Media Center
Related Topics
Related Stories
There are the first dates, the good dates and the bad dates. The break-ups, the proposals and the weddings. And the kids, in-laws and spouses who know just how to push your buttons.
Ah, relationships: The good, the bad and the, well, in "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," the good, the bad and the funny.
This musical revue, now playing at the Dutch Apple, takes a humorous look at relationships between men and women.
The title lets you know that the show is wise to the ways of love. So does the show's tagline: "Everything you have secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws, but were afraid to admit."
The cast of four — Rachel Goldrick, Katherine Walker Hill, Scott Moreau and Galloway Stevens — play a wide variety of characters in a wide variety of situations and a wide variety of ages.
Some of the songs can give you a clue: "Cantata for a First Date," "Not Tonight, I'm Busy, Busy, Busy," "Why? Cause I'm a Guy," "I'll Call You Soon (Yeah, Right)," "The Baby Song," and "Funerals are for Dating."
"The cool thing about the show is that it doesn't focus on just one group," says Moreau. "It's hard not to relate to something in the show."
"And it's not all roses and wonderful," says Hill. "It shows the upsetting parts of relationships too."
"But always with an entertaining twist," adds Stevens.
The cast agrees that the biggest challenge of the show is creating a character in such a brief period of time. Most of the vignettes last no longer than five minutes.
"It's far more challenging, but it's fun," says Stevens, the only member of the cast who did not appear in the show 14 months ago at the Broadway Palm in Florida, the sister theater to the Dutch Apple.
The other cast members says the addition of Stevens has added a whole new spin to the show.
"I didn't realize how much of a blessing it would be to have Galloway in the cast," says Goldrick. "He really makes the show fresh."
While there is no specific through- line and the cast is always playing different characters, it does tend to follow the general arc of relationships (though we all know the course of true love never does run smooth), from first dates to honeymoons and weddings and even divorces.
And both men and women get to have fun at each other's expense.
In "Waiting," a woman tries to grab her husband's attention while he's watching a football game. She complains about how she's always waiting for the game to be over.
But then, on the other side of the stage, a husband, with several shopping bags in hand, complains about having to wait for his wife while she's shopping.
"I think the stereotypical flaws in both sexes are pointed out," says Hill. "When we did it in Florida, people would be commenting, saying things like 'Been there!' and 'You tell 'em sister.' It's such an intimate show, people would talk out loud."
"I think everyone has the same problems, or they can relate to them," says Goldrick, noting that emotions don't change much over the decades.
The show, with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts, opened off-Broadway on August 1, 1996 and closed after 5,003 performances this past July 27.
It's been translated into 13 languages and performed all over the world, from Beijing to Barcelona.
Obviously, everyone gets it.
"Some of the vignettes are heightened reality, maybe a little more cartoonish," says Moreau. "But others are more realistic, as straightforward as can be."
And the same could be said for a lot of relationships too.
THAT'S THE TICKET
"I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"
Cont. various days and times through Feb. 21
$52 adults
$22 students 13-18
$18 children 12 and under
Show only: $25 adults,$16 children
Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre
510 Centerville Road
898-1900
www.dutchapple.com
(548)
