By Town Crier Staff Report

After nearly nine years without a major production in North America, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Aspects of Love” returns in a production by Palo Alto Players at the Lucie Stern Theater.

The show previews Friday, with the opening night gala Saturday. It runs through May 12.

“Aspects of Love” is considered the composer’s most intimate, lush and intelligently crafted score. The use of motifs, the haunting and jaunting melodies and the cinematic style of structure attempt to remain honest to the spirit of David Garnett’s novella.

A tale of the intricacies and tangled webs of relationships and the emotions spilling forth, “Aspects” dissects various facets of love through an unlikely combination of characters.

The story centers around Alex, a young British man wandering the French provinces before his call-up to the Army, who meets a rising star named Rose and her director/manager. Alex’s worldly uncle George, a minor titled British man with a penchant for art forgery, meets Rose. The two get involved, even though George is seeing a widowed Italian Marchessa, and soon have a daughter. But Rose has a lover on the side, Hugo, whom her husband knows about.

The production brings back the core team from Palo Alto Players’ Critics Circle nominated “Three Tall Women,” including director Mike Ward.

The cast of 25 is led by local cabaret singer Alison Bloomfield (Rose); tenor Joe Hudelson (Alex); Shady Shakespeare founder Sara Betts (Giulietta); and British stage veteran Michael Low (George).

Show times are 8 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m., Sunday and May 12. Tickets are $18 for Friday’s preview; $28 for Saturday’s opening night; $22 Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; and $26 Fridays and Saturdays.

For tickets, call 329-0891.