‘The Last Five Years’ at Next Act

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Sara Bill Photography

Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a tender and thoughtful look at a couple of people falling in and out of love. Amanda Carson is subtly captivating as a woman who experiences a five-year love affair in brief snippets running in reverse chronology. Michael David Stoddard is powerfully energetic as the man who experiences the same five-year relationship in brief snippets moving forward chronologically.

For so much of the 90-minute show, the two never share more than fleeting moments together on the stage of the Next Act Theatre space. This wonderfully vivid way of rendering a doomed relationship poses quite a challenge for Carson and Stoddard. They must formulate a chemistry with each other without ever spending any real time interacting onstage. What’s more, they have to render the complex world of these characters without much of it actually being present onstage.

Carson and Stoddard handle the challenges of The Last Five Years quite differently. Carson’s characterization of a struggling actress is endless fun to watch in the character’s cheerful moments and fascinatingly intricate in the sad and frustrated segments. Stoddard is playing a struggling writer who makes it big, so his drive must expand beyond the relationship as time progresses. Stoddard’s energy is more than enough to handle the role.

Adding to the environment of the story is the rich musical accompaniment of a five-person orchestra led by Colleen Schmitt. Director Robby McGhee has done an excellent job of filling an intimate studio theater space with just the right mix of warmth and emptiness for this bittersweet romantic musical.

All In Productions’ staging of The Last Five Years runs through Dec. 27 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.