Jennifer Paz in "The Last Five Years (Photo: Michael Lamont)
OK, so you can’t actually go until the new production at East West Players actually opens on Wednesday. You can, however, attend previews this weekend.
I am, I admit, a fan of Jason Robert Brown’s two person musical, “The Last Five Years.” I’ve seen it three times now -- Burbank, Pasadena, Laguna Beach, and I’m not sure any of them were the definitive production. East West Players’ effort promises to be different, if for no other reason than its casting.
Based on the breakup of the composer’s own first marriage, “The Last Five Years” chronicles the demise of a relationship between writer Jamie Wellerstein and his actress wife Catherine Hiatt. Jamie’s take is told forwards, from the first meeting. Cathy’s is told backwards from the breakup. The two characters interact only once, at their wedding.
Director Jon Lawrence Rivera of Playwrights’ Arena, directed a bang up production of Brown’s song collection “Songs for a New World” at the Los Angeles Theatre Center a good six years ago.
As for the casting, well, Michael C. Lee probably doesn’t fit the bill of a Jewish writer anymore than Jennifer Paz matches up as the blonde “shiksa goddess” Cathy. But that’s how things work at East West: Asian American actors play all roles even those not conceived for them. So, like I said, this won’t be a traditional staging.
Because “Last Five Years” is a one act, East West has paired it with the Stephen Sondheim mini musical “Marry me a Little,” an assortment of tunes cut from Sondheim shows and cobbled together in a romance minded revue. When the Pasadena Playhouse did “Last Five Years,” they too did a second quickie musical -- “I do! I do!,” performing the two plays in repertory rather than as part of a single evening. Not so, East West where you’ll get two for the price of one.
“Marry me a Little” has a different director, Jules Aaron, and different actors Mike Dalager and Jennifer Hubilla. If I recall, “Marry Me” doesn’t have any cultural pointers to its Man and Woman characters. I’m fairly certain the play has also been staged from time to time with two men.
The shows are in previews this weekend, opening Wednesday and running through June 7 at EWP’s David Henry Hwang Theatre, 120 Judge John Aiso St. in Little Tokyo. (213) 625-7000 or visit www.eastwestplayers.org.
Also opening this weekend:
“Crowns,” a co production between Ebony Repertory Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse, Regina Taylor’s much produced musical about “hat queens” in the south will have its opening at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center this weekend ( 4718 W. Washington Blvd., L.A.) before moving to the Pasadena Playhouse (39 S. El Molino Ave) in July. Israel Hicks directs. Info: (323) 964-9766, www.ebonyrep.org, www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.
“Bingo with the Indians:” Rogue Machine’s new Off the Clock series is for the late night crowd, with curtain at 10:30 p.m. In this play by Adam Rapp, a trio of New York theater artists gather in a New England motel for some scheming and seedy behavior. It’s at Theatre/Theater, 5041 W. Pico Blvd., L.A., through June 7. (323) 960-7774, www.plays411.com
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