Aspects of an audience

I’ve wanted to revisit Aspects of Love ever since I saw it was to tour again. I initially saw it in the early 90’s, and loved it, but it’s never been one of the more popular Lloyd Webber musicals, despite the popularity of its anthem, Love Changes Everything.

It’s strange how you get used to going to the theatre with other ‘theatre enthusiasts’ (I hesitate to say ‘snobs’ here, but I know that some of us are). But this time I’ve persuaded a couple of work colleagues to come along, on my recommendation. It’s actually quite daunting to go and see a show with people who you know go very infrequently, and whose highest accolade is ‘gosh, they were good, they could be in Corrie’. They see things very differently.

Still, we’re nicely loosened up with good meal and a shared bottle of wine, and we stroll down to the theatre. I’d forgotten how huge it is, as my memories are coloured by sitting on the front row one New Year’s Day. I’d booked row K, knowing that the others wouldn’t want to go for the more expensive tickets, and thinking that was pretty close, but when I sit down, it feels too far away for me.

Reading the programme, I see a few familiar names. Tim Rogers, who was in Whistle when we saw it a couple of years ago, Duncan Patrick, who I last saw in a log cabin in Leicestershire, and a couple of people who’ve played at York. There’s also Shona Lindsay, who’s done quite a lot in the West End, and headlined a number of touring shows. But when I was asked earlier ‘who’s in it?’ I gave my standard reply ‘no one you’d know’.

When the show begins, the first thing that impresses me is the set. I’m unsure of Tim Rogers’s vocals in Love Changes Everything, and a lot of the action feels too compressed to get through the span of time (and all the combinations of couples, as basically pretty much everyone sleeps with everyone else).

About halfway through Act 1, however, it pulls me in. Although he failed to convince as a 17 year old, Rogers is much better as the older Alex, Lindsay is impressive with a strong and clear voice, and James Graeme brings a richness and humour to George. By the interval, I’m engrossed, and when I look to my right, J is emotionally distraught, ‘I didn’t expect it to be like this’. ‘Just you wait for Act 2’. Time for more wine!

By Act 2, I’m realising how different this production is to the earlier one. All the characters are quite destructive in their relationships. As the song goes, love does change everything, and not only for the best. I see that Alex is actually a bit of a b*****d, something I never realised last time. Rose (Lindsay) breaks me with her rendition of ‘Anything but Lonely’ and C now has two snivelling colleagues around her, while she remains dry eyed, (‘it takes more than that to make me cry!’).

After the show ends, I manage to the resist the stage door (well, it is raining), and with more difficulty, the lure of the rather brilliant Ma E’s. We sit in the hotel bar with yet more wine, and I want to talk about the performances, and the production. I start to talk, I know I’m starting to wave my hands around.

The other two are more interested in what has happened in the final of The Apprentice.