Love Story - Philadelphia - Walnut Street Theater

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 10/7/12 at 6:31pm

Has anyone been yet? When I saw this in London, I left the theatre absolutely stunned and found myself completely emotionally challenged at which point I knew I had seen a incredible piece of stagecraft!

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 10/18/12 at 7:03pm

Bump, to see if anyone saw this?

[JMPlayer6]

Posted: 10/18/12 at 7:13pm

I saw it.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/18/12 at 7:16pm

Do they use the Francis Lai theme song? What's so great about the staging? And man, that poster has got to go--just way too smiley--we all know she dies.

(Or is this not based on the movie?)

[BroadwayBrandon]

Posted: 10/19/12 at 1:04am

I work for the Walnut Street Theatre! Yes the poster needs to go it doesn't make any sense, nor does to resemble to actors in the show. The stage was very minimalistic. To me it looked like the inside of an empty museum and they brought set pieces in for certain scenes. Yes the theme song from the movie was utilized in the show!

[Musical Director 109]

Posted: 10/19/12 at 6:13am

I loved the show. Didn't know what to expect,but I loved the score and thought the staging and performances were very good.

[DeNada]

Posted: 10/19/12 at 6:37am

Eric, to clarify, although the theme song is used it's only used as a musical motif. Jenny plays the theme on the piano at a concert, which leads into a different song based on it that Oliver sings about falling in love with her.

It's a reproduction of the West End staging, which was staged in a very sparse "white room" (the production transferred from the Chichester Festival, where the recent Sweeney revival started). If I remember rightly the musicians are on stage (keyboard and string quartet?) throughout. Various set pieces are brought on by the ensemble, who don't have a huge amount to do as the story is so clearly focused on Jenny and Oliver - only Jenny's father and Oliver's parents have any dialogue other than them.

The "piece de resistance" of the staging was a song about cooking pasta, where they wheeled on an actual hob and cooked on stage. It smelled AMAZING in London...

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 10/19/12 at 6:41am

Eric I'm sure many have not seen the film so you might want to change your massive idiotic spoiler

[tazber]

Posted: 10/19/12 at 7:59am

The score is very romantic and I actually enjoy it quite a bit.

It's a small show, more akin to a chamber piece than a big musical.

Updated On: 10/22/12 at 07:59 AM

[JMPlayer6]

Posted: 10/19/12 at 9:33am

Re: the "idiotic" spoiler.

It's not. As in the novel, in the play it is stated right up front that she died young.

[mikem]

Posted: 10/19/12 at 3:09pm

I saw it and enjoyed it quite a bit, although I did not find the score to be very impressive. The leads, Alexandra Silber (who was in Tyne Daly's Master Class as one of the students) and Will Reynolds, are very winning, their fathers are well-portrayed, and the staging was quite good. It appears to be basically a reproduction of the original staging -- there is a credit to the original director in the Playbill. It is quite minimalistic -- the only instruments are strings and a piano, the sets are minimal, and there are only 5 credited characters (and a few ensemble members as well).

The pasta song and staging was definitely the highlight, and very clever. (BTW, I've never heard the word "hob" before and had to look it up. Is that a common term in Britain?)

The original Love Story theme is not used very much in this production -- the first few bars are played on the piano once, and that's it.

And the girl dying is not really a spoiler. The first sentence in the novel is something like, "What can you say about a 25-year old girl who died?" The musical opens with a song called, "What Can You Say?" that basically tells us the same thing, so it's clear from the opening moments what will happen at the end.

My main criticism is that the guy seems like a childish ass at times. I think this is because his father seems pretty likable and reasonable in this version, so the guy's reactions seem over-the-top.

I went into the show with very low expectations but it won me over. And there was a LOT of sniffling in the audience, so I think the audience in general liked it. I don't know if I would make a special trip to see it, but it's worthwhile if you're in the area and the material interests you.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 10/22/12 at 1:26pm

I saw the closing performance yesterday afternoon.

This one of those shows that I call not bad but not any good either. It had no raison d'etre. As either Stein or Toklas said about Oakland, "There is no 'there' there."

I found there to be few sparks of theatre. Adding songs to a story does not necessarily improve said story nor does it necessarily make it better told.

In this regard, I compared it to the recent Ghost. Not much to complain about, but not much to praise either.

I liked the minimal concept very much: the set and also the orchestra which was a piano and a string sextet.

Plus the show's coffee mugs were slashed to a buck each. Two very lucky New Yorkers will be getting these collector's items.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 10/22/12 at 2:19pm

The movie is 42 years old. The book is older. It's not like it's obscure. It's iconic. So, can we really call the death of the girl a 'spoiler' at this point? I vote no.

[mallardo]

Posted: 10/22/12 at 3:37pm

Not getting the negativity to the score which I find ravishingly bedautiful. I saw it in London and absolutely loved it - but it had a brilliant cast there.