FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: April 22, 2005
Contact: Christa Skiles
Public Relations Director
513-345-2242, ext. 232
PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK CONCLUDES ITS 2004-2005
SEASON WITH JASON ROBERT BROWN'S THE LAST FIVE YEARS, MAY
21-JUNE 19
(CINCINNATI) – The 2004-2005 Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
season concludes with Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years,
a charming and bittersweet musical that proves there really are two sides
to every love story. The show begins public previews on May 21 and continues
through June 19.
Jamie is a writer enjoying his first taste of success. Cathy is an actress
struggling to make it. Over the span of five years, they fall in love and fall
apart. Their relationship embodies some of the most universal and occasionally
heartbreaking moments of modern romance: meeting the parents for the first
time, spending the first holidays together, enduring the first separations
as a newly married couple and celebrating career successes while commiserating
lows. The twist here is that, as Jamie tells their story from the beginning,
Cathy recounts it in reverse. The two meet only in the middle, on their wedding
day. The clues and overlapping information that each provides — only
fully realized when heard from both perspectives — help to reveal how
together they lived, loved and lost their way.
The Last Five Years originally was commissioned by Lincoln
Center Theater and was developed at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre,
where it premiered in May 2001 and was described by The Chicago
Tribune as featuring “exhilaration so intense that it brings
tears of joy … bursting with newfound talent, it is a triumph
for everyone involved.”
Composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown has been hailed as one of Broadway's
smartest and most sophisticated songwriters. The Last Five Years was
cited as one of Time magazine’s 10 Best of 2001 and won
Drama Desk Awards for best music and best lyrics. Mr. Brown won a 1999
Tony Award for his score to Parade, a musical written with Alfred
Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which premiered at Lincoln Center
Theater and won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics’ Circle
awards for best new musical. His first musical Songs for a New World,
a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, played off-Broadway
at the WPA Theatre.
Mr. Brown is the winner of the 2002 Kleban Award for outstanding lyrics
and the 1996 Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for musical
theatre. His other work includes incidental music for Kimberly Akimbo,
Fuddy Meers, Last Dance, Current Events, The Waverly Gallery and
the Irish Repertory Theater’s production of Long Day's Journey
into the Night, and he was a Tony Award nominee for his contributions
to the score of Urban Cowboy the Musical. Mr. Brown studied
composition at the Eastman School of Music. He now lives in New York
City and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the American Federation
of Musicians.
The cast for The Last Five Years includes Heather Ayers (who previously
appeared in the Playhouse productions of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now
Change and Beehive) as Catherine and D.B. Bonds, making his Playhouse
debut as Jamie.
The play is directed by Dennis Courtney, a Cincinnati native who attended high
school in Anderson and college at the University of Cincinnati. He helmed the
Playhouse production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change in
2000.
Other members of the production team include Brian c. Mehring (set designer),
David Kay Mickelsen (costume designer), Betsy Adams (lighting designer), Chuck
Hatcher (sound designer) and Ed Goldschneider (music director). The stage manager
is Jenifer Morrow.
Tickets to The Last Five Years are on sale now. Prices range from
$44-$52, depending on day and seat location. All tickets are $37 for the preview
performances at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 21; 7 p.m. Sunday, May 22; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday,
May 24; and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 25. The official opening night is Thursday,
May 26 at 8 p.m.
Any unreserved tickets are half-price every day when purchased between 11 a.m.
and 5 p.m. on the day of the show (for performances Tuesday through Saturday)
and from 12 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The Playhouse is fully accessible. Audio enhancement
receivers, large print programs and complete wheelchair access are available.
For tickets to The Last Five Years or for more information, call the
Playhouse box office at 513/421-3888 or toll-free in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana
at 800/582-3208. Call 513/345-2248 for TDD accessibility. For single tickets
purchased by telephone through the Playhouse box office there is a $3 convenience
fee per call. Tickets also can be purchased on the Playhouse web site at www.cincyplay.com.
Artists fly to and from Cincinnati on Delta Connection Comair, the Playhouse’s
official airline.
The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands
of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage
economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
The Playhouse also receives funding from the City of Cincinnati.
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Special Performances
Meet the Artists
These free programs allow audiences to interact with cast members and others
associated with the production following the show.
2 p.m. Sunday, May 29
2 p.m. Sunday, June 5
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 8
8 p.m. Thursday, June 16
Dining Options
Karlo's Bistro at the Playhouse offers full-service dining prior to most evening
performances. Dinners include salad, entrée and dessert. Reservations
are required at least 24 hours in advance. The price is $21. Karlo's Casual
Fare offers busy theatre patrons an alternative light, quick bite prior to
the show. Options include salads, sandwiches, soups, pasta and desserts.
No reservations are required.
Sponsors
Production Sponsor:
National City Bank
Fine Arts Fund Partner:
Federated Department Stores, Inc.
The 2004-2005 Thompson Shelterhouse Theatre Series is presented by
Heidelberg
Distributing Co.
The Marx Season Design Sponsor is
The Sheakley Group of Companies.
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