i've waited for (ironically) the last five years to write this

Last week I got to go see a production of The Last Five Years at The Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick. Sound familiar? I've mentioned it before. It's one of my favorite musicals and believe it or not, I've NEVER been able to catch a production of it. Until now.

And it was great. Different than I'd envisioned it, but that's one of the wonderful things about the show. It tells the story of the relationship between a man and a woman, but in opposite perspectives: the woman starts at the divorce and the man starts on the first date. It leaves plenty of room for the director and the cast to play around and feel the pacing of the show.

With this particular production, I felt that some scenes weren't as clear as they could be. The director had the man and women interact in some scenes, which confused the audience, since each of the two are technically in different points of their lives. Only in one scene, their wedding, are they ever supposed to be seen together.

Another twist that caught my attention were the casting choices. The role of the woman, Cathy, is described as an  Irish Catholic from middle-of-nowhere USA. I'd always known Cathy to be played by fair-skinned, red-headed women. When the show began, however, I was surprised to see a darker-skinned actress on stage. The performance Wendy Fox (who played Cathy) gave, though incredible, was unlike any version of Cathy I had ever seen. As the show unraveled, I realized that there was no reason why Cathy couldn't believably be another race. The actress had so much soul and support to her voice (she sang the score flawlessly), I could immediately see why she was the obvious casting choice.

The male lead, played by Nicholas Belton, also placed a medium-sized question mark over my head. Though it was obvious that Belton had the vocal, singing, and acting chops to play this role forward and backward, his effeminate tendencies often pulled focus from the story. This is a particularly difficult topic for me since I'm so vocal about gay rights. Many of my friends are gay (especially in the theatre community) and I strongly believe there should NEVER be any discrimination against any person, EVER. (See aforementioned casting of Wendy Fox as Cathy.) However, when an actor cannot believably convince the audience of his sexual orientation, especially in a love story, there is a conflict of interest. It happens on stages all the time. Gay men playing straight, straight men playing gay. They go too far, or not far enough, in finding the right sexuality for their character.

We see this in pop culture all the time.
Eric Stonestreet in Modern Family.
Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother.
Matthew Bomer in White Collar.
Christian Borle in Smash.
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote.
Darren Criss in Glee.
Adam Pally in Happy Ending's.
T. R. Knight in Gray's Anatomy.
Zachary Quinto in Startrek.
Tom Hanks in Philadelphia.
Sean Penn and James Franco in Milk.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain.

This barely covers a few male actors who have done the crossover perfectly. It's not impossible, but it does require a special talent. It doesn't matter how low your grand plié can go or how high you can belt that F#, if I can't believe all you want to do is grab a beer and watch the game with the bros, your performance is lacking.


The Last Five Year; Written and Composed by Jason Robert Brown; Directed by Leah C. Gardiner; Crossroads Theatre Company; 7 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick, NJ; (732) 545-8100.