{"id":382089,"date":"2026-04-08T21:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/382089\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T21:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:51:14","slug":"rachel-zegler-and-ben-platt-find-the-last-five-years-bliss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/382089\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt Find \u2018The Last Five Years\u2019 Bliss"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n In Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt, the show has finally found its ideal performers.
\n Photo: Playbill\/YouTube\n <\/p>\n

This article ran in\u00a0Stage\u00a0Whisperer, Vulture\u2019s newsletter about all things theater. Subscribe\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to get it weekly!<\/p>\n

For the last five years, and the five years before that, and, yes, the five years before that, I have been in search of a perfect production of Jason Robert Brown\u2019s The Last Five Years \u2014 the story of a doomed relationship between a successful young writer and a struggling actress, recounted in song by both the husband (Jamie, who starts at its romantic beginning) and the wife (Cathy, who starts at its devastating end).<\/p>\n

I discovered the show in a manner that may be familiar to some: A friend who had used the musical\u2019s songs for auditions told me about it. I was in a serious yet still burgeoning relationship at the time, and she thought I\u2019d be interested in the plot. She was right. The two of us blasted her CD of Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Renie Scott in our college-dorm suite almost daily, trying to piece together exactly why Jamie Wellerstein and Cathy Hiatt couldn\u2019t make it work and who was more at fault. I wanted to see the show performed live but harbored little hope of that ever happening. Brown\u2019s ex-wife had sued when it was produced Off Broadway, and he had decided \u2014 for legal reasons or because the piece was too personal \u2014 not to mount it again.<\/p>\n

But, six years after my first listen, Brown changed his mind and an Off Broadway production arrived at Second Stage. I watched it rapt \u2014 like a couples counselor finally seeing her patients in person after years of stilted phone calls. I went back less than a year later for a concert version with the same cast (Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor) at 54 Below. Two years later came a film (starring Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick) that I\u2019ve seen at least three times. And less than a year ago, I bought myself a ticket and cringed my way through the long-awaited and much-derided Broadway iteration starring Adrienne Warren and Nick Jonas.<\/p>\n

Through all these viewings,\u00a0I\u2019ve gleaned a critical truth about this show: The stronger singer gains the audience\u2019s sympathy. Therefore, for the show to truly succeed in leaving the audience in a state of ambiguity about the relationship, both leads must be megawatt talents. For a variety of reasons (mostly having to do with fame), that particular breed of even-enough casting hasn\u2019t happened with any of the revivals I\u2019ve managed to see here in New York.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Radio City Music Hall on Monday evening; my playbill at last year\u2019s Nick Jonas-starring production.Photos: Courtesy of the author.\n <\/p>\n

\n Radio City Music Hall on Monday evening; my playbill at last year\u2019s Nick Jonas-starring production.Photos: Courtesy of the author.\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n With my friend Rory (left) \u2014 a fellow Last Five Years connoisseur \u2014 at a screening of the film in 2015 followed by a talk-back with Jason Robert Brown (center).
\n Photo: Courtesy of the author\n <\/p>\n

Then, on Monday night, I went to Radio City Music Hall and watched Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler finally achieve Last Five Years nirvana. It felt a little strange to watch a story so small and so human on the same stage where the Rockettes perform their kick line, but I quickly adjusted, getting lost in the familiar melodies and refrains. Thousands of L5Y superfans \u2014 as well as more than a smattering of hard-core Zegler and Platt stans \u2014 sat in perfect silence, eyes fixed on the stage and the two large screens flanking it. Platt\u2019s and Zegler\u2019s voices flawlessly alternated from song to song, reaching the rafters with heartbreak and humor, yearning and love. In Platt\u2019s thoughtful care, Jamie\u2019s prominent Jewishness, which is often under- or overplayed, came off genuine and warm, adding new depth to the musical and making his character \u2014 even when he cheats \u2014 sympathetic. Though his \u201cShiksa Goddess\u201d could have been funnier, he was a perfect Jamie in every other number, particularly in his devastating penultimate song, \u201cNobody Needs to Know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zegler, meanwhile, was completely dazzling; her Cathy had an exuberance and complexity that made it obvious why Platt\u2019s initially insecure Jamie had fallen hard so fast. She is far and away the greatest Cathy I\u2019ve ever seen, and her voice is among the very best in musical theater right now. I\u2019m still thinking about her rendition of \u201cSummer in Ohio,\u201d which included vocal choices that somehow made the notoriously challenging song \u2014 a popular showcase for auditioners looking to show off their skills \u2014 even more stunning.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m much older and more cynical than I was when I first listened to The Last Five Years, and going in, I didn\u2019t expect the story to hit the way it had before I had kids, lost a parent, made it through 16 years of marriage (and counting), and learned that there are worse things than two 20-somethings in love breaking up. But from my perch in the second mezzanine, the original fascination and rapture I encountered in my dorm came flooding right back. It may have taken a quarter century, but The Last Five Years has, at last, been successfully revived. The proof: It\u2019s been 48 hours since the curtain call and I\u2019m still humming the tunes to myself and quietly mulling over whether Cathy and Jamie\u2019s marriage could have somehow been saved.<\/p>\n

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