Heart Throb

Book and Lyrics by Jonathan Karp

Music by Seth Weinstein
  

Synopsis

Cast: 7 actors (4 men, 3 women)
Running time: 100 minutes (no intermission)

Heart Throb is a contemporary romantic comedy about a cerebral literature professor who, to his dread, discovers he can make people fall in love with each other when he sings the kind of sentimental songs he loathes.

Professor Anthony Jasper is beginning his first year as a professor of literature at a small liberal-arts college. He is a man of erudition and taste, a discriminating critic who sincerely believes that the root of all evil in modern society can be traced directly to Olivia Newton-John's 1974 recording of "I Honestly Love You."

Jasper can explain his aversion to all things romantic in precise academic terms, but his theories may also relate to his father, Teddy, who abandoned the family years ago to pursue a career as a lounge singer in Las Vegas. Teddy has recently returned home for a rapprochement with his son and is playing piano at the only hotel bar in town.

Jasper begins to teach an unruly class of students, including a particularly assertive blonde named Rachel Romero, who challenges his theories. On the home front, Jasper is also confronted by his long-time girlfriend, Margo, who has become frustrated with his denunciations of love. Margo wants to see some passion.

Forced to articulate why he believes love - and love songs - are pointless, Jasper cynically sings his father's favorite ditty, "(You Make My) Heart Throb." But as Jasper sings, strange things happen to the people around him - kissing, groping, unprovoked displays of public affection. Jasper is alarmed and nauseated. Meanwhile, two local music producers, Rocky Valentine and Herbie Stone, see an easy buck in Jasper's talent and offer the professor a record deal.

As Jasper begins to wield his power as a human aphrodisiac, he is forced to rethink his assumptions about love, particularly with regard to his father, his girlfriend, and his best student, whose interest in Jasper is not just intellectual.

At turns romantic and comically absurd, Heart Throb asks this question: Can life ever live up to the love songs? By the end of this musical journey, Professor Anthony Jasper finds his answer.