The Last Five Years

2001 musical

The Last Five Years is a one act musical written by Jason Robert Brown and produced off-Broadway in March of 2002. It explores the five-year relationship between Jamie, a rising novelist, and Cathy, a struggling actress.

Jamie plays out the story from the start of the relationship to its end, and Cathy does so in reverse chronological order--their time lines converging and then diverging in the song "The Next Ten Minutes" which depicts their wedding.


Shiksa Goddess edit

  • Jamie: If you had a tattoo, that wouldn't matter
    If you had a shaved head, that would be cool
    If you came from Spain or Japan
    Or the back of a van
    Just as long as you're not from Hebrew school

See I'm Smiling edit

  • Cathy: No, Jamie, you do not have to go to another party
    With the same twenty jerks you already know
    You can stay with your wife on her fucking birthday
    And you could, God forbid, even see my show

You know I could never understand. How you could stand there straight and tall. And see I'm crying and not do anything at all.

Moving Too Fast edit

  • Jamie: Some people analyze every detail
    Some people stall when they can't see the trail
    Some people freeze out of fear that they'll fail
    But I keep rolling on
    Some people can't get success with their art
    Some people never feel love in their heart
    Some people can't tell the two things apart

A Part of That edit

  • Cathy: Then he smiles and where else can I go?
    I didn't know, the rules do not apply
    And then he smiles and nothing else makes sense
    While he invents the world that's passing by

The Schmuel Song edit

  • Jamie: And sewn into the seams
    Were forty-one seasons of dreams
    Dreams that you could feel coming real
    And that very dress, so the papers swore
    Was the dress a girl in Odessa wore
    On the day she promised forevermore
    To love a young man named Schmuel
    Who only one day before
    Had knocked at her kitchen door.

Have I mentioned today? How lucky I am, to be in love with you.

A Summer in Ohio edit

  • Cathy: I could shove an ice pick in my eye
    I could eat some fish from last July
    But it wouldn't be as awful as a summer in Ohio
    Without cable, hot water, Vietnamese food, or you

The Next Ten Minutes edit

  • Jamie: Will you share your life with me
    For the next ten minutes?
    For the next ten minutes?
    We can handle that
  • Jamie: And if we make it till then
    Can I ask you again for another ten?
    And if you in turn agree to the next ten minutes
    And the next ten minutes 'til the morning comes
    Then just holding you might compel me to ask you for more
  • Jamie: Will you share your life with me
    For the next ten lifetimes?
    For a million summers
    Jamie and Cathy: 'Til the world explodes
    'Til there's no one left who has ever known us apart?

A Miracle Would Happen/When You Come Home to Me edit

  • Jamie: Everyone tells you that the minute you get married
    Every other woman in the world suddenly finds you attractive
    Well, that's not true
    It only affects the kind of women you always wanted to sleep with
    But they wouldn't give you the time of day before
  • Jamie: And in a perfect world
    A miracle would happen
    And every girl would look like Mister Ed

Climbing Uphill edit

  • Cathy: Why is the director staring at his crotch?
    Why is that man staring at my resume?
    Don't stare at my resume
    I made up half my resume
    Look at me, stop looking at that, look at me
    No, not at my shoes, don't look at my shoes
    I hate these fucking shoes
    Why'd I pick these shoes?
    Why'd I pick this song?
    Why'd I pick this career?
    Why does this pianist hate me?

If I Didn't Believe In You edit

  • Jamie: No one can give you courage
    No one can thicken your skin
    I will not fail so you can be comfortable, Cathy
    I will not lose because you can't win

Nobody Needs to Know edit

  • Jamie: We build a tree house, I keep it from shaking
    Little more glue every time that it breaks
    Perfectly balanced, and then I start making
    Conscious, deliberate mistakes

Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You edit

  • Jamie: You never saw how far the crack had opened
    You never knew I had run out of rope
    And I could never rescue you
    All you ever wanted
    But I could never rescue you
    No matter how I try
    All I could do was love you hard and let you go.

External links edit

 
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