‘Last Five Years’ stars tackle solo challenges

Tom Titus

Love, like most areas of human experience, is a lot more satisfying

when you’re sharing it with someone else. But Rick Cornette and Kim

Huber are winning raves at the Laguna Playhouse by expressing their

innermost emotions all by their lonesomes.

Cornette and Huber comprise the entire cast of “The Last Five

Years,” a romantic musical in its California premiere that dissects a

failed relationship and analyzes the reasons for its failure.

Cornette tells his story chronologically, while Huber’s is detailed

in reverse -- from breakup to first meeting.

And -- and this is the kicker as far as Jason Robert Brown’s

smoothly crafted gimmick of a musical is concerned -- each emotes

alone on stage. Their stories are told alternately from various

turning points in the relationship, and a viewer almost has to

experience the show twice to ultimately connect the dots.

“The show’s resonance is better when the scenes are juxtaposed,”

Huber believes, “even though at the beginning, we rehearsed it in

sequence. We needed to know where each of us was in the story line at

the time we played each scene.”

Cornette is particularly enamored of the show’s structure. “It

resonates better with its cross-pattern format,” he believes. “The

reason the romance fails is that neither person is able to

compromise. Each has his or her own personal needs that outweigh the

relationship.”

“We’re literally not in the same place at the same time,” Huber

commented. “It’s an allegory on relationships in general.”

Cornette has coveted the role he plays at Laguna since he first

read the script. In fact, he auditioned for the playwright,

unsuccessfully, in New York. When the local production surfaced, he

was more fortunate on his second tryout, for director Drew Scott

Harris.

The most difficult aspect of the show for Huber are the solo

sequences -- the actors never physically connect until midway through

the show at their wedding, and then never again. “I really miss

‘playing ball’ with the other actors on stage,” she says. “I miss

listening to another person.”

“The show emphasizes what’s difficult and what works in a

relationship,” Cornette points out. He plays a writer experiencing

early success, while she portrays an actress encountering more than

her share of rejection.

One aspect of “The Last Five Years” that works for both actors is

its music. “The music takes on a lot of personality,” Huber says.

“It’s sort of a subconscious element of the show,” Cornette agrees.

Brown’s music not only is easy on the ears, Huber believes, but it

works for the performers. “He writes the way you speak,” she says.

“The music makes it much easier.”

Audiences have offered lavish praise, though not unanimously.

“People express either open or closed reaction,” Cornette notes. “The

show makes you think about your own life.”

“There’s so much to learn here,” Huber declares, “so much to

absorb and take on to your next show.”

Cornette compares the show’s challenges for actors to “a huge

meal. You try to devour every bit of it.”

Cornette and Huber are working together for the first time, and

neither had performed for the author or director previously. Huber, a

native of Long Beach, is making her second Laguna appearance. She was

seen in the leading role of “The Spitfire Grill” at the playhouse

last year.

Cornette was born in Green Bay, Wis., and tore himself away from a

backstage TV set airing the Packers’ game with Philadelphia last

Sunday to offer his thoughts on “The Last Five Years.” If the Packers

would have met Denver in the Super Bowl, he would have had trouble

with Huber, a Bronco fan -- but the show would have long since closed

by then.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.