ASPECTS OF LOVE: Review Roundup

Trevor Nunn directs the first major London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Charles Hart's Aspects of Love at the Menier Chocolate Factory, previewing from 07 July with press night on 15 July and running until 26 September. Designs are by David Farley with choreography by Lynne Page, lighting by Paul Pyant, musical supervision by Caroline Humphris, orchestrations by David Cullen and sound by Gareth Owen. Trevor Nunn previously directed the world premiere of Aspects of Love and returns to the piece to direct this new intimate version.

The full cast is Michael Arden (Alex Dillingham), Katherine Kingsley (Rose Vibert), Dave Willetts (George), Rosalie Craig (Giulietta), Martyn Ellis (Marcel) and Rebecca Brewer (Jenny), along with Jill Armour, Louisa Lydell, Ian McLarnon, Chris Mellon, David Roberts, Savannah Stevenson, Dominic Tighe and Rebecca Trehearn.

Based on David Garnett's novel of the same name, Aspects of Love tells the story of passion, love and loss across three generations of a family and their companions set against the background of 1940's France and Italy. Alex Dillingham, a young student travelling through France, falls in love with the alluring actress Rose Vibert. As the pair embark on a passionate affair, the unexpected arrival of Alex's uncle changes their lives forever. A love story spanning twenty years binding six people and three generations as they come to appreciate that love changes everything.

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Michael Billington, Guardian.co.uk: Nunn's production yields a stellar performance from Katherine Kingsley as Rose: not an especially sympathetic character, but one whom Kingsley endows with an intriguing mix of creamy sensuality and driving egotism. Michael Arden as the hapless Alex and Dave Willetts as the sophisticated George are solidly professional rather than wildly exciting, but there is striking support from Rosalie Craig as the bisexual Venetian sculptress who seizes the day and just about everything else available. It may not be my favourite Lloyd Webber show; but at least it's done here, thanks partly to David Farley's design and Paul Pyant's lighting, with the right wistful Anouilhesque elegance.

Fiona Mountford, London Evening Standard: Here Nunn returns to Aspects after some 20 years, applying the same emotional rigour as he did to the outstanding A Little Night Music. The result of this stripped-down close work is nigh-on miraculous, with both Lloyd Webber's score (superbly rearranged here for just seven musicians) and the narrative revealing themselves to be lush, romantic, sensuous and wrenching.

Mark Shenton, The Stage: Some of it may be a bit creepy, to be honest, but this daringly modern and modest musical is also full of its own calculated obsessiveness. The first West End production in 1989 swamped the show in big sets and bigger voices, its original director Trevor Nunn now returns to re-stage it as the beautiful intimate chamber musical that was always struggling to get out.

Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph: The evening beats at an ardent, hard and fast pace, driving us from one scene to the next, one period to the next (we shift from the 1940s to the 1960s), from France to Italy, and from one entanglement to the next (no fewer than five characters, ranging across three generations, have intertwining affections). Truth be told, the lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart err on the bland side - I assume that the 1955 source novella by David Garnett had a richer literary flavour. Yet the way the conversation flows as song in a recitative fashion turns the exchanges into an elegant, witty and sophisticated meditation on questions about love in most, if not all, of its insoluble aspects.

What's On Stage: That quality of quiet seriousness stamps Michael Arden's performance in Aspects, too. I'd never even heard of Arden, let alone seen him, but he's compiled some impressive Broadway credits and even accompanied Barbra Streisand (as a singer) on her first ever European tour. I doubt if Aspects is the last we'll hear of Arden, and he completes a remarkable trio of London debutants from Broadway this past week or so, along with Hyde Pierce in La Bete and Mercedes Ruehl in The Prisoner of Second Avenue.

Quentin Letts, Mail Online: Aspects patiently tells the story of a ménage a trois- or is it cinq or six? Some claim that the only song worth having is Love Changes Everything, but that is unfair. The post-funeral Hand Me The Wine And The Dice deserves a blast at any sybarite's wake. I am also fond of the falling-in-love song Seeing Is Believing

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