The Last Five Years

by Jason Robert Brown

Minetta Lane Theatre & Northlight Theatre, Chicago

directed by Daisy Prince

set & costumes by Beowulf Boritt, lighting by Chris Binder, sound by Duncan Edwards

2002

Drama Desk Award Nomination

Northlight Theater, Chicago

The Next Ten Minutes

Lauren Kennedy & Norbert Leo Butz

Minetta Lane Theater

I Can Do Better Than That

Sherie Rene Scott

Minetta Lane Theater

See I'm Smiling

Norbert Leo Butz, Sherie Rene Scott

Northlight Theater, Chicago

I Can Do Better Than That

Lauren Kennedy

Minetta Lane Theater

The Next Ten Minutes

Norbert Leo Butz, Sherie Rene Scott


"Beowulf Borrit's elegant de Chiricoesque setting, which suggests gravity gone haywire, conveys a matching sense of time out of joint." ~Ben Brantley, The New York Times

"Beowulf Boritt's deliciously ironic setting features an empty wedding scene (chairs and flowers, etc.) set on a vertical plane so that it hovers over the unhappy couple. ~Chris Jones, Daily Variety

"Designer Beowulf Boritt has devised a powerfully poetic set-the upended room of a wedding party, with chairs and wedding flowers at right angles to the stage floor, and the shattered foundations of the marriage lying in a pile." ~Hedy Weiss, The Chicago Sun-Times

"Beowulf Boritt's imaginative setting involves a bird's eye view of a circular white patio arranged with chairs as if for a just-concluded wedding ceremony. The décor suggests something that is already over, yet only just beginning, too- an apt visual metaphor for an uncommon musical." ~Michael Sommers, the Newark Star-Ledger

"They do it almost without changing Beowulf Boritt's basic costumes, which consist of unprepossessing daytime togs. Nor is there much change in the eye-popping unit set that Boritt has designed. Standing on its side upstage and looking as if it's about to topple is a circular white patio with 26 white folding chairs arranged for wedding guests, viewed as if from the air. It's a brilliant metaphor for a marriage fated to collapse. As the show progresses, Boritt employs a turntable to send out a few pieces of furniture...a bed, a chair made of Jamie's best-selling books, a series of small, papier mâché automobiles. The designer's spare work is a marvelous example of how the less-is-more theory can enhance a musical good enough not to need artificial enhancement." ~David Finkle, Theatremania

To view a Lighting and Sound America article about the set, click here