The Last Five Years

Thank you to The Drama Dept. for your fabulous hospitality - it was lovely to be back viewing live theatre again. The Last Five Years is a strange one for me; in view of the fact that there are more people in the orchestral ensemble than actors in the musical. The “Band” were on the stage while the two actors performed in the apron, this does make for a difficult job for the Musical Director, but Paul Lawton was up to the challenge and ably kept everything and everyone moving along in time perfectly.

The set was kept minimal and needed very few alterations from the actors to change locations and the video screens on either side of the stage helped keep the audience up to date with the passage of time. The audience on Press Night consisted of only thirteen people, so unfortunately, at times, the words and notes being sung and played all ran in to each other, this was because usually the audience absorbs some of the loudness which, unfortunately, at this moment in time is a Covid issue .

Jess Bray as Cathy and Gary Lawrence as Jamie both gave us strong vocal performances with some very touching individual moments. I particularly enjoyed Gary’s rendition of 'The Schmuel Song' and could certainly see the ghost of Fagin within the hand movements and head wobbles.

I look forward to your next production and hope to see you all again very soon. 

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