The best show I never saw

Right before my wedding, my friend "Jack" came to town to share in my celebration. He arrived a few days earlier to hang out and also visit other friends. The night we hung out, part of it was spent in my car (not doing anything, obviously....he's gay), listening to the soundtrack for The Last Five Years. He even gave it to me as a gift (not for my wedding, given the subject matter, but because he loved it so much and we always would bond over musicals in the past). Little did he know, without me even seeing the show in the eight and a half years since I first heard the music, it also has become a favorite of mine.

I'm used to hearing the music of a show before seeing it, but most of the time I will eventually see the show. That has yet to happen in this case. The show and I just keep missing each other. The timing never works out right. Still, I follow the stories of Cathy and Jamie (a guy, in this case) like I know them personally....

Spoilers ahead....
Jamie is Jewish and has met his dream girl, a "Shiksa Goddess" named Cathy. Jamie is an aspiring writer who soon gets a book deal. Cathy, in the meantime, wants to be an actress and deals with grueling auditions and traveling to small towns for summer productions. Their story is told in two directions. Jamie starts at the beginning of their relationship, showing all the hope and romance. Cathy starts at the end of their relationship, still hurting from its demise. Their stories meet in the middle, when Jamie asks Cathy to share "The Next Ten Minutes" with him and proposes to her. Then we see him trying to resist the advances of other women while convincing himself that only "In a Perfect World," it would just be Cathy and himself and he wouldn't have to explain to other women that he's married or explain to Cathy that he's not flirting with or staring at anyone else. In the meantime, Cathy is reversing through the story, talking about a rather frustrating audition as she's "Climbing Uphill." We hear more about her relationship goals and how she can do better than that of her friend who got knocked up before graduation. At the end of Jamie's story, we find him in bed with another woman and blaming Cathy for ruining his happiness with this new flame. Eventually, he realizes he could never rescue Cathy and says goodbye for good, while Cathy has just had the perfect first date with Jamie and is saying "Goodbye Until Tomorrow."

The original cast of this show was Norbert Leo Butz, who also played Fiyero in Wicked, and Sherie Rene Scott, who played Amneris in Aida. Their voices are both great for their roles. Norbert knows how to play Jamie's voice to sound both sweet and arrogant at various times throughout the story. I don't know whether to love him or hate him. And Sherie plays Cathy with such beautiful vulnerability that I cry even during her upbeat songs. My favorite of her songs is "A Part of That." She talks about how frustrating it is when Jamie goes off into his own little world, but when he comes back down to earth and smiles at her, she knows she's had something to do with that smile. It was written by Jason Robert Brown, who also wrote the music and lyrics for Parade (never saw that or heard the music, but I'm sure it's great if TLFY is any indication of his style).

I don't know what it is about this show that draws me in every time I hear the soundtrack. Maybe it's the style of the music, where the singers don't need a huge orchestra to back them up. Maybe it's the pace of the story, since the characters switch places in time and yet we go back and forth between them and they have very little interaction with each other. Maybe it's the emotional quality of the story, where you're witnessing the hope that goes into a new relationship and are sad at the same time that it has ended. I think of how exciting and romantic things felt around and after I got married and it makes me sad to think that Jamie was all focused on other girls wanting his attention as soon as he got married. Meanwhile, Cathy was at a bookstore in Kentucky and supporting Jamie by purchasing his novel in front of another guy who was trying to hit on her.

Whatever it is, I hope I do get to see it performed live someday. I think it will be the ultimate catharsis for me and almost more powerful than seeing Rent, in some ways.