The Last Five Years

Hot Reject Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

You know the “showtune sound?” Of course you do! The Little Mermaid oozes with it, same with The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. As soon as you hear a song from a showtune, you know immediately it spent some time on Broadway, or way, way, way off Broadway! If nothing else, they’re catchy, and often, I find myself humming them. When someone asks, “what are you singing?” You’re almost embarrassed to say, “Under the Sea!”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t until five songs into it before I felt the showtime vibe. Is that good? I don’t know–just different. Some of the tunes were catchy, but some were just ok—not hum worthy for sure. One of the singers was markedly better than the other, but both seemed to lose their key at one time or another. On occasion, they “reached” for that extra octave, and they probably shouldn’t have. I loved the quartet in the background and sometimes, it was fun just to watch them play.

At 90 minutes, I found it a tad long. There were a couple of songs that didn’t fit into the flow and seemed out of place. It would be a much tighter effort at 60 minutes.

The house erupted with a standing “o” after the show. I felt somewhat like a cad being the only one not standing but apologetically, it is not standing material. It’s good, even very good, but not outstanding. I have a feeling that there were a lot of friends and family in the audience propelling the enthusiasm.

Ray Yuen

The Last Five Years

Hot Reject Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

I thought The Last Five Years was fantastic, the actors had beautiful chemistry together, and I loved how accurately they depicted the relationship. I thought the turning of the boxes to show the passage of time was soooo smart and really helped me understand what was going on and when.

The singing was great and the acting was phenomenal. Overall great show.

Al Gilbert