When The Last Five Years opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory back in July, it was the middle of a London heatwave and conditions were well near unbearable in the theatre, even though the Menier management tried to alleviate things by giving everyone a personal battery-operated fan (which most of us were then far too polite to actually use). It was, in any case, difficult to concentrate on Jason Robert Brown’s intricately layered autobiographical musical about the rise and fall of a marriage, though it was admirable to see the two actors Damian Humbley and Lara Pulver (for whom it must have been even hotter under the stage lights) managing to give such powerhouse performances despite the conditions.
But now that things have cooled down a bit, I went back to see it again at last night’s 6pm Sunday evening performance, and I’m glad I did. While the physical temperature has thankfully gone down and it is now possible to watch the show in a far most hospitable environment, the emotional temperature of the piece has shot right up, too. The two actors are now not merely more physically comfortable in the better weather conditions, but they now bring an intensity, intelligence and focus to this moving song cycle that makes it come to fully inhabited life. All tentativeness has gone.
Jason Robert Brown is back in town himself to see it tomorrow, and I’m sure he’ll be delighted with what he sees. And it was particularly pleasing that last night a substantial house were there to see it, too. The Menier is one of the London fringe’s most invigorating success stories – the fact that they can bring an audience to such a demanding and non-commercial piece for such a long run is amazing.
