Originally published on L.S. Media. 24th July 2012.
L.S. Media Rating * * * *
Cast: Helen Carter, Stephen Fletcher, Nick Phillips.
The course of true love never did run smooth, even less so when told over the period of five years and from two different perspectives and times. This is the premise of Jason Robert Brown’s enormously well written musical The Last Five Years.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Helen Carter, Stephen Fletcher.
There are times when a production can simply not be bettered, it has the most fantastic response to it and lingers on well in the memory as one of the absolute highlights of the theatre year. That production is The Last Five Years, it was considered by all who saw it at the Actor’s Studio, a rip roaring accomplished piece of art from start to finish. That is where the two productions stop being comparable, as Stephen Fletcher, one of the finest young actors in Liverpool and the exceptional Helen Carter bought Jason Robert Brown’s play back to the stage for the second time and in one fell swoop made it a gleaming example of artistic beauty, of tremendous fortitude and belief and overall simple elegance.