The Last Five Years at the Main Street Tavern

by Abbey McNeely

On September 18th, UM theater students Mary Kate McLaurine and Brandon Caruthers starred in Main Street Tavern’s first dinner theater show. The audience was given a buffet meal of some of the Tavern’s best cuisine, including macaroni, hamburger steaks, banana pudding and more.

The promotional poster for the production at the Tavern

The Last Five Years focuses on the relationship of Jaime Wellerstein and Cathy Hyatt, an enterprising novelist and a desperate actress. Interestingly, the show’s characters perform the timeline in opposite order- Cathy tells the story backwards, beginning at the end of the marriage, while Jaime’s is told in chronological order beginning with their first date. They only directly connect at the song of their wedding, “The Next Ten Minutes”. 

"Jaime" and "Cathy" enjoying their first date while we enjoyed our meal

The UM cast helped to illustrate this part of the show's writing by sitting onstage at a table with glasses of water interacting with each other as if they were on a date while the audience enjoyed their meals. From this point, viewers understood ahead of time that the characters were in a relationship, and that the story would circle around them.

The show was written by Jason Robert Brown, lamenting a recent divorce. Actor Brandon Caruthers told me that he felt a connection to the character of Jaime because he has also been through a difficult relationship like this one. He stated that the reason he liked this show so much and connected with it on such a strong level was because "there is no good guy, and there is no bad guy... it's the story of two people who fall in love, and it doesn't work."

For more information about productions happening at the Tavern in the future, look at their facebook page.