Love Story **** TNT
Based on Erich Segal’s 1970 novel which inspired the famous film, this beautifully played romance between Harvard preppy Oliver Barrett IV (who stands to inherit a fortune) and poor Italian-American scholarship student Jenny (whose widowed dad, warmly played by Peter Polycarpou, runs a restaurant) has its twee moments and occasionally trite lyrics.
But there’s real heart to this musical with its “money can’t buy happiness” message and tear-jerker ending.
Howard Goodall’s affecting score (performed by a discreet on-stage ensemble) is often poignant – the play opens with a funeral - but there’s lightness, too, in the deliciously catchy pasta song which marks the passing months.
And Emma Williams (feisty, sharp-tongued) and Michael Xavier (bowled over hockey jock and lawyer in the making) keep their love tunefully, touchingly alive. Take a tissue.
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