After a sold-out debut run at The Other Palace in 2019, Love Is Only Love makes a triumphant return for a limited run from 29 April to 15 May.
Directed by Jason Morell, with Sam Harrison playing the boy and David Seadon-Young as all the loves of his life, this is a joyful, tender, and honest celebration of young love.
“I’m six years old, about to watch Hello Dolly starring Barbra Streisand for the first time, and I’m terrified.”
A young boy’s life is changed forever when he discovers the passionate romance of Hollywood musicals. So begins a decades-long, round-the-world quest to find his own kind of romance.
This uplifting musical received its first workshop at The Other Palace, thanks to Artistic Director Paul Taylor-Mills, before moving to the Pride Festival where it received its first full staging. In February 2019 it was staged for eight performances at The Other Palace and at the start of 2020 could be seen at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.
Writer and performer, Sam Harrison, says of Love Is Only Love’s journey: “back in 2018 I wrote Love Is Only Love for myself. It was the play I wanted to see – a romantic comedy with two boys where no one was bullied or died at the end. Not much to ask, huh? The inspiration to write it was little me, but the surprise was that it was about little me.
Now the greatest pleasure has been all the audiences – falling in love in all sorts of ways – who have seen it and said it is about them too. And what’s more, now they want to see it again.
A lot has changed since 2018, and perhaps more than ever we need to sit together in a room and celebrate love, family, human connection, and romantic joy. I know I do. I am particularly thrilled to be returning to our original home at The Other Palace, to help them blow open the doors of their wonderful Studio, and welcome back everyone to that glorious community – the theatre.”
Paul Taylor-Mills said, “we’re thrilled to be producing Love is Only Love in our studio which continues to be a safe space for artists to play and try new work. This is a full circle moment as the show returns in its full form to The Studio having started with us many years ago.
The story is an important one, a universal one, one that we can all relate to. And one which the world needs right now. This marks an important chapter in the future of The Other Palace as we start to build-up our programme of producing and supporting quality work, new writing and cultivating the next generation of theatre-makers.”
