Review: ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect’ ideal way to bring back theater – Times Union
COHOES — Broadly relatable and pitch-perfect in tone and delivery, Playhouse Stage Company’s production of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” is both a savvy programming choice to ease people back into the theater and a lively, funny evening of entertainment.
Running for three more weekends at Playhouse Stage’s indoor home at the Cohoes Music Hall, the show is a revue of more than 20 unconnected scenes and about as many songs that trace the arc of romantic relationships, from the first date through marriage, children and the death of a spouse. Although state regulations would permit an audience of up to 100, Playhouse Stage limits per-performance capacity to 60 to further increase social distancing and allay potential concerns. Other familiar measure are in place as well, among them temperature checks upon entry, hand-sanitizer stations, online programs accessed via QR code and of course masks for all except the performers. It is the first professional indoor theater production in the Capital Region since early March of last year.
The show, by Playhouse Stage’s most veteran director, Michael LoPorto, is performed on a set (scenic and video design by Ray Stokes) that features televisions, which prior to the show play clips from more than 50 years’ worth of TV comedies, including “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Cheers,” “Seinfeld,” “Modern Family” and “Schitt’s Creek.” The choice is apt, given that the humor in “I Love You …” (book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, music by Jimmy Roberts) has the cheery glibness of sitcoms from the middlebrow to the sophisticated.
LoPorto’s assured hand guides all of it with a confidence possible because he’s got a four-member cast of considerable skill. They know when to push toward caricature, as when a mom, disappointed by the state of her adult offspring’s romantic relationship, whacks a cleaver into a ham, or an inmate serving multiple life sentences terrifies a mismatched couple into marrying despite their seeming incompatibility.
That’s all funny, but what’s more satisfying are the moments of genuine emotion. Molly Rose McGrath turns a facile premise — a 40-year-old blindsided by a breakup makes a dating profile for a site called EndOfTheRoad.com — into tragicomedy, and Brandon Jones is masterful in a song called “Shouldn’t I Be Less in Love with You,” during which a man a searchingly reflects on how a couple’s connection deepened over a 30-year marriage.
Also in the cast are Dashira Cortes, whose adeptness at flighty comedy makes it even funnier when she does a stone-faced simmer of annoyance, and Marc Christopher, equally hilarious as a murderer and a baby-obsessed gay dad. (Originally written in 1996 for an off-Broadway run that lasted a dozen years, the show was updated in 2018 to make references more current.) All four performers have standout solo voices that also blend well in harmonies and group numbers, and their singing is supported by Playhouse Stage’s reliably excellent music director, Brian Axford, playing keyboards and leading a four-member onstage band.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” explores utterly familiar terrain, but it does so with peppy tunes, amusing rhymes and enthusiastic, accomplished performances. A little light fare, done well, feels like the right way to restart the theater scene.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Playhouse Stage Company at Cohoes Music Hall, 58 Remsen St., Cohoes
Running time: One hour, 50 minutes, with one intermission
Continues: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, through May 23
Tickets: $30
Info: 518-434-0776 and playhousestage.org