Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a favorite production in community and professional theatres. It’s a music-driven story of Cathy and Jamie and as the title states, it chronicles five years of their courtship, marriage, and break up while his career is on the fast-track and hers is chugging behind. The latest iteration is a community production at Gowanda’s Historic Hollywood Theatre.

First up, the pit orchestra (James Welch, piano and music director, Jay Wollin on bass and cello, Larry Albert on guitar, and Heather Pennington on violin) does an outstanding job performing an energetic and challenging score. Brown’s writing is rhythmic when it wants to be and lyrical when it needs to be: that’s what makes it so lush and listenable. Since there is not supposed to be any spoken word in this production, it’s all about the music and this team handles it admirably.

As it is with any community production, all players wear many on and off-stage hats. Brandon Mecklenburg is Jamie and is also making his directorial debut in addition to creating the lighting design. Kimberly Merrill is Cathy who also managed graphic design and grantwriting. Both are classically-trained vocal performers, which is essential training for this production.

The unique element that I love about this story is that by design, Cathy reflects on their story from the day they separate back to their first date, and Jamie’s story begins at that first meeting until he packs his things. Director Mecklenburg took some liberties here and put them on stage together early on and these silent interactions looked awkward. Jamie and Cathy aren’t supposed to engage with each other onstage under the mid-point where they marry and sing “The Next Ten Minutes.” Their voices blended beautifully and their duet is lovely: the odd moment where the stage manager breaks the fourth wall to walk onstage and pin a veil on Cathy wasn’t necessary.

Mecklenburg was strong as Jamie, the first-time novelist who barely struggled to achieve overnight success. His rich baritone was particularly lovely in his ballad “If I Didn’t Believe in You” and he managed the fast-patter of “Shicksa Goddess” very well. Merrill’s soaring soprano represented her operatic roots and while lovely, it didn’t always align with the pop styling of Brown’s score. She sets the tone for the whole show with the opening number “I’m Still Hurting” and she was sassy and confident telling Jamie that “I Can Do Better Than That.”  There were some tweaks to lyrics (I’m wondering why?) and more props were used than you usually see (again I’m wondering why?) Their were some other questionable directing decisions (Jamie in profile singing off stage at one point) and some lighting miscues, but overall, the music and their well-nuanced performances stole the show.

The Last Five Years runs 90 emotional minutes with no intermission to break the flow. There’s only one more performance on Sunday, July 26 at 2pm. Tickets are modestly priced and the popcorn aroma (yes, it’s real and popped on-site) is intoxicating. Seeing another century-old gem of a theatre that is restored and saved is worth the drive to Gowanda. A solid performance there is the bonus. Support local theatre. Find details at https://www.gowandahollywoodtheater.com/.