DIRECTOR Paul Laidlaw is delighted that York Musical Theatre Company has been granted permission to stage Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Aspects Of Love.

"He's famous for not releasing his shows to the amateur circuit, except to youth theatre groups, but he has released this one in its touring version," says Paul, whose production will open at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre on March 31 with a cast of 28.

"It's been re-scored but he hasn't altered anything to make it easier for non-professionals. It's still a musically very complicated piece as it's a sing-through show with just three lines of dialogue that are thrown over a song anyway, and he's experimented with time signatures, so it's quite demanding. There's a tendency to think Lloyd Webber is just a lot of nice tunes but he's more than that."

Premiered in the West End in 1989, Aspects Of Love's story of passion, love and loss across three generations of a family is set on the cobbled streets of Paris, in the mountains of the Pyrenees and in Venice. At its centre is Alex Dillingham, a young student travelling through France, who falls in love with the alluring actress Rose Vibert. As the pair embark on a passionate affair, the unexpected arrival of Alex's uncle, George, changes their lives forever.

"One of the complications of this show is that it was originally conceived as a film, as it's so plot-driven, going all over the place from Paris to the Pyrenees to Venice," says Paul.

"As far as I can gather, when it was changed to a musical, Lloyd Webber didn't write extra links to go from one part of the world to another with different people and different furniture, or sometimes the same people in a different place a week later, so that makes it a challenge for us."

In the West End premiere, the design solution was to stage it with four revolving sets. Paul has taken a different tack. "I thought that if it was first approached as a film, maybe we could do so too, so we're going to use projection. That means a stage set doesn't exist; you move from scene to scene with the projections and provide discreet details through the performance style and costumes, to let the audience know where you are now and when," he says.

"The idea that you can be on a terrace in the south of France and within three bars you are in a field in the Pyrenees will be a challenge but one that I think will be visually pleasing.

"By doing it this way, it gives us more space on stage to get the turns [the cast] on and off , as it's one of those shows that's as busy off stage as on, because of all the costume changes."

Paul describes Aspects Of Love as a "big sing" for a cast led by Matthew Ainsworth as Alex Dillingham and Toni Feetenby as Rose. "It's very demanding vocally, and emotionally it's exhausting because everyone is falling love with each other or having sex with each other," he says.

York Musical Theatre Company presents Aspects Of Love, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 31 to April 5. Box office: 01904 623568 and at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk