Theatre Review

A two-sided look at love at OSTC

Don Fowler
Posted 3/6/15

There are two sides to every love story. There is also a beginning and an end.

Ocean State Theatre Company lets us in on the intimate “Last Five Years” of a relationship between a writer and …

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Theatre Review

A two-sided look at love at OSTC

Posted

There are two sides to every love story. There is also a beginning and an end.

Ocean State Theatre Company lets us in on the intimate “Last Five Years” of a relationship between a writer and an actress in Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years,” now playing through March 15 at the Warwick theatre.

Cathy (Alyssa Gorgone) tells her story from end to beginning, while Jamie (David Demato) alternately tells his story from beginning to end, meeting together in the middle with their marriage.

They “tell” their stories through a series of 14 scenes and 15 songs…kind of an operatic soap opera. While the songs are well written and convey the feelings of the two characters, they often sound too alike.

While the two appear very much in love, egos get in the way and at times lack of support causes conflict and hurt. Maybe that says something about writers and actors.

We are told in the program that Brown’s play is very personal, to the point of his former wife, an actress, suing him for “violating their divorce agreement.”

While we are always impressed that Ocean State uses a live orchestra, there is a need for the keyboard to be toned down a bit so that we can catch all the lyrics, which are essential to the story.

Gorgone and Demato have adequate voices to pull off the difficult task conveying the plot through music, but they seemed to be straining at times.

“The Last Five Years” is presented in two acts of 45 minutes each, with the continuity broken by an intermission.

There are two scenes that are thrown in that seem unnecessary: Jamie’s “The Schmuel Song,” which establishes his Jewishness, and one of the only spoken moments when he reads from his book. Their elimination would make it an unbroken one-act play.

“The Last Five Years” is at the Ocean State Theatre through March 15 Tickets are $39-$54. Call 921-1777 x112 for reservations.

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