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A Sunday treat: Staged reading of The Last Five Years at Williamston Theatre
WILLIAMSTON - The Williamston Theatre continues its Summer Staged Reading Series with a unique reading, or rather singing, of the haunting musical The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown, a shining star in the musical theater genre. The reading will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 28.
The Last Five Years is an intimate, two-person musical that tells the compelling story of Jamie, a nice Jewish boy, and Kathleen, a good Irish-Catholic girl, who fall in love, get married and fall apart over the course of five years. Jamie is an emerging novelist enjoying his first taste of success, while Kathleen is a struggling actress having trouble hitting it big, making their musical duet by turns wildly funny and crushingly sad.
Brown has employed an unusual temporal shift in the piece, with Kathleen starting at the end of the marriage and working her way back, while Jamie begins on their first date and works his way forward. Musically, Brown's score navigates the minefields of love and marriage through soulful, soaring music and lyrics that evoke contemporary pop songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, combined with the theatrical styles of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. Traditional Jewish and Irish musical themes are also played against the sounds, pace and complexity of contemporary life in New York City.
The reading will feature Kevin T. Young (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)) as Jamie and Emily Sutton-Smith (The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds) as Kathleen.
This show does contain adult language and content.
The Williamston Theatre is located at 122 S Putnam St. in downtown Williamston. Admission is a suggested donation of $5 at the door. Please note seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The Williamston Theatre is mid-Michigan's newest not-for-profit, professional live theater company, dedicated to producing plays that excite, engage and entertain its audiences. The theatre opened its doors in 2006 and has received a number of local awards, including the 2008 Robert Busby Award for extraordinary overall contribution to theatre in the Greater Lansing Area.
Additional information about the Williamston Theatre is available online at www.williamstontheatre.org or by calling 517-655-7469.
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