The Last Five Years
Click to viewAllie and I went to go see two 1-act plays last night. The first was called Marry Me a Little and pretty much just reaffirmed the fact that I don't care for Stephen Sondheim that much. It's a confusing tale of two people spending the night alone in their apartments but the apartments overlap so you're never quite sure if these two have actually interacted at one point and it went wrong or if they're thinking of other people as they sing their tales of hope and despair in the world of love.
The second play was The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown. I have a new crush and it's on this musical. The songs are amazing and the actors killed it. There was a piano player, a guitarist, and a couple of chairs on stage. That was it, but it was riveting. If you have a chance to check it out, I would highly recommend it. Oh, and if you YouTube the show you'll find the guy lead was originally played by Norbert Leo Butz so I can't help but imagine it being performed by him and Idina now (because everything comes back to Idina).
The play is a he said/she said but the twist comes from the fact that the female character (Cathy) starts at the end point and works her way back to the beginning of the relationship and the male (Jamie) goes in the normal chronological order so halfway through the play they switch at their engagement so there is always the juxtaposition of the build up to their relationship with the end of it. Brilliant.
I will say that the two of these plays were probably not the best thing to see this close to a breakup. The Last Five Years was especially hard to watch because they are so in love in the beginning and it's just so sad to see it fall apart. It took them five years to meet, fall in love, get married, and have it all fall apart. To say that hit a little close to home is an understatement. I oddly feel a better today, though, than I have the past few days. Maybe seeing it acted out was a bit cathartic.
The thing is, I don't know if I have the courage to keep looking for that special someone. I loved and lost and I don't know that I'll have the strength to go through that again. Some people can. They can take the couple of weeks/months/years of good times and its worth the heartache at the end. They are tougher people than I am. Right now I'm at the point where I'm like, "I like cats. I can totally be the old lady living by herself with a couple of cats to keep me company and friends who stop by when they want to get away from their significant other for a spell."