✩The Last 5 Years

Okay, so, in my last blog post I talked about how I spoke to my brother to gain his insight on my project. He gave me countless ideas, as well as another piece of media for me to examine. Today, I’ll be discussing the musical, “The Last 5 Years.” It is a movie as well, but I’ll only be discussing the musical version. If you're interested in watching, here's a link to watch the musical :).

(The playbill for the Broadway production of “The Last 5 Years.” )


This show follows the relationship of Jamie and Cathy as it starts and ends, and the aforementioned characters are the only ones the audience sees through the duration of the performance. If you check out the Wikipedia page for the musical, it’ll explain what happens in each scene of the show. I found it to be confusing, so I’ll take over.


The show opens with Cathy lamenting over her ex, Jamie. Since this is a musical, it is important to notice that all of the storytelling is done via song. After she finishes, the story switches to Jamie singing about how excited he is over a girl he just met, this being Cathy. At this point, one might be confused if the two are talking about the same person or not, since Cathy has already broken up with a man named Jamie while he has just met a woman named Cathy. This is where the reverse timeline comes in. Both characters are talking about the same relationship, but from both different perspectives and points in time. Jamie is telling the story from its beginning to end, while Cathy is describing her POV from finish to finish.


To simplify, Jamie is traveling forwards in time as Cathy travels backward.


Throughout the show, the two continue singing through the story in their respective directions. In almost every scene, each character stands alone as they perform, which makes it easier to differentiate between the opposing timelines and minimize confusion. It also provides for some very cool moments when the characters do come together. The characters unite at both the moment Jamie proposes and at the end of the musical. Here, Cathy is telling about her first time meeting Jamie and how excited she is about their budding relationship. Jamie, on the other hand, is bidding his final farewell to Cathy. When she says “goodbye, until tomorrow!” Jamie simply says “goodbye.”


“The Last 5 Years” gives me some interesting thoughts on how I want to make my film. I’ll discuss these thoughts in my next blog post.


Thank you for reading!! Have a lovely day/night <3