Aspects of Love
Lyrics Theatre - West End
(Review Complete)
SYNOPSIS:
The action begins in France after the war. Rose Vibert, a struggling actress, finds herself out of work when the play she is in closes suddenly. In the audience is a young American, Alex, who is besotted with her. He invites her to his Uncle George’s country residence and, on a whim, she accepts. All is going well until Uncle George turns up, thus initiating a life long love triangle that becomes even more complicated when Rose and George’s Daughter Jenny comes of age.
REVIEW:
On Thursday Night I went to see Aspects of Love at the Lyric Theatre. I remember, when I saw this show at its original opening, I didn’t really find any of the characters very likeable. This hasn’t really changed. All the characters appear to be selfishly seeking their own goals with no consideration for the people they hurt along the way. That being said, this show has some of Lloyd Webber’s loveliest songs - Seeing is Believing, the Mermaid Song sung by young Jenny and Love Changes Everything.
Michael Ball returned for this production but now playing Uncle George and he was excellent. Good looking, charming, witty, he was perfect for the part. Although giving him Love Changes Everything several tones lower seemed to pander to his celebrity status rather than being an integral part of the action. However the audience absolutely loved this. Laura Pitt-Pulford playing Rose and Danielle De Niese playing Giulietta were both beautiful, sexy and excellent singers and I enjoyed them enormously.
Likewise, Katie Mitton playing young Jenny and Anna Unwin playing older Jenny were both excellent. Anna really felt like the older version of Katie. I loved them both.
Jonathan Kent’s direction combined with John Macfarlane’s set design worked wonderfully well. Beautiful backdrops with an impressionist feel and moving screens taking us on to the next scene made the whole show weave seamlessly from Paris to Venice and Pau.
This is not and never has been my favourite show and despite the beautiful set, some lovely music, and excellent performances, I still left feeling very little empathy with any of these selfish characters.
4 stars out of 5
Reviewer Julia Review