When I was asked to go along and review Love Story the Musical my first thoughts were how on earth would a sad, tragic love story be turned into a musical and would it be very depressing. Those of a certain age will remember Erich Segal’s romantic but very sad novel, which was then turned into a hit film in 1970 and starred Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal.
Love Story the Musical has recently opened in the West End in the intimate Duchess Theatre, near Covent Garden, London. Produced by Michael Ball it stars Emma Williams in the lead role as Jenny Cavilleri and Michael Xavier as Oliver Barrett VI.
Jenny Cavilleri, a poor Italian girl and Oliver Barrett VI , a rich boy meet at Harvard and quickly fall in love even though they both know the problems it is going to cause. We are taken through their short courtship, their marriage and their battle to have children culminating sadly in Jenny’s death. I thought the set was lovely, it was simple but highly adaptable and flowed easily between scenes. Although I thought the props at times were a little crude I think this was intentional, and I can’t see how anything else would have been fitting though. I discovered that yes, actually a tragic story can be funny as well as sad and not at all depressing. The songs were great and there is a fabulous scene involving cooking a meal whilst singing about pasta which was very well done. At times I found the long pauses between words awkward thinking that the actors needing prompting, but after a while I had to assume they were done for effect.I particularly liked Jenny’s father, he was believable and well cast.
This is definitely worth seeing if you are in London and you had better be quick because it isn’t in the West End for much longer. Be prepared to cry, I’d say at least two thirds of the theatre were in tears long before the ending. Oh and there isn’t an interval which is great and fine with me but I hadn’t realised that until the musical ended but just so that you know.
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I award this three and a half cupcakes out of five
