Southwark Playhouse to re-open in October - William Russell

Things are starting to move - the Playhouse will re-open with previews from 1 October - already sold you - with Jason Robert Brown's musical The Last Five Years. Tickets are available from 6 October. The auditorium has been redesigned to meet the social distancing requirements. The show has been staged several times in London before and was last seen at Southwark in March when the production was well received. It is about the breakdown of a marriage between Cathy and Jamie, the gimmick being that she starts her story with their breakdown and works backwards, he starts with their falling in love and ends with the divorce. The score is tuneful, the lyrics good and it has enjoyed success here and in America. The scale makes it an ideal one to start the new normal with. I missed the Southwark production so the review in our archives relates to a previous version - I found the couple far from interesting then but the reviews for the latest Southwark one were far more enthusiastic and some claimed it was the definitive production and awarded it five stars. The piece, which focuses round a grand piano, was a pandemic victim and was performed by Molly Lynch and Oli Higginson.