Show Synopsis:
Cathy, a struggling actress, and Jamie, an author, tell the story of their five-year relationship in this song cycle. Cathy's story goes in reverse while Jamie's goes in order, and they only meet in the middle at their wedding. After dating and marrying, Jamie finds that he can't keep himself from cheating on Cathy, and they divorce.
Character:
Cathy Hiatt, an actress who transforms backwards from feeling helpless and disbelieving about her relationship with Jamie to fresh-faced and optimistic about her career and love life; not exceedingly self-confident but a hard worker
Song Context:
Cathy is in Ohio doing summerstock theatre, which she feels is below her. She is writing Jamie a letter to tell him that she would rather be with him than where she is and talks about the interesting qualities of her fellow actors.
Fun Fact:
1) The role of Cathy is based on Jason Robert Brown's relationship and former marriage with Theresa O'Neill. O'Neill threatened to sue Brown if it was too biographical, so he rewrote a song into "Shiksa Goddess" to lessen the similarity.
2) Betsy Wolfe, who played Cathy in the 2013 Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years, previously performed on Broadway with Sherie Rene Scott in Scott's semi-autobiographical musical Everyday Rapture. Scott played the role of Cathy in the original Chicago production and sang the role on the original cast recording.
3) The cost of making a cast recording was rising rapidly, so the original cast recording of The Last Five Years was made by the small record company Scott and her husband had founded, Sh-K-Boom Records.
"I could have a mansion on the hill,
I could lease a villa in Seville
But it wouldn't be as nice as a summer in Ohio
With a gay midget named Karl, playing Tevia and Porgy.
I could wander Paris after dark,
Take a carriage ride through Central Park,
But it wouldn't be as nice as a summer in Ohio
Where I'm sharing a room with a ""former"" stripper and her snake: Wayne.
I could have a satchel full of dollar bills,
Cures for all the nations ills,
Pills to make a lion purr.
I could be in line to be the British queen,
Look like I was seventeen,
Still I'm certain I'd prefer to be going slowly batty
Forty miles east of Cincinnati
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.
I saw your book at a Border's in Kentucky
Under a sign that said ""New and Recommended.""
I stole a look at your picture on the inside sleeve and then I couldn't leave.
Richard, who was with me, got uncharacteristically quiet
And he said, ""All things considered, I guess you don't have to buy it""
So I smile like Mona Lisa, and I lay my Visa down.
He wants me, he wants me, but he ain't gonna get me.
I've found my guiding light, I tell the stars each night
""Look at me, look at him,
Son of a bitch, I guess I'm doing something right!""
I finally got something right!
No, it's not Nirvana, but it's on the way.
I play Anita at the matinee
Then I'll get on my knees, and pray I can state in my next bio
""I'm never gonna go back to Ohio!""
I could chew on tin foil for a spell,
I could get a root canal in hell,
But it wouldn't be as swell as this summer is gonna be!
'Cause the torture is just exquisite, while I'm waiting for you to visit
So hurry up, schmuck, get unstuck and get on the scene.
Love,
The midget, the stripper, Wayne the snake, and Mrs. Jamie Wellerstein
That's me!"