The Last Five Years

The Last Five Years is a one act musical written by Jason Robert Brown and produced off-Broadway in March of 2002. It explores the five-year relationship between Jamie, a rising novelist, and Cathy, a struggling actress.

Jamie plays out the story from the start of the relationship to its end, and Cathy does so in reverse chronological order--their time lines converging and then diverging in the song "The Next Ten Minutes" which depicts their wedding.

Shiksa Goddess

 * Jamie: If you had a tattoo, that wouldn't matter If you had a shaved head, that would be cool If you came from Spain or Japan Or the back of a van Just as long as you're not from Hebrew school

See I'm Smiling

 * Cathy: No, Jamie, you do not have to go to another party With the same twenty jerks you already know You can stay with your wife on her fucking birthday And you could, God forbid, even see my show

You know I could never understand. How you could stand there straight and tall. And see I'm crying and not do anything at all.

Moving Too Fast

 * Jamie: Some people analyze every detail Some people stall when they can't see the trail Some people freeze out of fear that they'll fail But I keep rolling on Some people can't get success with their art Some people never feel love in their heart Some people can't tell the two things apart

A Part of That

 * Cathy: Then he smiles and where else can I go? I didn't know, the rules do not apply And then he smiles and nothing else makes sense While he invents the world that's passing by

The Schmuel Song
Have I mentioned today? How lucky I am, to be in love with you.
 * Jamie: And sewn into the seams Were forty-one seasons of dreams Dreams that you could feel coming real And that very dress, so the papers swore Was the dress a girl in Odessa wore On the day she promised forevermore To love a young man named Schmuel Who only one day before Had knocked at her kitchen door.

A Summer in Ohio

 * Cathy: I could shove an ice pick in my eye I could eat some fish from last July But it wouldn't be as awful as a summer in Ohio Without cable, hot water, Vietnamese food, or you

The Next Ten Minutes

 * Jamie: Will you share your life with me For the next ten minutes? For the next ten minutes? We can handle that


 * Jamie: And if we make it till then Can I ask you again for another ten? And if you in turn agree to the next ten minutes And the next ten minutes 'til the morning comes Then just holding you might compel me to ask you for more


 * Jamie: Will you share your life with me For the next ten lifetimes? For a million summers Jamie and Cathy: 'Til the world explodes 'Til there's no one left who has ever known us apart?

A Miracle Would Happen/When You Come Home to Me

 * Jamie: Everyone tells you that the minute you get married Every other woman in the world suddenly finds you attractive Well, that's not true It only affects the kind of women you always wanted to sleep with But they wouldn't give you the time of day before


 * Jamie: And in a perfect world A miracle would happen And every girl would look like Mister Ed

Climbing Uphill

 * Cathy: Why is the director staring at his crotch? Why is that man staring at my resume? Don't stare at my resume I made up half my resume Look at me, stop looking at that, look at me No, not at my shoes, don't look at my shoes I hate these fucking shoes Why'd I pick these shoes? Why'd I pick this song? Why'd I pick this career? Why does this pianist hate me?

If I Didn't Believe In You

 * Jamie: No one can give you courage No one can thicken your skin I will not fail so you can be comfortable, Cathy I will not lose because you can't win

Nobody Needs to Know

 * Jamie: We build a tree house, I keep it from shaking Little more glue every time that it breaks Perfectly balanced, and then I start making Conscious, deliberate mistakes

Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You

 * Jamie: You never saw how far the crack had opened You never knew I had run out of rope And I could never rescue you All you ever wanted But I could never rescue you No matter how I try All I could do was love you hard and let you go.