"The Last Five Years". Pilch
What's the most important element of a musical? The story? The acting? The directing? No. As every original cast recording from Oklahoma! to Chicago will tell you, it's the music. And this production of Jason Robert Brown's millennial melodrama The Last Five Years is a musical masterclass. One glance at the programme is enough to prove just how much expertise has gone into the musicianship and vocal performances for this show. The director, producer, sound designer and two of the four actors are full-time music students (and a third performed in West End musicals before coming to Oxford). Director Louis Benneyworth is Resident Conductor with the OU Sinfonietta, and his original score for A View From The Bridge will be heard on the Playhouse stage a few weeks from now. Rebekah Devlin, who played Cathy at the performance I saw, spent ten years training at Belfast School of Performing Arts before coming to Oxford. (In fact, with so much focus on the performers’ credentials...