Reader Reviews
Love Story (Duchess Theatre, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | Cried for the last 40 minutes. I loved it - Iain | 21 Dec 10 |
| LOVE STORY, at the Duchess Theatre, is one of the best musicals I have ever seen! It's funny, it's sad, it's beautifully performed and superbly sung with glorious music and a witty script. Jennifer Cailleri, a Radcliffe music graduate, is quick witted, feisty and funny. She tries in vain to resist the charms of hunky Harvard ice-hockey jock Oliver Barrett IV, even giving up a prized piano scholarship in Paris so they can marry. Emma Williams as Jennifer and Michael Xavier as Oliver give outstanding performances, completely capturing the sensitivity, wit and vulnerability of the characters while never over sentimentalising them. Their voices are simply stunning and their on-stage chemisrty fairly sizzles. Peter Polycarpou, as Jenny's adoring, Italian father is a revelation and with his wonderfully bad-fitting suit and emotional outbusts he raises both warmth and laughter. He couldn't be more different from Oliver's aloof, authoritarian father, well played by Richard Cordery. I can't wait for the CD to come out to hear again the wonderful songs such as 'What Can You Say', which opens and closes the show, the uproarious 'Pasta', during which a wonderful smelling pasta meal is cooked on stage, and the heart-breaking 'Nocturnes', when Jenny imagines playing music for their children. Howard Goodall has written some marvellous melodies while Stephen Clark's witty, moving lyrics sit perfectly on the notes landing each rhyme and emotion memorably. If you are too cynical to care about love then this isn't the musical for you. But if you believe in the redeeming, life-affirming power of love then this musical will surely cast you under its spell and change you forever. - Margaret | 16 Dec 10 |
| The arrival of a new British musical in the West End should be cause enough for celebration even if it is based on a well known film. It's just a shame that Love Story isn't that good. Howard Goodall's score is pretty but repetitive and doesn't have that one great outporing of emotion that this story demands. In fact, the best tune comes when Jenny plays (or mimes) the theme from the original film. Emma Williams sings beautifully but is a bit too posh to be entireley believable as an Italian American from the wrong side of the tracks. Michael Xavier also sings well but doesn't create any sympathy or empathy for the young widower. In contrast Peter Polycarpou is excellent as Jen's anguished father. Love Story will definitely find an audience from those who love the film but it was a bit too formulaic for my taste. - David Baxter | 09 Dec 10 |
| We voted Love Story as one of the best events of the year. A superbly produced musical with totally believable characters which deserves to run and run. Well Done, WoS, for organising the visit to such a good show. - David Carr | 09 Dec 10 |
| Just back from the theatre from seeing Love Story----excellent.Mots of us know the story and that it is sad and a bad ending but that is the story!! With no intermission it just sailed through and was so polished and all the words of the songs just fitted so well into the story. Excellent cast specially the leads of Emma Williams and Michael Xavier--superb voices and also love Peter Polycarpou. Hope it does well as it really deserves to. - Joe Spiteri | 08 Dec 10 |
