When the lead role in a musical requires an actor to properly pronounce “tsuris,” “Shabbos” and “shiksa,” it helps to cast a nice Jewish boy. Enter stage right: Zak Resnick, co-star of American Conservatory Theater’s new production of “The Last Five Years.”
Premiering in 2001, “The Last Five Years” had a hit off-Broadway run and has since been staged around the country. It also made it to the big screen in 2015, starring Anna Kendrick. A.C.T.’s production opens Wednesday, May 11 at San Francisco’s Geary Theater and runs through June 5.
Resnick, who plays budding Jewish novelist Jamie Wellerstein, makes up half of the cast, which also includes Margo Seibert, who plays his wife, Cathy, a struggling actress. The seemingly perfect couple meets cute, weds quick and then comes face to face with the uphill climb of marriage.
In a clever twist, writer/composer Jason Robert Brown tells the story of Jamie and Cathy’s relationship backward and forward. Cathy opens the show with her lament about the end of the marriage, while Jamie croons about the girl he just met. The opposing timelines eventually meet in the middle.
From start to finish, the two actors essentially never stop singing. Brown doesn’t make it easy for Resnick — his tunes push the upper limits of the tenor range, making “The Last Five Years” as vocally demanding as opera.
“It’s such a hard show, I would throw it in the category of ‘you can sing it or you can’t,’ ” says the New York-based Resnick. “To do this show every day, plus matinees, having the ability is the first part; conditioning is the other part. You’re singing and singing and singing to the point you feel you’re made of steel and can handle it.”
Just as important is the emotional connection between Jamie and Cathy. The characters love each other, but as Jamie enjoys success, Cathy flounders. Ambition and jealousy tear at them until, five years later, the hurt is too much to bear.
Resnick met his co-star at a staged reading four years ago. Their friendship helped the two of them better work out the mechanics of their characters’ relationship.
“In a show like this, if I don’t enjoy working with the person, it’s a miserable experience,” Resnick says. “Margo is fantastically talented. She brings a lot to the role. On a personal level we are friends, and we spend the whole day laughing.”
Resnick identifies with his character, and not just his Jewish roots. He acknowledges he is as career-driven as Jamie, though he thinks he has figured out relationships better.
As for Jamie’s Jewishness, Resnick has that down. Not only does the character sing about his “Shiksa Goddess,” late in the show he weaves an allegory in “The Schmuel Song,” which tells the story of an old shtetl tailor in deep conversation with a magic clock.
“There’s so much Jewish culture in Jamie, you have to trust it and go with it,” Resnick says. “Jamie has his ups and downs with his religion, as most people do. In the first song he wants anybody but a Jew. But later, it’s seems [Judaism] is very near and dear to him.”
That’s also true for Resnick, who grew up in Richmond, Virginia, becoming a bar mitzvah at a Conservative synagogue. Last year, Resnick visited Israel for the first time on a Birthright trip, an experience he described as incredible.
His parents enrolled him at age 5 in a performing arts school after noticing that he “didn’t sing like the other kids in the preschool carpool,” as he put it. “One parent said to my parents, ‘You need to do something with that.’ ”
He remained in the school until age 18. From there he attended Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, earning a BFA in drama. He also did a semester abroad in Sydney, studying at the Australian national theater institute.
After graduating, he quickly made the leap to Broadway, joining the New York cast of the long-running hit “Mamma Mia!” He also worked off-Broadway in shows such as “Piece of My Heart” and a revival of the 1959 musical “Once Upon a Mattress.”
After his run in “The Last Five Years,” Resnick will move to Los Angeles to take on Hollywood. But first, he has a lot of singing to do in San Francisco. Resnick hopes even those familiar with “The Last Five Years” will check out what director Michael Berresse has done with it.
“Michael has a different vision and a brilliant mind,” he says. “It’s going to be cool. I’m really excited for people to see this version.”
“The Last Five Years,” May 11-June 5 at ACT’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary St., S.F. www.act-sf.org