williamson’s masterful navigation of Cathy’s dark humor, and the audience can’t help but sympathize. Moreover, never is Williamson caught off guard by Brown’s intricate harmonies and mutable rhythms. With the self-assurance we all wish Cathy had more of, Williamson delivers a masterclass in vocal control, smoothly transitioning between a well-supported belt, a subtle mix, and a clear head voice.
Mutterperl complements Williamson with his own earnest naturalism. Mutterperl’s Jamie is playful, proud, and knavish. His successes often blind him, if unwittingly, to Cathy’s struggles. In trying to support her, Jamie can be not only tender but humorous and cruel, maintaining a righteousness you can’t entirely fault him for having. Mutterperl’s navigation of these subtle changes in Jamie’s behavior, his worldview, and his self-worth is remarkable, bested only by his musical talent. With an enviable vocal range and a commendably clear lower register, Mutterperl’s tenor is a double to Jeremy Jordan’s 2014 rendition. His physicalization is all his own, however, invitingly uninhibited and comic. Mutterperl even had the power to entirely reinvent for me “The Schmuel Song,” a frequent victim of the skip button on my Spotify. Energized and engaged from the start, the house was fully immersed.
Ultimately, Ashley McGee’s production of The Last Five Years with the Sterling Playmakers comes at an ideal time for reflection, community, and a good cry. Playing at Seneca Ridge Middle School through February 16, The Last Five Years deserves your time.
Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
The Last Five Years plays through February 16, 2025, presented by Sterling Playmakers performing at Seneca Ridge Middle School, 98 Seneca Ridge Drive, Sterling, VA. Tickets ($20–$50) are available online or at the door.
The Last Five Years
Book, Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Ashley McGee
Music Directed by Garrett Jones
Produced by Allison Ball and Jim Bowen-Collinson
Technical Direction and Scenic Design by Mylo Avalon Neptune
Costumes by Hannah and Jon Conradt
Lighting by Stacey King and Leecy Silk.
