07:27: go and hide and run away
run away, run and find something better
go and ride the sun away
run away like it's simple
like it's right...
give me a day, jamie
bring back the lies
hang them back on the wall
maybe i'd see
how you could be
so certain that we
had no chance at all
--- from still hurting, by jason robert brown
i stumbled upon the libretto of jason robert brown's the last five years, read it, and cried my eyes out. i caught the closing show of the local production, on a whim, three weeks ago. we were lucky enough to get orchestra center seats (4th row, smack center!) at the last minute, although i wouldn't have minded standing.
it's an ordinay theme told in an unusual way. a musical on the relationship of jamie, a successful, young jewish novelist, and cathy, a struggling young "shiksa" (non-jewish) actress. the twist is, cathy tells it from the end, moving backwards in time, and jamie tells it from when they first met, to the time they end their marriage. only the wedding scene, the center of their timetable, shows actual contact between the two cast members.
a friend asked me if it would have made the same impact had it been told the other way around, if cathy told it chronologically and jamie had started from the end. it's a typical thing, after all, for women to look back. makes you wonder if men ever look back at all or if they just move on.... i'd take a poll, but then guys don't visit my blog. except maybe fox and he who i no longer speak to. and even if they did visit, they wouldn't bother to leave notes or comment on anything.
anyway, i digress....
terrific show, really. just looking at the song titles on the program, i knew that i was in for a weeper. i promised my friend i wouldn't cry, though, so i didn't. still, that didn't stop me from getting all sniffly during the show. the music itself was beautiful. it had shades of sondheim and larson in it, which i always like. coupled with poignant lyrics, the play drives right through you. it has the same urban drama feel to it that jonathan larson's plays do, only it doesn't have that hopeful note in the end. painful. i likey. definitely need to get my hands on the soundtrack of this one.
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