This was a really interesting piece. I enjoyed it, but I very much came away wanting a bit... more.
As expected, the performances were excellent. Vivid and believable, they did a lot of the heavy lifting for the production. Everything else felt distinctly weak.
Firstly, this is a play that relies almost entirely on one gimmick - switching back and forwards through the time periods of a single relationship. She commences at the end, and he begins at the start, and they move towards each other through time. Remove this technique, and it would be dull - without the gimmick, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the play.
Which is fine - I'm being picky. What I felt was less fine was just how uninvested I was in their relationship. I felt a lot of this could be attributed to the lights which, while pretty, didn't create any sense of magic in the romance. By it's nature, we know from the start that this is a pairing that is destined to fail - what I wanted to feel was that there was a chance. I wanted to feel hope, especially in the earlier time sequences, that the relationship could still succeed. Unfortunately, it felt more like watching a slow motion car crash from twelve different angles.
This is absolutely no reflection on this specific production, more a general gripe with this musical as a whole. The actors were excellent, the musicianship stellar, and the design elements solid. I'm being incredibly mean, but it just didn't wow me.