''Love Story'' is a musical written by Stephen Clark with music by

Howard Goodall Howard Lindsay Goodall (; born 26 May 1958) is an English composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programmes for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008, he was na ...

and lyrics by Stephen Clark and Goodall. It is inspired by

Erich Segal Erich Wolf Segal (June 16, 1937January 17, 2010) was an American author, screenwriter, educator, and classicist who wrote the bestselling novel '' Love Story'' (1970) and its hit film adaptation. Early life and education Born and raised in a ...

's best-selling 1970 novel of the same name. ''Love Story'' transferred to the

Duchess Theatre The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 se ...

in the West End in December 2010 following a critically acclaimed sell-out season at the

Chichester Festival Theatre Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya John Hidalgo Moya (5 May 1920 – 3 August 1994), ...

Plot

At Jenny's funeral, her family and friends flashback ("What can you say about a girl?") about her life. Oliver is a rich young man who meets a spirited young woman, Jenny. She is poor and of Italian heritage, but has attended

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

and plays the piano. They fall in love and marry, against his family's wishes. Oliver, disinherited, attends law school, while Jenny works to support them. However, she contracts a fatal illness,

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

, and dies.

Productions

2010 Chichester Festival Theatre

''Love Story'' had its world premiere at the

, where it ran at the Minerva Theatre from 29 May 2010 until 26 June 2010. The cast featured Emma Williams as Jenny, Michael Xavier as Oliver Barratt IV and

Peter Polycarpou Peter Polycarpou is an English-Cypriot actor, best known for playing Chris Theodopolopodous in the television comedy series '' Birds of a Feather'' and Louis Charalambos in ''The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies''. Early life Polycarpou w ...

as Phil.

2010 West End

''Love Story'' transferred to the Duchess Theatre in the West End, officially opening on 6 December 2010 following previews from 27 November. It played a limited 10-week engagement which ended 26 February 2011.

Michael Ball Michael Ashley Ball (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. He made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius Pontmercy in the original London production of ''Les Misérables'', and went on to star in 1987 as Raoul in ...

makes his producing debut in a co-production alongside Adam Spiegel and

Stephen Waley-Cohen Sir Stephen Harry Waley-Cohen, 2nd Baronet (born 22 June 1946 in Westminster, London)

. Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, the set and costume designer is

Peter McKintosh Peter McKintosh is a British theatre set and costume designer. Background He obtained a degree in Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick and then trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His work as an assistant to Mark Thompso ...

, lighting designer is Howard Harrison, and musical staging is by Lizzi Gee. The musical runs without intermission, and the music is played by an on-stage pianist and a

septet A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry. ...

of strings.

2012 Philadelphia

The

Walnut Street Theatre The Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1809 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by the Walnut ...

in Philadelphia presented the first American production of ''Love Story'', as the first show in its 204th season, in September and October 2012 starring

Alexandra Silber Alexandra Michelle Silber is an American actress, singer, writer and educator. She has performed roles on Broadway, in London's West End, on television and film, and concert stages. Among other stage roles, in London, she created the role of La ...

and Will Reynolds.

2013 Edinburgh Fringe

The show had a limited run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the Paradise in Augustine's Theatre in August 2013, starring Eloise Hare and Will Arundell.

2013–2014 Netherlands Tour

A Dutch version, and first non-English production was announced in early 2013. Its opening night was on 29 November 2013, two weeks later than planned due to a back injury for its star Freek Bartels. This version is a touring musical, after it had originally been planned at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht. Freek Bartels plays Oliver,

Celinde Schoenmaker Celinde Schoenmaker (born 15 January 1989) is a Dutch actress and singer. She is known for appearing as Renate Blauel in ''Rocketman'', Fantine in the West End production of the musical ''Les Misérables'', and Christine Daae in the West End ...

plays Jenny, her parents are played by Dick Cohen and Marleen van der Loo. This production follows its original British version by having no intermission. The story was translated by Jan Rot.

2013 Russian Tour

The first Russian tour is planned to open in November. This non-replica production will tour Russia throughout 2014. Ekaterina Novosyolova and Valeriya Lanskaya will play the role of Jenny, Pavel Lyovkin and Stanislav Belyaev will play Oliver. The Russian production is based on the original one act book.

2014 Bolton Octagon

Bolton Octagon,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

presented ''Love Story'' as their closing show for their 2013/2014 run, in June to July 2014. The production featured

Daniel Boys Daniel Boys (born 26 March 1979) is an English musical theatre actor, who was a contestant on the BBC talent series '' Any Dream Will Do'' in 2007 before becoming known as a stage actor in various musicals including '' Avenue Q'', ''Spamalot'' an ...

in the role of Oliver, and

Lauren Samuels Lauren Alvarado (born 26 March 1988) is an English singer/actress who performs under the stage name "Lauren Samuels". She became well known to the British public as a contestant on the 2010 BBC UK TV series '' Over the Rainbow''. Since appearing ...

in the role of Jenny. The show was met by rave reviews. For example, the ''Reviews Hub'' reviewer wrote: "Elizabeth Newman’s delicate production, keeps things simple, the strength here lies in not only Goodall’s soaring melodies, but in the performances from her lead actors. Daniel Boys’ portrayal of Oliver is nothing short of perfect...Equally impressive is Lauren Samuels, her edgy and confident portrayal of Jenny Cavilleri is a breath of fresh air ..."

2016 Brazil

A Brazilian production opened in June 10th 2016, at Teatro Imperator in Rio de Janeiro. The production, has Kacau Gomes as Jennifer Cavalleri and Fábio Ventura as Oliver Barret. This production counts with an all black/afroamerican cast. Directed by Tadeu Aguiar, the story was translated by Artur Xexéo.

2017 Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

2017 Ann Arbor Musical Theater Works presented the musical with a direct license from Adam Spiegel Ltd in the UK when MTI stopped carrying licensing for the USA. This very successful production was directed by Ronald Baumanis and Musical Directed by Leah Fox and starred Colby Cesaro and Kevin Kaminski.

2017 Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany

2017 TfN - Theater für Niedersachsen - presents the musical in Hildesheim, Germany; premiere: August 20th, 2017. Director: Jörg Gade, musical director: Andreas Unsicker, stage: Hannes Neumaier, choreography: Annika Dickel, starring Elisabeth Köstner as Jenny and Jürgen Brehm as Oliver, Alexander Prosek as Phil and Jens Krause as Oliver's father.

Musical numbers

* "What Can You Say?" — Company * "Jenny's Piano Song" — Jenny * "Winter's Night" — Oliver, Jenny & Company * "Jenny's Piano Song" (Reprise) — Jenny * "The Recital" — Oliver & Company * "What Happens Now?" — Oliver & Jenny * "Nocturnes (Pre-Echo)" — Jenny * "Phil's Piano Song" — Phil * "Summer's Day" — Phil, Jenny, Oliver & Company * "Pasta" — Jenny & Oliver * "Everything We Know" — Oliver & Jenny * "The Tide Has Turned" — Jenny, Oliver & Company * "Nocturnes" — Jenny * "Everything We Know" (Reprise) — Jenny & Oliver * "What Can You Say" (Reprise) — Company * "Clapping Symphony" — Orchestra The Original London Cast Recording is available, released by

Faber Music Faber Music is a British sheet music publisher best known for contemporary classical music. It also publishes music tutor books, and in 2005 acquired popular music publisher International Music Publications. Faber Music has close relations to th ...

, on CD and in digital formats.

Critical reception

The reviewer of the Chichester Festival Theatre production wrote in indielondon.co.uk: "Stephen Clark has adapted the story into a succession of short scenes which, under Rachel Kavanaugh’s adept direction, follow on cohesively and coherently resulting in a believable and very poignant evening. Howard Goodall’s songs are integral to the action and they are beautifully performed by the principals and hechorus. e two principals, Oliver (Michael Xavier) and Jenny (Emma Williams)...give superb and utterly sincere performances." In its review roundup of the musical at the Chichester Festival Theatre, ''theatremania.com'' noted the reviews "praising Goodall's score, Kavanaugh's staging and the central performances from Xavier and Williams." Chichester Festival Theatre production review: "Howard Goodall and Stephen Clark have created a terrific new musical...The show finished to a chorus of heavy sniffles, superseded by hearty applause, which I take to mean a West End transfer should be given". The reviewer of the West End production at the Duchess Theatre for ''Whatsonstage.com'' wrote: "Goodall’s music...is always interesting, often beautiful.... The framing epitaph is lovely writing, too.... Rachel Kavanaugh’s austere production on an all-white design by Peter McKintosh – whose three Corinthian pillars somehow conjure Pearl and Dean as readily as pearly gates – transfers well from the Minerva in Chichester.... This is a high-calibre chamber musical, all right, with a top skill factor in both writing and onstage musicianship (piano, guitar and string quintet); then just when it’s nearly enough, it plummets into bathos and easily resistible, tear-jerking manipulation." The Dutch version was well received by Dutch critics after its opening night. Amsterdam daily ''

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...

'' wrote: "A wonderful, subdued 'Love Story'. No superficial pathos, wonderful melodies by Howard Goodall... A little, surprisingly enchanting version of this well known story".

Awards and nominations

Original London production

References

External links

*
Love Story
' at the Music Theatre International website *
The Love Story
' The HeartBeatSK Publisher {{DEFAULTSORT:Love Story (Musical) 2010 musicals Musicals based on films Musicals based on novels British musicals West End musicals