Hickory Theatre & Hickory Arts present The Last Five Years
A Musical Performed in The Firemen’s Kitchen
July 12-28
HICKORY – Hickory Arts & Hickory Theatre are partnering to bring Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years” to The Firemen’s Kitchen as part of their Working Artist Series from July 12-28. The musical is directed by Jeff Hartman, featuring Carol Anne & Jeff Hartman and a string quartet including Diana Stone and Charlton Seaver. Tickets are available by calling 828-327-3855 or by visiting hickorytheater.org. *Rated R for Adult Language.
“The Last Five Years” is a contemporary song-cycle musical that ingeniously chronicles the five-year life of a marriage, from meeting to break-up and vice versa. Written by Jason Robert Brown (“Parade,” “Songs for a New World”), L5Y is an intensely personal look at the relationship between a writer and an actress told from both points of view, chronologically opposite, meeting only once in matrimony on the timeline.
“I love this work of art,” says Coffey. “I’m so pleased to be sharing it with two great artists and good friends.”
Carol Anne & Jeff Hartman met on stage in 1996. Both often kid that then and now music director John Coffey is to blame for their marriage. The couple wed four years later on the Charles E. Jeffers Theatre mainstage of Hickory Theatre. Neither have performed together in a theatre production since then.
“When Jeff and John asked me to listen to the music when we were discussing whether or not to do this show, I heard the first song and immediately picked up the phone to tell them we had to do this,” says Carol Anne. “The concept of the two timelines is fabulous, but the music is so incredibly beautiful and moving.”
“So surreal to be doing this show,” says Jeff, Hickory Arts Artistic Director. “Carol Anne and I haven’t performed together in a musical theatre production in almost 17 years—since fall of ’96! That was “The Fantasticks” with John. We’ve come full circle!”
This collaboration with HCT will seed what both arts organizations hope to be an annual “Working Artist Series.”
“There is always a need to both celebrate and facilitate working artists—that’s actors, musicians, design, tech, especially during summer months,” Hartman says. “We believe theatre is truly the most collaborative art form that exists.”
John Coffey returned to Hickory from New York City in 2012 after working Broadway and touring internationally. Jeff has been performing with wife and band for almost two decades across the country. The Hickory couple runs Hickory Arts. Hickory Arts is a teaching and production studio dedicated to cultivating up-and-coming artists of all types and ages—voted the 2013 Hickory/Western Piedmont Macaroni Kid Family Choice Awards Winner for “Favorite Music Instruction.”
Hickory Theatre is one of the oldest, continuously operating theatres in the state of North Carolina offering live entertainment year-round with six mainstage productions, three cabaret shows, four children’s programs, and an annual seniors troupe production.
This production has been made possible by local businesses and patrons. Please visit hickorytheatre.org and hickoryarts.com for more information.