'The Last Five Years' -- Bitter and sweet

You won't end up liking every aspect of the characters in Jason Robert Brown's musical "The Last Five Years," but unlike so many musicals at least this show leaves the decision up to you.

It is an emotionally ambiguous, intellectually complex story. Though the lead actors are the same -- Emily Lynne Stephenson and Brandon Lamb -- this show is not interested in the fun frivolity of "The Music Man," which the Warehouse produced last summer.

"I don't like musicals," says director Megan Antles during a rehearsal last week. "I really mean that. There tends to be a lack of authenticity in musicals. I don't like jazz hands. I don't like the glitz and the glitter. But this story is interesting, and it's honest. It's sincere and it's not so focused on 'Lights are up and now we're going to perform. Five, six, seven, eight.'"

"The Last Five Years" is an atypical musical in form as well as substance. Its two characters, Jamie and Cathy, rarely share the stage. And its narrative structure -- the story is told from his perspective, starting at the beginning of their relationship, and from hers, looking back from the end -- is designed to highlight the moral complexity of a failing relationship. That it's written that way, of course, means the audience knows from the beginning that the relationship fails. But that only heightens the drama, as the characters make their way toward that resolution.

"Even in some (real-life) relationships people are in, they may know from the beginning that it's going to end," Antles says. "But there's still something in it you want to explore. People can relate to knowing the ending. There's still purpose."

The play's structure does present interesting challenges for its actors, particularly for Lamb, who has to display the optimism of romantic beginnings in Jamie, even as Stephenson's Cathy is lamenting the relationship's deterioration. There are times during the show when he has to follow one of her intensely sad songs with an optimistic number of his own. And he's up there on the spare, hardly decorated set, the only guy in the house who can't betray foreknowledge of the relationship's end.

"Being on this huge, empty stage by yourself, with nobody to act off of, you're really exposed as an actor," Lamb says.

It's the same problem for Stephenson, whose character can't play off of Lamb's character, because they're at different points in the relationship. In a way, both actors are doing solo performances they have to create out of whole cloth.

"I thought it was going to be easier," she says. "But he starts out so sweet, and I have to hate him. Then, at the end of the show, I have to love him and he's so mean."

Antles cast Lamb and Stephenson because she knew they could handle tricks like that. They've played opposite each other before, including in the Warehouse's 2011 production of"Almost Maine," which Antles directed. And they have a chemistry that can withstand even the mismatched chronology of "The Last Five Years."

"People know that when they see it on stage," Antles says. "That's something you can't fake. There was a connection between them when I directed them before."

She also knew both actors had the work ethic to master the show's often-difficult musical requirements. Both are accomplished singers and musical actors. Stephenson, in particular, is a magnificent singer who consistently wins or places in local competitions. Antles' direction, including the minimalist set, is designed to showcase that.

"The focus is on the actors and their voices," she says. "It's not a show about a set. It's not a show about elaborate costumes."

Indeed, "The Last Five Years" is as far from "The Music Man" as possible. That's kind of why, with no disrespect to that production, the actors and director love this one.

"This show does not have the happy little ending," Lamb says. "But I think it really represents couples today. It's honest."

That is an odd thing to say about a musical, a form in which so often character and story seem to exist primarily in support of the songs. This show keeps its honesty, Stephenson says, because the music is in service of the story.

"It's not pretty," she says. "It's just life, as unappealing as that is sometimes."

If that makes "The Last Five Years" sound dour, it's worth noting that much of the music is beautiful and there are lighter moments. It's not a show about cynicism so much as it is about reality, about the struggle any two people have when they're trying to fit together but can't. That sets it apart.

"This is a nontraditional musical," Stephenson says. "I've heard a lot of people say, 'I don't like musicals; they're so campy.' This is the opposite of that."

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

If you go

WHAT: "The Last Five Years."

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Feb. 9-11, Feb. 16-18 and Feb. 23-25.

WHERE: The Warehouse Theatre, 5000 W. Lincoln Ave.

TICKETS: $18.50, or $16 for students and seniors. Call 509-966-0951.

ONLINE: www.warehousetheatrecompany.org