If you like your musicals very American with songs that sometimes require vocal gymnastics then The Last 5 Years is definitely for you.

Performed by Horse Box Theatre in Ryde, the musical was written and composed by Jason Robert-Brown in 2001. The American playwright, composer and lyricist is the recipient of three Tony Awards.

The play is a two-hander and the thin plot revolves around Jamie and Cathy in the age old story of a couple meet, fall in love, get married and then part.

All of this happens in five years, hence the title.

There is a sub plot in that Jamie is an aspiring novelist and Cathy a struggling actress which occasionally features in some of the 15 songs.

Jamie’s story runs in chronological order whereas Cathy’s story runs in reverse.

Directed by Joe Plumb, the stage is a narrow thrust in which the action moves from end to end, the simplest of sets.

Whilst I didn't have much enthusiasm for the play itself, there is no doubt that the performance of Ashleigh Mackness as Cathy was outstanding.

Her voice, movement and gestures were perfect and I believed she meant every word she sang.

She was indeed a triumph and never fails to give a convincing performance.

Josh Rettie played the role of Jamie and was an excellent partner for Ashleigh.

He clearly has an excellent singing voice and this came across right from the start. He delivered some difficult musical passages with great skill.

Whilst the songs were well performed they did at times appear to lack bite, not the sort of songs you would hum to yourself on the way out although A Part of That, A Summer in Ohio and If I Didn’t Believe in You particularly piqued my interest.

Musical direction was by Tony Careless and Rosie Hayward with Neil Courtney and Steve Parker making up the experienced Island quartet.

I may have mentioned before that musicals are not my thing and The Last 5 Years has done nothing to change my mind.

There are two more performances on June 30 and July 1 so why not give it a go and decide for yourself?

Whilst I remain unimpressed with the play, the performances were something quite different, quite brilliant.