by Chrysa Smith
Ruth met me at the train and we headed to Philly. It was a sunny, cool day and all I had on my mind was how nice it would be to not drive—to sit on a train, enjoy the view, have a nice lunch and see a show. That is, until I saw the show. Then, everything changed.
Well, no, not completely, but Aspects of Love, the Andrew Lloyd Weber show from the 60’s, made its comeback on the Philadelphia stage. And I have to say, it did get me thinking about the title song: Love Changes Everything.
When you think about it, it does. Love changes the way we think. It can affect our sleep, our appetite. It can change worlds–either by building them or breaking them. And believe me, the show had it all.
Begin with a May-December romance—with the elder being the female. When her young beau impresses her with a villa that actually belongs to his uncle, the fun begins. She drops the young beau like a hot potato, falls in love with the uncle–then later, his girlfriend. She marries him, has a daughter and another tryst or two with the young beau–who she always had a thing for, but couldn’t make it work due to his age or stature in life (I missed that one). But then the whole circle of life and love begins once again. It was truly entertaining and it also had the very somber message to those beauty queens out there: Nothing lasts forever—in the end, the young mistress has grown older; a sad character still believing she can use her feminine charms to catch a man. She winds up with neither beau nor husband, leaving her yet another sterotype of the sad, aging beauty who winds up alone.
Aspects of Love is playing at The Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia until October 23rd.
http://www.walnutstreettheatre.org/. You’ll love it—-or at least, some aspects of it.
I went to see it with 3 friends, when we left the theatre, we looked at each other and said, almost in unison, what was that all about? Would not go to see it again, even for Mr. or is it Sir Weber.
Yes. There was that. But I didn’t think that part was well developed. Maybe it was unbelievable to me because a guy who was attracted to the sexy mother wouldn’t go for the dowdy sister; and then that story line fell off a cliff.
I too saw Aspects of Love. What you didn’t mention was the incestuous relationship between the younger beau and his NEICE! Not your fault really. The writer seemed to gloss over the fact that they were RELATED too!!! Forget the 20 or 30 year age difference, it was the fact that they were COUSINS that was mentioned only once.
I enjoyed the music and about 95% of the play. I really did not get the ending. All in all, sad is a good way to describe it.