NHS Black Box To Present ‘The Last Five Years’

Newtown High School will present this year’s Black Box Musical, The Last Five Years, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, Thursday through Sunday, May 14-17. Performances will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8, with one matinee on Sunday at 2:30.

The Last Five Years is an emotionally powerful and intimate musical about two New Yorkers in their twenties who fall in and out of love over the course of five years. The show’s unconventional structure consists of Cathy, the woman, telling her story backward, while Jamie, the man, tells his story chronologically. The two characters only meet once, at their wedding in the middle of the show.

Jason Robert Brown won Drama Desk Awards for the music and the lyrics after its off-Broadway premiere in 2002 starring Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott. The show has since been produced at almost every major regional theater in the United State, and has been seen in Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Spain.

The NHS production stars four students who will make up the two-person cast, alternating performances. Kristin Stoller, a junior, and Jake Eventoff, a sophomore, will play the roles on Thursday and Saturday, while Hannah DeFlumeri, a junior, and Jake Woolf, a senior, will play the roles on Friday and Sunday.

The production and music is directed by NHS choral director John Harned, and produced by NHS teacher Abi Marks. The show is student produced by junior Bianca Crudo, and is being stage managed by sophomore Gabby Milano. Junior Wesley Yllanes is the lighting designer.

The performance will take place at the NHS Auditorium, 12 Berkshire Road in Sandy Hook. Admission is $10, payable at the door and are only sold at the door. The theater opens 30 minutes before show time and seating is limited. For more information visit www.nhschoral.com.