Laura and Samara spend their days as non-profit unicorns and fill every spare minute exploring the world of musical theatre as BFFs (that’s Broadway Friends Forever). Follow @bffs613 on X, Instagram and Facebook.
Back in March, we got to sit down with Josh Rigo, founder of Elevator Theatre Company (ETC), to learn more about the newest theatre company on the block and the upcoming premiere 2024/2025 season. The time has arrived: ETC opens its premiere production on May 1 with Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years.
The Last Five Years follows the turbulent relationship of Cathy and Jamie—across five years in their twenties—showing moments of love, passion, hate, frustration, and desperation. While Jamie’s perspective of the story flows from beginning to end, Cathy starts at the end and works her way back to the start.
Photo by Alex Henkelman Photography.
Since the story jumps between the perspectives of the two main leads, The Last Five Years leaves quite a heavy load for actors to carry. Cathy, played by Emma MacEachern in her Ottawa theatre debut, and Jamie, played by Kodi Cannon, carry this quite well for a show where the two characters don’t actually interact much as they’re telling their story from different points in time. Its simplicity is also a complexity – for a show that could be done on a bare stage with no props if one wanted to, the actors often have to act to just the audience as the two characters are rarely in the same moment in time. It’s a director’s show as it can vary widely based on the director’s vision for how to present such an intriguing timeline and Josh Rigo and his team and cast pull it off admirably.
Photo by Alex Henkelman Photography
Jason Robert Brown, known for his unconventional music style, brings us a soundtrack of gorgeous music, fraught with emotion and beautiful harmonies. It is impossible to leave this production without every song playing on repeat in your head. Sabrina Tang leads the five-member orchestra which brings beautiful sounds to the audience with perfection in the intimate theatre.
We have a singular impression these tickets will be moving too fast, so grab yours now and see what ETC has in store for Ottawa audiences with this season’s premiere! We also can’t wait to see the rest of the season from Ottawa’s newest theatre company which is off to an incredible start.
The Last Five Years takes place from May 1 -to 4 at the Léonard Beaulne Studio on the University of Ottawa campus. Performances take place at 7:30 pm. Tickets range from $20 – $30.
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