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<h1><strong>PRESS RELEASE</strong><br>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</h1>
<p align="right">Date: 10-14-10</p>
<hr align="center" color="black" noshade="noshade" size="2"
width="100%">
<p>Contact: Andrew Rothman<br>
From: Chagrin Valley Little Theatre </p>
<p style="display: block; margin-left: 32px;">40 River
Street<br>
Chagrin Falls, OH 44122<br>
Phone: 440-247-8955<br>
E-mail: <a href="mailto:cvlt@cvlt.org">cvlt@cvlt.org</a><br>
Website: <a href="http://www.cvlt.org/">www.cvlt.org</a></p>
<h4 align="center">HIGH-RESOLUTION PRESS PHOTO AVAILABLE AT:
<a href="http://www.cvlt.org/promo">www.CVLT.org/promo</a></h4>
<h2>"The Last Five Years" at CVLT is an intimate
relationship musical</h2>
<p align="left">CHAGRIN FALLS, OH - Real-world relationships
are rarely as black and white as the classic Broadway
musicals tend to paint them. Tough circumstances, poor
communication, and low self-esteem can often tear even the
most promising couples apart. Jason Robert Brown, the Tony
Award-winner behind the musicals <em>Parade</em>, <em>Songs
for a New World</em>, <em>Urban Cowboy</em> and <em>13</em>,
brings this sort of complex and visceral view of the
modern couple to the stage in <em>The Last Five Years</em>.
Debuting in early 2001, this intimate two-actor musical
has been produced around the world, and will have just
completed an extremely popular extended run in London when
Chagrin Valley Little Theatre's staging of it opens on
October 29th. </p>
<p>In <em>The Last Five Years</em>, Andrew Rothman (CVLT,
Kennedy's at Playhouse Square, Weathervane Playhouse,
Rabbit Run) plays Jamie Wellerstein, an up-and-coming
novelist who left Columbia University to pursue his
literary career in New York. Rebecca Marks (Opera
Cleveland, Cleveland Playhouse, Hanna Theater, Great Lakes
Theater Festival, Beck Center, Weathervane Playhouse)
plays Cathy Hiatt, a struggling stage actress from New
Jersey. As Jamie's writing takes him to new horizons,
Cathy strives to break out of summer stock and into
Broadway. The plot is, at face value, straightforward;
Jewish boy meets Catholic girl, they fall in love, marry,
and eventually fall to pieces.</p>
<p> However, Jason Robert Brown lays out the story through
an unusual twisting of the time line, in which Cathy tells
her side of the relationship starting with the
post-mortem, while Jamie begins his telling of the story
with the first date. The two characters move in opposite
directions through time, alternating dovetailed solo
musical performances, punctuated by scant dialogue, and
only meet to sing as a duo at their engagement and wedding
in the middle of the tale. This unique bidirectional
storytelling style allows Mr. Brown to balance the soaring
highs of fresh love with the crushing lows of the breakup
via fifteen original songs in varying styles, accompanied
by Dan Kamionkowski at the piano.</p>
<p>At the helm is director Jacqi Loewy, who has staged <em>The
Last Five Years</em> twice before; most recently at
TrueNorth Cultural Arts in January 2010, and in 2006 at
Akron's Weathervane Playhouse (a production which also
featured Mr. Rothman in the role of 'Jamie'). A full-time
professor of theatre/communication at Notre Dame College,
and current Board President of the Cleveland Theater
Collective, Jacqi has over a decade of Cleveland theatre
credits. She has directed at The Cleveland Play House,
Ensemble, Dobama, CASE, Charenton, Playhouse Square and
Cleveland Public Theatre, and appeared on stage everywhere
from Broadway to most Cleveland venues, including leading
roles at Playhouse Square, Dobama, Charenton and Mercury
Summer Stock. Jacqi had the privilege of supervising all
three years of <em>Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding</em>, the
longest-running show in Cleveland's history.</p>
<p> <em>The Last Five Years</em>, which is performed
without intermission, is staged at CVLT's River Street
Playhouse, across the parking lot from the theatre's main
building at 40 River Street in Chagrin Falls. This venue
seats roughly one quarter the audience of its larger
sibling, making it well-suited to the immediacy of this
small-scale production. The show begins on the closing
weekend of the drama <em>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</em> on
CVLT's main stage, and is followed on the River Street
stage by the comedy <em>Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy
with a (somewhat) Happy Ending</em> in November.</p>
<p align="left"><em>The Last Five Years </em>runs Friday
and Saturday evenings at 8 PM, October 29 - November 13.
Tickets are $10 general admission, and are available at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.CVLT.org">www.CVLT.org</a>, or by phone at 440-247-8955, Monday through
Saturday from 1-6 PM. Complete details on CVLT's 81st
Season and dinner packages with local restaurants are
available online at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.CVLT.org">www.CVLT.org</a>. The theater is located
at 56 River Street in historic Chagrin Falls Village.</p>
<p align="left">Chagrin Valley Little Theatre is generously
funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts
and Culture and is supported by the Ohio Arts Council.</p>
<p class="centered" align="left">###</p>
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