STAGE REVIEW : Acting Is Just One Fine Aspect of ‘Love’

COSTA MESA — There’s a perfect marriage on stage at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. “Aspects of Love,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lush operetta that opened there Tuesday night, has been mounted with such exquisite care and extravagance by director Robin Phillips that the production is a match made in heaven.

It’s an evening’s homage to the rapture of passion, the enchantment of beauty, the fleeting blink of that golden eye called Love. And everyone is in on the seduction.

The story concerns the romantic entanglements of an actress, Rose; her young, star-struck amore, Alex; Alex’s debonair uncle George; George’s lady friend Giulietta and, in the final tango, the teen-age result of Rose and George’s coupling.

Couplings there are aplenty, in practically every possible combination. But despite the inherent soap-opera quality of the story line, Phillips’ production is elegant and humorous. Although it falls short of catharsis, the presentation is so stylish and the performances so engaging that fans of Webber--and indeed, fans of romance--should come away sated.

In the pivotal role of Rose, Linda Balgord sings with the assurance of a true leading lady. Her characterization fills out voluptuously as she grows from a wanton to a star to a wife and mother and, finally, to a woman facing up to her own fear of loneliness.

As Alex, Ron Bohmer contributes an airy tenor and a golden-boy ingenuousness over which he skillfully layers the patina of hard-won worldliness and the pain of unconsummated passion. Kelli James Chase, as urbane sculptress Giulietta, is a woman whose fluid sexuality and sophistication are rooted in a gutsy determination to enjoy the wine and the dice.

George, the paterfamilias of the love fest, is played with great charm and masterful elan by Barrie Ingham. From his water-smooth singing to his self-deprecating wit, his is a seemingly effortless portrayal of an aging bon vivant, a man capable of anything but content in the company of fine wine and beautiful women. His homage to his daughter, “Other Pleasures,” is the evening’s emotional high point.

The fine performances are supported immeasurably by the production designers. Phillip Silver’s set, ringed in 25 foot gossamer curtains like a majestic bed, underscores the quixotic nature of romance. Under Louise Guinand’s atmospheric lighting, the setting--at once delicately windblown and decadently palatial--allows for filmic vistas and juxtapositions that weave magic into what easily could degenerate into melodrama.

Combined with Ann Curtis’ gorgeous, ultra-chic costumes, rendered in a black and white palate that discovers an amazing variety of shades, the design effect is reminiscent of Visconti’s “Death in Venice,” a story of tragic love dressed to the nines and bathed in the golden light of the Mediterranean.

* “Aspects of Love,” Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Nightly at 8, matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2. Ends June 27. $15-$48. (714) 556-2121. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Linda Balgord: Rose Vibert

Ron Bohmer: Alex Dillingham

Barrie Ingham: George Dillingham

Kelli James Chase: Giulietta Trapani

David Masenheimer: Marcel Richard

Maryke Hendrikse: Younger Jenny Dillingham

Dana Lynn Caruso: Older Jenny Dillingham

Suzanne Briar: Elizabeth

Stephen Foster: Hugo Le Meunier

David Chaney: Jerome

Ensemble Elizabeth Beeler, Rob Lorey, Brian Lynch, Bonnie Schon, Merri Sugarman, and Whitney Webster.

A Pace Theatrical Group, Inc./Livent U.S., Inc. production in association with the Really Useful Theatre Company (Canada) Limited. Adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber from the novel by David Garnett. Music by Webber. Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. Directed by Robin Phillips. Set: Phillip Silver. Costumes: Ann Curtis. Lights: Louise Guinand. Sound: Martin Levan. Musical Director/Conductor: Annbritt Gemmer.