#aspects of love

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 72: Assorted Performances XI

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration.

I can't remember if we did this one, so I'm listing it.

[determinedowl23]

happy birthday to the most guy ever Michael Ball!!!!!

[lucygold95]

Happy Birthday, Andrew! And Happy 50 Musical Years!

https://twitter.com/OfficialALW/status/1638496738146148353?t=LWNE4vLXTu4VKaRj2ugL3g&s=19

[behindthemirrorofmusic]

Second West End Phantom Dave Willets will be returning to an Andrew Lloyd Webber production. He will be Michael Ball's alternate in the revival of Aspects of Love which premieres in London tonight.

[thesarahfiles]

On March 31, 1990, Sarah attended the preview performance of "Aspects Of Love" at the Broadhurst Theater in New York City.

[marybeatriceofmodena]

sarah brightman cant act tho

Yes she can please get out only sexy people are allowed here

[maraschinocheri]

Aspects of Love production photography, featuring Danielle de Niese (Giulietta), Laura Pitt-Pulford (Rose), Michael Ball (George), and the company. [ x | x ]

[centrestagereviews]

Actor of the Week: Chumisa Dornford-May

Chumisa is currently performing in the West End revival of Aspects of Love Training: Chumisa is due to graduate from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in 2023. She was awarded the Elaine Paige Scholarship for Excellence in Musical Theatre. Credits whilst training include: Grandma Addams (The Addams Family), Mrs Anderssen (A Little Night Music), Scotty (Merrily We Roll Along), Sarah Hollis (The…

[unwelcome-ephestion]

One of my recent theses is that Aspects of Love is a concept musical masquerading as a book show, which is why it is so misunderstood. I thought I would outline this thesis here.

First, it starts with Love Changes Everything. Its 2023 revival moves the song to the middle of Act 1 in order to have it sung by Michael Ball, which is a key error (Ball plays George in the revival, rather than Alex, who he originated in 1989). The song is here:

It’s quite literally a thesis on love, extraneous to the book - Alex’s naive thesis on love. What’s interesting is that it is only the first thesis on love we get. When we first meet George, Alex’s uncle, who lives hedonistically and flits between lovers just as Alex believes that Rose is his one true love, he sings this:

Life goes on, love goes free is George’s philosophy. Both of these moments are much more typical of a concept show than a book show, and seem indicative of Lloyd Webber (as book writer, though not lyricist) being inspired by the Prince era in the States, and in particular I would argue A Little Night Music, where songs like The Miller’s Son highlight philosophies of love to be analysed within the context of the show. What is interesting about Aspects is that neither Alex’s nor George’s philosophy remains unscathed. By the end of Act 1, George is married to Rose, and Alex reprises Love Changes Everything on the way to the army, to destroy himself in his loss of Rose. By the end of the second act, it is George who will have died, destroying himself over his possessive incestuous love of his daughter Jenny with Rose, and Alex who rejects both Rose and Jenny in order to flit like George did with his old lover, Giulietta. The final reprise of Love Changes Everything is crucial (and foolishly omitted from the 2023 revival!) as heard below:

Heard at 4:40 on the above track, we hear the final line twice: love will never never let you be the same. When Alex originally sang this, it was a naive take on the power of one true love. With all we know now, the song has totally changed its meaning - love has the power to bouleverse everything in your philosophy and turn you inside out, Alex into a hedonistic cynic and George a man who dies for love. The ability of the one song and lyric to develop like that over time is much cleverer than it is given credit for and one of the reasons I think it works much better in context.

Although Aspects has a quintet of lovers, the final one who experiences that true bouleversal is Rose. Rose does not outline a thesis in the same way, but she scorns Alex early in the show, telling him that if he can do one thing it is “just leave me”. Later, close to the end of Act 1, she begins to show her inability to be vulnerable when she tells George that he must promise to answer whatever she asks him with yes, and ends up marrying him. Both of these lyrical and musical motifs are repeated in the culmination of Anything But Lonely, where (from 2:44) we hear:

Rose: Just promise one thing.

Alex: Alright, what is it?

Rose: Don’t ask me questions; you must promise this.

Alex: I can’t; I must know what it is.

Rose: Don’t leave me!

Whilst Rose doesn’t have the same thesis outlined, she is proof of the same fact that love changes everything. And whilst I have criticised song placement in the 2023 production, and would also argue that it tries to sideline the more uncomfortable aspects of the show (incest and age gaps) that are actually vital to its plot, it is still up there with Oklahoma! as one of the most interesting shows currently playing in the West End and definitely requires a visit before it closes next month. Aspects of Love as a title lays out exactly what this show is - a conceptual analysis - and the show has been much maligned, I think, by being misunderstood as a traditional book musical.

[overthinkingbelle]

THE BALL OF ENERGY PART 3

This part is more of funny interviews with Michael Ball. There's a bit of singing though. More clips from his interviews with Jonathan Ross way back 2006 and 2007 and funny stories about his past musical shows. 😊

I'm thinking of doing another part but that would be next time, the last one for now.

[lucygold95]

BBC Two will air Andrew Lloyd Webber Birthday Special.

Lloyd Webber celebrates his 75th birthday on 22 March, 2023.

[mthguy]

Performance of “Love Changes Everything” from Aspects of Love at the Royal Albert Hall Concert Celebrating Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 50th Birthday. 

Michael Ball is joined Antonio Banderas, Sarah Brightman, Glenn Close, Julian Lloyd Webber, Marcus Lovett, Donny Osmond, Elaine Paige, Bonnie Tyler, Dennis O’Neill and Boyzone (Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, and Shane Lynch).

[thesarahfiles]

Happy Birthday, Andrew Lloyd Webber! 🎉