COMING HOME: Oli Higginson, who will be starring in The Last Five Years at the Garrick Theatre in September

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

If there's one name in Musical Theatre, that has popped up and made everyone aware of who they are very quickly, it's Oli Higginson. Having actually trained as an actor at Guildhall, rather than in musical theatre, he made an absolute splash playing Jamie in The Last Five Years at the Southwark Playhouse. The show was playing before the lockdown and was actually one of the few shows that got to play its final performance on the evening of the 16th March 2020. But this wasn’t the end of the road for the show. After rave reviews, the show returned in October 2020 and was also filmed and streamed at the beginning of 2021. It has also recently been announced that Oli and his co-star Molly Lynch will reprise their roles for a West End transfer. The Last Five Years will play at the Garrick Theatre from the 17th of September to the 17th of October 2021. 

For his role in The Last Five Years, Oli was nominated for the Stage Debut Award for Best Performer in a Musical and also for an Offie Award for Best Lead Performance in a Musical. But even though he is a new name on the scene, he’s certainly been busy! As well as his performance in The Last Five Years, Oli has appeared in The Haystack at the Hampstead Theatre, Maggie & Ted at the White Bear Theatre, has played John in the hit Netflix show Bridgerton (in which he his reprising his role for its second season), layed Colin in The Pursuit of Love for the BBC and will be playing Saul in This Sceptered Isle for Sky Atlantic which is due for release in 2022. 

REVIEW: The Last Five Years at the Southwark Playhouse

The Last Five Years at the Southwark Playhouse received rave reviews with numerous 5-star ratings flying around, with the Southwark Playhouse being a breeding ground for incredible revivals there was no doubt in my mind that this one would live up to the reviews it received, and it certainly did! 

Following a couple, Cathy and Jamie, we watch the journey of their relationship unfold on stage but in a very unique way. Cathy's side of the story is told backwards and Jamie tells his from beginning to end. Similar to that of Merrily We Roll along, of which I personally am not a fan of, this form of storytelling is used wonderfully in this piece. 

Only familiar with a couple of the songs (bad musical theatre fan!), I was really interested in seeing this piece in its entirety. The use of Cathy's story being told backwards was such a powerful tool in the storytelling, as it unfolds you understand the pain and hurt but also, as they’re told separately, begin to form your own opinion of what you’re seeing. 

Being a huge fan of Jonathan O’Boyle, his work on this musical certainly does not disappoint. There is so much in this piece that is so thorough and detailed that this review could easily be a 27-page analysis. But I won’t bore you, all I have to say is see it for yourself.