Singing under the halo of the Hollywood Bowl, Cathy’s young and lovestruck self looks forward to the beginning of a genuine love in 2010 while simultaneously, Jamie is seen placing the divorce letter five years later in 2015 as the lights dim.  

There are very few musicals out there that grant their audiences the power to time travel. In “The Last Five Years,” the unraveling of a couple’s relationship is told in both forward and backward motion. 

The 25th-anniversary show stars two highly acclaimed actors — Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt. Platt, the GRAMMY and Daytime Emmy Award winner, plays Jamie, an aspiring author. His side of the story moves in a forward direction.

On the other hand, Golden Globe winner Zegler, takes on the role of Cathy, an aspiring actress. Her side of the story spirals backward, starting with her reading Jamie’s breakup letter to the very first date after Jamie drops her off. 

The moving performances from both Zegler and Platt are not to be missed. The narrative of Cathy and Jamie’s relationship entertains theatergoers and tugs at the heartstrings as both characters reveal their flawed natures. While Jamie is supportive of Cathy and her passions, he cannot find a balance between work and his wife. He makes the success of his novel his number one priority, forgetting that Cathy is waiting for him to come home. 

His other half, Cathy, is compassionate yet frustrated with Jamie, causing arguments and struggling with little self confidence in her acting career. “The Last Five Years” exposes the dual perspectives of relationships, and encourages people to remember the self-love they once had before they entered into a relationship. 

The differing timelines are a unique way to tell the story, with raw and heartfelt solos from both Platt and Zegler. “The Next Ten Minutes” is the only song in which the two storylines align, and the characters are aware of each other’s presence, singing a duet. Both actors blew the audience away with their wide range and powerful emotional performances. 

Individually, they both shined in their roles, but it was the rare moments when both actors were on stage that the real magic occurred. It is unfortunate that there were not more scenes where the characters were aware of each other’s presence or even on stage at the same time. Songs like “See I’m Smiling” and “If I Didn’t Believe In You” showed the audience that the characters were arguing with each other, but only one actor was on stage. 

Nonetheless, both actors brilliantly displayed their musical talent and their emotional range. Zegler’s visceral performance could be felt in every seat from the moment she stepped on stage. Zegler carried the role of Cathy with control, portraying her range of emotions from grief to anger and finally, to hope. 

One of the most gutwrenching songs she sings throughout the show is the opening song, “Still Hurting,” introducing Cathy’s distraught state after she finds Jamie’s letter saying that he is leaving her and their marriage. Zegler was purposeful with her movement on stage and realistic in her reactions for someone who felt they sacrificed their passions for their husband. 

Still, there are happy moments for Cathy, like “A Summer in Ohio.” The lyric in which Cathy sings she can even “play Anita at the matinee” is particularly ironic as Zegler portrayed Maria in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” (2021). 

In “A Part of That,” Cathy convinces herself that all of Jamie’s success comes from her support and sacrifices she made from setting aside her own passions, but, by the end, she understands that he was a part of her life too, and she now must find a way to move on. The show leaves it up to the audience’s imagination of what Cathy’s future looks like without Jamie. 

Platt’s performance is equally as passionate and genuine. His “Shiksa Goddess” was charismatic, and “The Schmuel Song” made audience members want to get up and dance with him. Platt’s take on Jamie’s decision to end the relationship is heartbreaking as he seeks in other women the happiness his relationship with Cathy lacked. 

The last song, “Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You,” ends the performance with Jamie leaving his letter on the table explaining his decision to leave her for good, as Cathy excitedly tells the audience a recap of their first-ever date. 

In a span of five years, the audience watched how a couple’s love unraveled from a lack of self-love and support. Cathy and Jamie are opposites emotionally, and for the audience to know from the beginning how events play out makes the show more relatable and heartfelt.

“The Last Five Years” encourages audiences to believe in love and to trust time to help heal when things seem hopeless. It displays that finding love is not purely romantic; independently, people must establish their own self-love in order to truly be happy. While in most cases, people do not have the power to time-travel, they do have the power to choose to love themselves.