Synopsis ‘What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.’ Inspired by Erich Segal’s best-selling iconic novel, this is a brand new musical version of Love Story, also one of the most romantic films of all time. Oliver Barrett IV went to Harvard and Jenny Cavilleri to Radcliffe. He was rich, she was poor. He was sporty, she played music. But they fell in love. This is their story. Their romance is as poignant as it is enriching, as sweet as it is intense. Love Story will win your heart. And it might just break it.
The foyer of Chichester's Minerva Theatre is currently selling branded tissues by the box-load. The reason? A new musical adapatation of Love Story, inspired by Erich Segal's best-selling weepie novel (and subsequent 1970 film version) about a happy marriage shattered by the onset of leukaemia.
Featuring music by Howard Goodall (The Hired Man, Days of Hope, Two Cities), a book by Stephen Clark (The Far Pavilions) and lyrics by Clark and Goodall, the production stars Emma Williams (Jenny) and Michael Xavier (Oliver), and is directed by Birmingham Rep artistic director Rachel Kavanaugh, who helmed The Music Man at Chichester in 2008.
Maxwell Cooter on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) – “The story of Oliver, a rich Harvard graduate, falling in love with Jenny, an Italian-American girl from the wrong side of the tracks with whom he lives a happy married life until she's stricken with leukaemia, is replete with cliché... Michael Xavier as Oliver brings just the right touch of haughtiness and naivete to the character. Emma Williams isn’t quite as believable as Jenny - she sounds a bit too, well, nice, and struggles to bring the right touch of stringency to the role - but she sings beautifully… Howard Goodall's score, well played by a string sextet and piano, is a bit weak on standout tunes, although the opening and closing number, 'What Can You Say?' has a haunting melody… Rachel Kavanaugh's production is as slick as it can be… At a time when the word 'musical' seems synonymous with a montage of rock songs held together by a paper-thin plot, this clever chamber piece deserves a wider hearing.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (two stars) – “In many respects the stage show is an improvement on the film. That fine composer Howard Goodall has come up with some strong original melodies to replace the movie’s score of souped-up Bach, Mozart and Handel, and the glutinous main theme, which becomes such a recurring irritant in the movie, is played only once, by our heroine, during a college recital… There are real pleasures in the show. The band, visible on stage throughout and resembling a chamber music string septet led by the MD on piano, get the most out of Goodall’s lushly romantic score and the singing is strong. The acting is also better than it was in the movie. Emma Williams brings a sharp wit to Jenny, and sudden moments of touching vulnerability. Michael Xavier is both hunkier and more charming than O’Neal in the film, and Peter Polycarpou is genuinely moving as Jenny’s grieving Dad…If you like the original Love Story, you’ll probably love this. If you loathe it, like me, you will just deplore the waste of so much genuine talent.”
Libby Purves in The Times (three stars) – “In the foyer they are selling Love Story themed tissues. Smart move. The late Erich Segal, who hit the jackpot with his first novel and the iconic 1970 film, jerked a mean tear… It’s a modest parlour piece, set in a clean crescent of whiteness against a gentle string and piano ensemble. Each elegantly swift scene-shift has a musical interlude, and the action moves on at a fair clip - two hours with no interval to break the mood. Our modern Benedick and Beatrice meet, bicker, roll joyfully about, struggle domestically, and with a heartbreaking plea for 'a little more Now', finally part… It’s not perfect, yet. It feels workshoppy at times, and some of the musical themes are repeated a bit too often (though the brief appearance of the film tune is brilliantly done). But let’s not kill an honest puppy: it’s a lovely little show.”
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail(five stars) - “Anyone in need of a really good, eyeball-washing blub should get down to Chichester where Howard Goodall has set to music Erich Segal’s 1969 American weepie Love Story … The production lasts just 110 minutes, without interval. Going without a half-time break saves the spell being broken … Mr Xavier is tall, handsome, perhaps a little similar in looks to Senator John Kerry, onetime candidate for the US presidency. He and Miss Williams have clear, unaffected voices and she is even prettier than him … Mr Goodall’s melody lodges itself firmly in the memory. It is touching without being sickly sweet, complex yet cute enough to have a strum of guitar amid the violins … I would be amazed if this Love Story didn’t romp into London’s West End. It is a delightful, five-star, boutique musical, judiciously soupy, artistically innovative. And sure to make you cry cupfuls.”
Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “One of my many issues with the film is the way it belts through its account of Harvard rich boy lawyer Oliver and Radcliffe poor girl pianist Jenny without pausing to draw breath. The genius of turning this into a musical is that the songs offer welcome moments of interiority in the hectic narrative onslaught, giving crucial emotional heft and access into the hearts and minds of the lovestruck duo… And it’s not just any songs we’re talking about, but plangent, beautifully crafted and sung pieces. The haunting opening number What Can You Say? deserves to become a classic… It’s incredibly deftly staged by Rachel Kavanaugh, who guides us through the many locations with ease. All this would mean nothing, though, if Emma Williams and Michael Xavier weren’t as poignant, tuneful and, vitally, smitten, as they are… The show finished to a chorus of heavy sniffles superseded by hearty applause, which I take to mean that a West End transfer should be a given.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (two stars) - "This 110-minute chamber musical, with a score by Howard Goodall and book and lyrics by Stephen Clark, based on the Erich Segal story is so decorously tasteful that by the end, there wasn't a damp eye in the house ... It could be moving if it weren't for the air of cold calculation, emanating from Segal's original, that surrounds the enterprise: it seeks a deep emotional response to people we hardly know. Starting with Jenny's death, Clark's lyrics ask, 'What can you say about a girl who made you proud to be her friend?' Since Jenny doesn't appear to have any friends, the question seems redundant. And Oliver is worse than a cipher: he seems a jerk ... This manipulative tosh is admittedly staged with sophistication by Rachel Kavanaugh ... even if the musical is marginally better than the movie, that's a bit like saying the thumbscrew is preferable to the rack."
Should I feel bad about not sobbing my heart out at Howard Goodall’s elegant musical version – to book and lyrics by Stephen Clark – of Erich Segal’s Love Story? Several people around me were, hopefully for the right reasons. It’s certainly a hammer blow when Emma Williams' Jenny gets her death sentence, even if you know that it’s coming.
But her “preppy hockey jock” husband Oliver (a rather too willowy Michael Xavier) has denied her the most important part of her life, her music, and he’s a character hard not to dislike intensely. I’m not sure that, in tampering – or in not tampering enough -- with the famous 1970 movie, the adapters haven’t drained it of tragic validity. It’s still just a weepie.
Goodall’s music, though, is always interesting, often beautiful, especially at the moment when Jenny (the truly scrumptious Williams is maturing impressively beyond Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as both actress and singer) plays a version of the Oscar-winning theme tune against which a delicately haunting item is sung in choral descant.
The framing epitaph is lovely writing, too, and “I will play nocturnes” – neatly encapsulating Goodall’s own catholicity of taste: Jenny’s unborn children will have Bach and Beatles, and both Joplins, Janis and Scott – is the poignant centre of a show about the meaning of unconditional love.
Rachel Kavanaugh’s austere production on an all-white design by Peter McKintosh – whose three Corinthian pillars somehow conjure Pearl and Dean as readily as pearly gates – transfers well from the Minerva in Chichester. There’s certainly a lot more emotional oomph about it now.
RSC big guy Richard Cordery and Jan Hartley are now playing Oliver’s parents with totally understandable stoicism: the real “love story” between father and son feels far too sketchy, and Cordery tries to compensate with a long, lingering hand on boy’s shoulder at the end. Oliver’s rebelliousness has seemed trite and pathetic. He never deserved Jenny in the first place.
We’re spared, thank heavens, “love means never having to say you’re sorry.” But “love isn’t what you feel, it’s what you do,” seems somehow equally sententious. The lively “pasta” song makes some amends, though it’s less witty than it thinks it is, and Peter Polycarpou brings almost too much love to bear in his portrait of Jenny’s widowed father.
This is a high-calibre chamber musical, all right, with a top skill factor in both writing and onstage musicianship (piano, guitar and string quintet); then just when it’s nearly enough, it plummets into bathos and easily resistible, tear-jerking manipulation.
- Michael Coveney
Please note: This FOUR-STAR review is from the production's run at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester in June, 2010.
It's 40 years since Erich Segal's monster hit novel and Hollywood film, 40 years since we first learned that love meant never having to say you're sorry - so the musical version has been a long time coming.
It's still astounding that it proved so successful. The story of Oliver, a rich Harvard graduate, falling in love with Jenny, an Italian-American girl from the wrong side of the tracks with whom he lives a happy married life until she's stricken with leukaemia, is replete with cliché.
It's to the credit of Stephen Clark, responsible for the book, that he doesn't dwell too long on Jenny's terminal illness and subsequent death. It would have been tempting to ladle on the mawkishness, but instead he concentrates as much on the relationships between the central characters and their respective fathers as on their marriage. Oliver’s troubled relationship with his patrician father – a good, understated performance from Rob Edwards – compares starkly with Jenny’s emotional deli-owning Phil.
Michael Xavier as Oliver brings just the right touch of haughtiness and naivete to the character. Emma Williams isn’t quite as believable as Jenny - she sounds a bit too, well, nice, and struggles to bring the right touch of stringency to the role - but she sings beautifully.
Howard Goodall's score, well played by a string sextet and piano, is a bit weak on standout tunes, although the opening and closing number, “What Can You Say?” has a haunting melody and there's an exuberant song about pasta which manages to rhyme spaghetti with Donizetti and gnocchi with rocky.
Rachel Kavanaugh's production is as slick as it can be. Despite some rapid scene changes, the action is telescoped into 105 minutes without an interval, a perfect bite-sized piece of theatre.
I came expecting to hate it, but it’s wittily written and while the music score isn’t a world-beater (a lot of songs are reprised and, apart from the aforementioned Pasta Song, there’s little contrast between the numbers) it’s movingly scored. At a time when the word 'musical' seems synonymous with a montage of rock songs held together by a paper-thin plot, this clever chamber piece deserves a wider hearing.
Brilliant in every department: production, acting, music - Trish
24 Jun 10
Poignant tale of lost love
The world premiere of a new musical “Love Story” has got off to a great start with sell-out performances. Howard Goodall was approached to write the score for Erich Segal’s iconic love affair, basing it more accurately on the novel rather than the Hollywood movie, which has proved to be a hugely successful result.
The white monochrome set provides a striking backdrop for the musicians set on stage and slick efficient manoeuvres by the cast ensure the required props are seamlessly placed. Running for just 105 minutes without a break ensures the gathering emotions are not deflected.
This is a poignant and compelling love story between Oliver, the son of a wealthy patriarch and Jenny a talented musician from the wrong side of town. She has a warm loving relationship with her widowed father, while Oliver is estranged emotionally from his. Inevitably the tragic and premature death of a young 25 year old girl is heartbreaking, but much of this story concentrates on their unfolding relationship and is in fact full of sharp wit and memorable lines. Almost a dozen songs enrich the romantic journey of the two central characters.
Peter Polycarpou (Phil Cavilleri ~ Jenny’s father) gives a great performance so too Rob Edwards as the cold inhibited Oliver Barrett III ~ Oliver’s father. Emma Williams (Jenny Cavilleri) is faultless in her portrayal of the Italian/American and excels while singing and making pasta on stage! A highly polished performance both vocally and choreographically. Michael Xavier (Oliver Barrett IV) charms from the outset, a very natural performer as he follows through the emotions of love, anger, joy and heartache. Be prepared for a tearful conclusion!
Jill Lawrie ~ Remotegoat - Remotegoat)
13 Jun 10
I must be one of the few people who never saw the film (or read the book) of Love Story but it seems to me it could have originated as a musical, so comfortable is the story framed in this new show from Howard Goodall and Stephen Clark .Goodall’s music is simply gorgeous, his best score since The Hired Man, and Clark’s book and lyrics convey the all too short love with an intensity and humour that moved me from laughter to tears but ultimately left me uplifted. Goodall’s own orchestrations for piano, acoustic guitar and string quintet are beautiful and singing is crystal clear. Rachel Kavanaugh directs with a deftness and elegance on a simple white set. With the audience on three sides, there are occasions when your sight lines and audibility are challenged, but not enough to damage your enjoyment. Emma Williams and Michel Xavier are excellent as the young couple. Williams, in particular, delivers her self-deprecating New York humour wittily and believably. The rest of the small cast of ten give very good support in a variety of roles and as a chorus. This was a glorious 100 minutes. I can’t wait to hear the music again. If there’s any justice, it won’t end its life in Chichester and wherever it goes, I’ll be following. - Gareth James
11 Jun 10
I saw it on the opening night. Wonderful experience, despite some apprehension knowing the plot. The audience applause went on for a good five minutes after the final bow. - David
09 Jun 10
Was not sure about this when I booked it but certainly was not in any way disappointed. I thought the show was brilliant and the cast deserved their standing ovation. The singing and acting were top notch and the score was excellent. Another success for Chichester. - Jon Davis
08 Jun 10
I wondered how they would do this, let alone get away with it, but fortunately my doubts were confounded by Howard Goodall and Stephen Clark's collaboration on Erich Segal's original novel and subsequent film. A sad tale that is ultimately uplifting. It could have been the ultimate cheese-fest, but instead they and the excellent cast led with a stunning performance by Emma Williams, touching and yet feisty as Jenny, and Michael Xavier's Oliver her Preppy rich-boy husband coming to terms with events beyond his control. All achieved without a hint of sentimentality. The staging, in the Minerva theatre, is austere but in a most beautiful way. A triumph for Chichester and another one West End bound and with Broadway to follow? - rds
See also Chichester Festival Theatre. Each summer a musical beats at the heart of the Festival, surrounded by world premieres as well as brand-new productions of classic dramas and comedies, all of the highest quality. Set in the beautiful surroundings of Oaklands Park, Chichester Festival Theatre is one of the UK's flagship theatres and has an enviable reputation for excellence. Four of Festival 2010’s ten productions went on to have lives beyond Chichester, touring nationally and/or transferring to the West End. Artistic Director: Jonathan Church Executive Director: Alan Finch
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