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<p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span></span></b></p><p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino"><br></span></b></p>
<p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino">LOVE STORY, THE MUSICAL showcases BW talent at the
14<sup>th</sup> Street Theatre</span></b></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino">(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Fanatics of chick flicks virtually
swoon when they hear the words, “Love means you never have to say you’re
sorry,” or someone hums a bar or two of “Where Do I Begin?” Ah, yes, Andy Williams
crooning the theme song from the 1970 film, LOVE STORY, which starred Ryan
O’Neal and Ali MacGraw and holds the #9 place on the American Film Institute’s
list of “most romantic films of all time.”</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">An unusual story centers on the film
and book.<span style> </span>Eric Segal wrote the
screenplay.<span style> </span>In order to give sales
a kick start, the movie company asked Segal to write a book version of the
script, which would come out on Valentine’s Day.<span style> </span>To the surprise of many, not only did the book become a best
seller, but the movie developed a fanatical cult following.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">A musical version, LOVE STORY THE
MUSICAL, was recently given its Midwest regional premiere by the students of
Baldwin Wallace University, in coordination with PlayhouseSquare.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The musical, like the movie and play, centers
on Oliver, a rich young WASP, and Jenny, a poor Italian Catholic girl.<span style> </span>Despite their many differences, they
fall in love and marry against his father’s wishes.<span style> </span>Oliver is disinherited.<span style> </span>Jenny withdraws from a scholarship to go to Paris to further
her budding piano career, in order to pay for Oliver’s law school
education.<span style> </span>Unfortunately, while
undergoing pregnancy fertility tests, Jenny is diagnosed with leukemia, and
dies.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">At her funeral, Oliver states the second most
quoted lines from the movie, “<span style>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?”</span></span><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span>
</p><p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The musical opened
in London in December 2010 to moderate reviews and ran ten weeks.<span style> </span>Its US debut was in Philadelphia in
2012.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The book by Stephen
Clark is composed of a series of scenes.<span style>
</span>There is a lack of smoothness in the development, causing the emotional
impact of the movie’s soppy story to be fragmented, thus not allowing for emotions
to build.<span style> </span>Howard Goodall’s music
is beautiful.<span style> </span>That’s both a
strength and the score’s weakness.<span style>
</span>It all sounds pretty much the same.<span style> </span>Like the script, there is little emotional texturing.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">A careful
observation of the audience the night I saw the play didn’t reveal a single
Kleenex to the eye, or gasps of heartfelt emotion from the audience.<span style> </span>That’s a big negative for a story
developed with a clear objective of invoking a blathering of tears.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Scott Plate, the
director, and his cast cannot be blamed for the lack of emotional
reaction.<span style> </span>They did all they could
to overcome what they were given.<span style>
</span>The voices were all good, the staging effective, the show well paced,
the acting effective.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Lucy Anders, who
played Jenny the night I saw the show (she alternated with Sara Masterson) was
lovely as the high spirited, honest young woman who put love before her
career.<span style> </span>(This was 1971, before the
age of women’s liberation, so her June Cleaver/Carol Brady actions can be
excused or, at least accepted.)<span style>
</span>Anders has a lovely singing voice and displayed just the right amount of
spunk to be realistic.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Though he lacked the
physical appearance of macho-hockey jock Oliver, Zachary Adkins had the right
preppy attitude and displayed a nice singing voice.<span style> </span>His strongest scenes were those when he conflicted with Alex
Syiek, portraying Oliver’s father. </span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Syiek and James
Penca, as Jenny’s father, were both effective in developing roles well beyond
their chronological ages.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Musical director
Andrew Leslie Cooper and his band did a nice job of supporting rather than
drowning out the singers.<span style> </span>It’s a
difficult task in the miniscule 14<sup>th</sup> Street theatre with its low
ceiling and hard walls.</span><b><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Helvetica"></span></b></p>
<p class=""><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino">CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:</span></i><span style="font-family:Palatino"> LOVE STORY <i style>was
yet another of those special productions resulting from the collaboration of
PlayhouseSquare and BW. <span style> </span>Bravos to
Scott Plate and his BW students for a well- performed performance of a flawed
script and music track.</i></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">LOVE STORY THE MUSICAL
ran May 3 through May 5, 2013.</span></p><p class=""><br></p><p class=""><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span><br><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Palatino;color:rgb(192,80,77)"> </span></p>
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