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Lauren Samuels Stars in Five Years on Fringe

Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years will be revived at the Tabard Theatre, Chiswick with Over the Rainbow runner-up Lauren Samuels in the role of Cathy and Christopher Pym as Jamie. The musical, which charts the five-year relationship between rising novelist Jamie and struggling actress Cathy will run at the Tabard from 11 February (previews from 9 February) to 5 March 2011.

Lauren Samuels, who came third in the BBC's most recent search for a musical theatre star, Over the Rainbow was a runner-up for the role of Dorothy in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Wizard of Oz. She joined the West End cast of Grease on 26 July 2010 as Sandy, a role she will finish playing in January, four months before the musical closes at the Piccadilly Theatre. Christopher Pym's recent theatre credits include Seymour in The Little Shop of Horrors, Guy in Howard Goodall's Girlfriends and Herb Lee in My Favourite Year.

The Last Five Years won Jason Robert Brown the Drama Desk award for musical and Lyrics in 2002. His previous accolades include a Tony Award for Parade in 1999. The Last Five Years tells the couple's story from two angles: Cathy’s story travels backwards in time, from the end of their marriage to when they first met, and Jamie’s story traces the relationship from the beginning to its sad conclusion.

The revival will be directed by Drew Baker whose previous credits include Our House for HQ Theatres, Beauty and the Beast at the White Rock Theatre, Songs for a New World at the New Players Theatre and Oklahoma! at the Riverfront Theatre.

The Last Five Years debuted at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, Illinois in 2001 and opened off-Broadway in 2002. The show received its UK premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2006.

The production has musical has musical direction by Lee Freeman and design by Colin Mayes.

- by Andrew Girvan

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