aspects of love question

Man

Aspects of Love

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Updated On: 10/24/05 at 04:40 PM

do you like the show, pab?
or anyone else with an opinion.

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Sarah Brightman is coming out with a new album of ALWebber songs and it is entitled LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING. She sings the song as well as SEEING IS BELIEVING from the show( a duet with Michael Ball).

LOL, great post.

What changed between London and B'way that made you not like it as much?

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LizzieCurry,

It was a long time ago, so my memory is hazy. In London, it seemed like such a "small" show, very intimate and underplayed. Some of the melodies from it are really lovely. I know Aspects is someone on this board's favorite ALW musical, and I can understand why.

I also feel that productions in London take more chances and assume the theater-going audience is intelligent and sophisticated. Therefore, when they send something here, they feel the need to "dumb it down" for us hayseeds

Take a recent example: Bombay Dreams. My friend saw it in London and loved it so much, she made me buy her a ticket while she was in Australia so she would have incentive to come back. (And she generally HATES musicals!) She was so stunned at how much they had changed it and really weakened it.

I've seen it done several times before and it has never been successful. Since Aspects is a show about sex and forbidden love, it ain't gonna go over too well in a place with LOTS of "red states," ya know?

It's based on a British novella by one of the peripheral members of Virginia Woolf's gang. It's a slight story that essentially advocates free love and alternate lifestyles. That's still hard for America to accept. It's okay if "those people" are in a sitcom and middle America is laughing at their inane exploits, but don't get too serious or (god forbid) romantic.

Anyway, I enjoyed it much more in London...although the Forbidden Broadway parody ran a very close second.

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Same thing with Aspects , in Australia if you saw the show in Sydney it just did not work, but once it moved to the "Comedy" theatre in Melbourne, smaller theatre it worked a treat.

Have seen it done with just the 5 leads and that worked as well.

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Miss Pennywise,
Your experience at Forbidden Broadway sounds EXACTLY LIKE my own experience at Forbidden Broadway, but it was the GRAND HOTEL spoof GRIM HOTEL that had me screaming so loud and crying with laughter. Our tablemates told me they were enjoying my reactions as much as the show.

And ASPECTS OF LOVE is my favorite ALW show. Saw the Broadway production. It was beautifully done. But it's interesting to hear comments about the difference between the West End and Broadway productions. After seeing an off-off-Broadway CHESS that starred Kathleen Rowe McAllen (Guilietta in ASPECTS) as Florence, I mentioned to her that I had seen her performance in ASPECTS. She brightened up and said "In London?" And I said, no, in New York. And she deflated just a little bit. I've always wondered why. Apparently, the show was a better experience for the actors as well as the audience in London.

I enjoyed the music of Aspects of Love. I really like "A Memory of A Happy Moment" "Mermaid Song" "The First Man You Remember" and "Anything But Lonely".

I remember hearing many people complain about it, but when I went to see it on Broadway I thought it wasn't as bad as people had said.

Putting it in perspective, it came to Broadway two years after Phantom opened and I think audiences were dying for another visual/aural thrill like they got in Phantom. Aspects is a quieter musical and I think people were disappointed.

The complaint I heard the most was that people were mad because of the repetitive musical theme that goes "Love, love changes everything." I heard people refer to it as the 7 note musical.

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