Culture Beat: ‘The Last Five Years’ from London to be staged in Beijing

The original London West End musical The Last Five Years is being staged at the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center from Wednesday to Friday. This is the first round of performances for the show in the "performing arts capital" Beijing.

The musical is adapted from the personal experiences of composer Jason Robert Brown, who has won the "Tony Award" three times. 

After its premiere, The Last Five Years debuted off-Broadway in 2002 and in London's West End in 2006. Countless audiences have cried because of this work, and even fell in love with musicals because of it.

The show interweaves more than 10 songs to tell the story of the five years of the protagonists' love, marriage, indifference and divorce, showing their joys and sorrows.

Unlike many large-scale musicals with complex stage designs, The Last Five Years is very streamlined, consisting of only two actors and a band of five musicians.

The two actors have to perform non-stop on a rotating stage for nearly 100 minutes, not only perfectly presenting their own singing and playing, but also accompanying each other on the piano while singing and acting, which is a true test of their performance skills.