The Last Five Years

The musical "The Last Five Years" composed by Jason Robert Brown, originally starring Leo Norbert Butz and Sheri Renee Scott, is a story about a couple's five year marriage, doomed from the start. Cathy is a struggling actress and Jamie is a successful author. The couple's roles play into stereotypical female and male gender roles. Their stories are told in opposite directions: Cathy's from end to beginning, and Jamie's from beginning to end. Cathy requires Jamie to keep her on her feet and her life circles entirely around him, "Finally yes! / Finally now! / Finally something takes me away / Finally free / Finally he can cut through this strings / And open my wings!" She cannot gain her own freedom without Jamie's help, mimicking the idea that women require a men to get anywhere in life. The song that goes along with Cathy's is called, "I Could Never Rescue You," sung by Jamie. "I could never rescue you / All you ever wanted / But I could never rescue you / No matter how I tried." Jamie sings about how he could love her and leave her, and not do his "job" by rescuing her.