The Last Five Years

And let me tell you what we have today.

An actual live performance with a story! the cello Mary performed the cello for us today and I uh what a thrill like this was like I was like ah this was so exciting it was so exciting to get the chance to chat with her and she has so many great Broadway stories we're talking 22 Broadway credits people okay she started her career performing in the national tour of parade not the revival the original parade Jason Robert Brown's parade and and so she started doing that and then she wound up playing on all of these Jason Robert Brown shows including the last five years and Bridges of Madison County like I mentioned earlier on top of it She's played Adam Gettle's music like Floyd Collins and she's played a bunch of Sondheim shows Sunday in the park with George the 2008 revival the little night music the latest revival and uh um passion the classic stage company revival the john doyle version it's like uh it's amazing and she's currently playing on the great gatsby so we get to chatting with her all about that she's expanding because she came out with an album um called music of broadway and um you can listen to it now it's on spotify it's been out for a couple years now and she had these beautiful orchestrations made and uh for of you know like off the top of my head of richard rogers medley medley made by Ted Sperling.

Like, what? Beauty and the Beast orchestration, you know, this version that was so beautiful.

And, you know, I don't know if people underestimate the cello normally.

So luckily, Jason said, if you can get yourself to Chicago, he's like, I'm writing a new chamber musical.

And if you can get yourself there, you can come do that there.

And that was the last five years.

And I knew that it was supposed to come to New York and I had so many friends in New York.

You know, we can only do A Christmas Carol so many times.

It is also not unlike The Last Five Years, which has been produced extensively, appealing because it's a two-person cast.

I daresay we are going to start to see seasonal productions of Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York.

And it is aided on that front by the fact that it will have toured around the country, the fact that it performed on the Tonys, the fact that it earned Tony Award nominations, the fact that it played for a year on Broadway, the fact that there is a cast recording.

But the people have been talking about a film adaptation of Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York for some time now, and they've been manifesting it with some specificity, because there is an eagerness not just for this to be turned into a movie, but for real-life potentially married couple Tom Holland and Zendaya to star in these roles, because it is kind of perfect for both of them.

And I think it would make for a fairly lovely movie if that were to happen, but I also think the effect that it would have on future productions of the musical on stage would be huge.

I also think, not unlike The Last Five Years before it, we shouldn't rule out the possibility of future productions of Two Strangers coming back to New York, potentially to cute little off-Broadway theaters for winter runs there.

And I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself, because I also want to talk about the national tour that is going to happen, Two Strangers heading around the country.

I've gotten really lucky with new work.

I'm going to be doing the last five years soon.

Oh, exciting.

Kathy, that's one of my dream roles.

Yeah.

In the same master class, you were talking about the last five years, and you were talking about the song, I Can Do Better Than That.

You were using as an example where you said that song basically just gives tons and tons and tons of detail.

And the only reason it works is because in the very last line, basically, she says, will you move in with me? Which is the big point of that song.

Right.

That's like my favorite song from the last five years.

And yet I never realize that's why it works.

Because at the end, it's not just a rambling.

but because they are extended sections, they do kind of wrap up in and of themselves, which gives you the opportunity to put interludes between your sections or to put dialogue if you want to, scene work, you know, all sorts of crazy things.

Okay, let's break this down today with Jason Robert Brown's, A Summer in Ohio from the Last Five Years.

I think one of my favorite examples.

So we have this, I could build a mansion on a hill.

Two out of my five movies in my top five movies were musical movies.

So I know that I'm like a fucking idiot in that the last five years.

Oh, yeah.

That's an insane pick.

Yeah.

I love Anna Kendrick.

Christian, you ever see the last five years?

No.

And I don't know.

The last five years is one of my favorite musicals, and we just thought it would be cool to have Kathy.

Yeah,

totally.