Broadway tour of "Parade" at the Orpheum Theatre

Last night, the National Tour of the 2023 Tony winner for best revival of a musical opened right here in Minneapolis. Parade premiered on Broadway in 1998 and ran for only three months, but won the Tony for score (Jason Robert Brown, his first of two Tonys, the second for The Bridges of Madison County) and book (playwright Alfred Uhry, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Driving Miss Daisy). Almost 25 years later it was revived in a stunning and devastating production that I was fortunate to see.* I'm so glad that it's going on tour, because this is a story that America needs to see right now. Unfortunately, this very American story of antisemitism, racism, otherism, corruption in the judicial and political systems, fearmongering, mob violence, and media distortion of the facts only gets more relevant with each passing day. Heavy subject for a musical? Yes, but not all musicals need to be light and happy. In fact the best ones delve into heavy issues and shed light on the dark places of our past and present, and do it with gorgeous music that evokes the emotions of the story better than a history book or even a play ever could. Twin Cities theater-goers should feel honored to be the first ones in the country to experience this brilliant production, and if you're a fan of meaningful and relevant music-theater that's also beautiful to watch and listen to, go see Parade (through Sunday only - click here for info and tickets, including group sales and student/educator rush).

"The Last Five Years" by Bunce Performing Arts and Hidden Gem Productions at the Phoenix Theater

Jason Robert Brown's two-person musical The Last Five Years is beloved by musical theater nerds, for it's ingenious structure (one person tells the story chronologically and the other backwards, meeting for one moment in the middle) and the cycle of songs that tell the full story of a relationship - beginning, middle, end. It's not infrequently done (most recently seen at Lyric Arts earlier this year), but it's also not easy. Neither character is particularly likeable, which can cause frustration. But maybe they're not supposed to be likeable, just flawed messy humans like all of us. A lovely new production of The Last Five Years runs just one more weekend, as part of a Collaboration Series by Bunce Performing Arts, which specializes in free outdoor summer musicals. For this show they've partnered with new company Hidden Gem Productions and first-time director/producer Luke Peterson. The simple staging really allows JRB's gorgeous songs to shine, as performed by two talented new-to-me singers who bring out all of the emotions. I've seen The Last Five Years six times now, and this was one of my favorite productions. You can see it this weekend at the Phoenix Theater (yes, it's still open despite the construction on Hennepin - I recommend parking on 26th).

"The Last Five Years" at Lyric Arts

Jason Robert Brown truly is one of the best living musical theater composers, his scores viscerally capturing the emotions of the characters and stories. His two-person musical The Last Five Years, inspired by his first (failed) marriage, is a gorgeous song cycle of relationship songs, from funny to heart-breaking. It's almost entirely sung through (in what should be 90 minutes), with the two characters telling their shared story in opposing directions. It's a clever device that not only creates an interesting narrative, but also parallels the story being told - two people who never quite get on the same track. Lyric Arts' production is perfectly cast, with a lush onstage six-piece orchestra, and design elements that add to the storytelling. See this lovely and heart-breaking musical at Lyric Arts in Anoka now through February 11.

NYC Theater Trip 2023: "Parade" at the Barnard B. Jacobs Theatre

Show*: 5

Title: Parade

Location: Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre

Written By: book by Alfred Uhry, music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

Summary: A revival of the winner of the 1999 best book and score Tonys, based on the true story of a Jewish man in Atlanta wrongly accused of murder and lynched by a mob.

Highlights: Jason Robert Brown's score is gorgeous, haunting, and unsettling. As always he perfectly captures the emotions of the story in music. And the story of Leo Frank is a dark one. A Jewish man from Brooklyn who married a local woman and ran a pencil factory in Atlanta, he was an easy scapegoat when a 14-year old girl who worked at the factory was found dead in the basement. Politicians used the case to further their career, using the anti-semitism of the community and promising to "clean up" the South, and witnesses were bribed to falsify testimony. Leo was convicted by "a jury of his peers," and when the governor eventually commuted his death sentence to a life sentence after re-examining evidence, an angry but well organized mob kidnapped him from prison, transported him to the girl's hometown, and hung him from a tree. A brutal subject for a musical, but a timely and important one with the recent rise of anti-semitism. Ben Platt (Evan Hansen all grown up) is as good as expected, a beautiful and sober performance both vocally and emotionally. As Leo's wife Lucille, his staunch defender, Micaela Diamond is a great match, with a gorgeously strong voice full of emotion. The whole cast is fantastic, many of them playing unlikable characters. The raised platform on the stage puts the main action on display, with the cast often sitting in chairs around it. The stage is decorated with early 20th Century Americana, and also a few Confederate flags - disturbing to see (the show opens during the Civil War, showing the history of bigotry in the South). As each character is introduced, the historical figure's name and photo is displayed on the back wall of the theater, reminding us that this is a true story.

Seeing Parade is a beautiful and highly emotional experience. This is not a show to see to forget the problems of the day, but rather to take a square look at the often disturbing history of this country, and how that history is reflected in the present. e.g., a Neo Nazi group protested the first preview of this show - 110 years later and this ugliness still exists in our country. The power of this show is that it gives emotion and humanity to this story that Jason Robert Brown calls "a signal event in the history of antisemitism and white supremacist terrorism in this country, and the case was behind both the creation of the Anti-Defamation League and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan." What better subject for music-theater to shine a light on?

*Once again, I'm using an abbreviated Fringe-style summary for my NYC 2023 trip, since I am in the greatest city in the world with much more exciting things to do than write! Click here to see all of my Broadway-related blog posts.

"The Last Five Years" at Artistry

If you're a musical theater nerd, I don't need to tell you what an ingenious piece Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years is. A simple story of a relationship told from both sides, one chronologically forwards, one chronologically backwards. Premiering in Chicago and Off-Broadway in the early aughts, L5Y received a bit of a resurgence recently due to the recent movie adaptation; Artistry's nearly sold-out show is the fourth local production I've seen in (sorry) the last five years. And I have to say, I enjoy it a little more each time I see it. In fact I very much enjoyed this production, partly because of my familiarity with the complexities of the piece, and partly because it's really well done. The Black Box space is small enough to provide the intimacy the piece needs, with just a sparse two-person band, and a truly fantastic young cast in Aly Westberg O'Keeffe and Ryan London Levin. The run is nearly sold out, so call the box office if you want to get into this one (continuing through February 11, more info here).

"Songs for a New World" by Minneapolis Musical Theatre at Bryant-Lake Bowl

"Rare Musicals. Well Done." Minneapolis Musical Theatre can check another well done rare musical off their list with their current production of Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World. The first musical written by JRB, who has since gone on to win two Tony Awards for best score (Parade in 1999 and The Bridges of Madison County in 2014, through which I recently fell in love with his music), SFANW is less a musical than a song cycle. There's no plot or throughline, just four actor/singers performing seemingly disconnected songs, but all centered around the theme of that one defining moment in life. In a way, it's a dozen musicals in one; each song is like a mini-musical unto itself, telling a complete story and defining character(s). It's a fantastic collection of songs, some funny, some sad, some poignant, some all of the above. MMT does a great job bringing these songs to life with just four chairs and a keyboard (and percussion) on a bare stage at Bryant Lake Bowl.

"The Bridges of Madison County" on Tour at the Orpheum Theatre

I'm not usually a fan of turning movies into musicals, but when Jason Robert Brown is the composer, I'm on board. I've been listening to the exquisite cast recording of the 2014 Broadway musical The Bridges of Madison County (adapted from the 1992 best-seller novel by Robert James Waller and the 1995 movie) since hearing a few songs at Musical Mondays last month, and I'm obsessed. It was a thrill to hear this gorgeous score live and watch the story play out around and through it, a story of impossible but life-changing love. The show inexplicably ran only a few months on Broadway, but lucky for us the first national tour is stopping at the Orpheum Theatre this week. If you're a fan of music-theater, or just music in general, go see the show to experience one of the best scores coming out of Broadway in recent years, wrapped up in a sweeping romance.

"The Last Five Years" by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company at the Hillcrest Center Theater

This was my second time seeing the Jason Robert Brown cult hit musical The Last Five Years, and I think I enjoyed it more the second time around. It's a complicated piece, both in structure and emotion, so it benefits from repeated viewings. This production by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company employs a much simpler staging than the Flip Theatre production I saw last fall, with minimal set pieces and no microphones, which serve the intimate two-person 90-minute musical well. Already familiar with the story and structure, I was better able to appreciate the emotion of the story and Jason Robert Brown's fantastic score.

The premise is simple, but told in a complex way. A man and woman meet, fall in love, grow apart, and split up. The unique thing about this familiar story is that one half of the couple tells the story (through song) chronologically, while the other half is simultaneously working through the story backwards from the end. The show begins with a heartbroken Cathy singing about the end of her marriage and a newly lovestruck Jamie singing about this girl he just met. The two timelines cross in the middle when Jamie proposes to Cathy, and continue on to their ultimate conclusions - Cathy happy and hopeful at the beginning of the relationship, Jamie sad and conflicted at the end. It's quite fascinating to watch a relationship grow and disintegrate at the same time, and see how much these two people love each other but realize that they just can't make it work.

Matt Rein as Jamie
and Sarah Shervey as Cathy

As Cathy, Sarah Shervey* is sweet and sympathetic, with a lovely voice. Matt Rein as Jamie is charming and much more likeable than my first experience with the show. In a post-show talk back, director Kevin Dutcher (who does a fine job with this "puzzle" of a piece) said they made a conscious decision to make Jamie less of a "dick," and it works. Seeing the show this time I didn't think that either one was solely to blame for the break-up, but could see that they both contributed to the sad conclusion. The interesting thing about this pieces is that you only see the couple connecting together for one moment in the middle, but Kevin chose to begin the show with a brief happy moment between the two so the audience could see just what it is that's lost. He calls their one duet "The Next Ten Minutes" the "payoff" for "desperately wanting to see them together," and he's right. The two characters might be on stage at the same time at several points throughout the show, but they're never together in the moment except for that one song, and it's all the more bittersweet for it.

On the small stage at the Hillcrest Center Theater, the four-piece band is behind a screen. The forefront of the stage consists of a few city sketches as backdrop, with simply a chair and table for furniture (set design by Dan Wold). There's very little transition time lost between scenes as one song flows into the next. In a piece like this, less is more.

There's no question that Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years is deserving of its popularity, and I welcomed the chance to spend more time with it. This is a nice production with a charming and talented cast, and a simple staging that lets the story and the songs shine through. Playing weekends only through March 2.



*I was told that both leads were sick with colds on the day I saw the show, so they might not have been at their best. But what I saw was still pretty great.

"The Last Five Years" by Flip Theatre Company at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage

The Last Five Years is a two-person musical by acclaimed composer Jason Robert Brown* that had it's off-Broadway debut in 2002. It's come to the forefront again this year with an off-Broadway revival and an impending movie. It also happens to be one of the favorite musicals of my blogger friend Bartley, aka The Playbill Collector, so I was eager to see the local production of the show by one of the newest theater companies in town, Flip Theatre Company, founded by actor Ben Bakken and director John Lynn (who directs this piece). I went into it knowing next to nothing about the show and never having heard the music, which is often a great way to experience a musical. I really enjoyed it - it's a beautiful score, with a sad love story (my favorite kind), two great performers, and a very well done production.

The Last Five Years tells the story of a relationship in a unique way. Cathy beings at the ending of this intense five-year relationship, when the two have decided to go their separate ways, and song by song works back to the beginning. Jamie starts at the beginning, when their love is fresh and new, and works his way through the hard times to the end. They meet in the middle at their engagement/wedding, and for one brief moment we see couple on the same page, together and happy. Otherwise it's a one-sided story, with the other person either off-stage or sitting quietly in the shadows, simply a prop but not reacting. It's an interesting and innovative way to tell a story. But because the two never really interact, I had a hard time really feeling their connection or understanding why and how it was broken.

Britta Ollmann (Cathy) and Bobby Gardner (Jamie)
(photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp)

I'm thrilled to see the return of Britta Ollmann to the Twin Cities stage. She was in one of my favorite shows of 2010, Violet, and when she sang I was taken right back there to that show.  Britta is so appealing with a strong, gorgeous, clear voice. She sings with emotion that cuts right to the heart, whether sad or happy or trying to convince herself that she's happy, so I easily sided with Cathy in the break-up. Bobby Gardner also sounds great as Jamie but I found his character less sympathetic (a newly married man complaining about all the beautiful women hitting on him is not going to garner sympathy from female audience members), but he almost won me over with the heartbreaking "Nobody Needs to Know." I've never heard any of these songs before but they're great - emotional or funny, hopeful or despairing. I think I need to listen to the score a few more times to truly appreciate them.

The music sounds great with the fabulous five-piece band directed with energy and precision by Jason Hansen, as always. But I wish the actors weren't miked. Maybe there are technical reasons involving the band that require them to be miked, but in the small space of the Garage with an intimate show like this, the story might be better served with no amplification. It's so rare that a musical is unmiked, but I find there's a much greater emotional impact when there's no amplification to come between the story and the audience (see Ordinary Days by Nautilus Music-Theater, which admittedly is a smaller space with just a piano accompaniment).

They've made great use of the space at the Theatre Garage, which has become one of my favorite places to see theater. The on-stage band is separated from the action by a bunch of empty frames hanging in mid-air. Two city stoops with doors are converted into a pier or a mantel, and various other set pieces are brought in for certain scenes. There are a lot of moving pieces but it's done relatively smoothly, keeping the momentum going through the scenes. The fast and frequent wardrobe changes (costumes by Suzanna Schneider) help to convey the progression of time.

This is a promising debut by Flip Theatre, and I look forward to their next venture. I hope they continue to do small, intimate, lesser-known musicals with a high-quality production, like The Last Five Years. This is a short run - just two weekends - so get there fast if you're interested (discount tickets available on Goldstar).


*This summer, the Guthrie commissioned musical theater composer Jason Robert Brown to write a song for their 50th anniversary. "Hamlet 3.2" was performed at the Gala Performance by Brian D'Arcy James and an ensemble of local talent, and it was fantastic.