I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change @ Theatre Too

—Review by Ramona Harper

Did you know that online dating apps lured in some 413 million paid-up members last year?  So no, Amy Winehouse, perhaps love really isn’t a losing game. It’s still one of the hottest games in town.  In I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!—now playing at Theatre 3’s cozy downstairs venue Theatre Too—love is a many-splendored thing…at least when you can just laugh at yourself and enjoy the ups and downs of it all.  And laugh you will at the unstoppable racy humor in this very popular show.

Playwright Joe DiPietro’s unflappable musical has been around since 1996; it’s the second longest-running Off-Broadway musical.  It’s been translated into more than 17 languages, presented on almost every continent, and is still going strong. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! (ILYYPNC) is a show that makes great farcical fun of the universality of romantic love with a lively score of 30+ songs. And here in Dallas, a top-flight cast of performers are as good as they come.

A series of multi-charactered vignettes is the perfect set-up for plumbing the stages of romance from the perils of the first-date match to the “future fights and sleepless nights” of love and marriage and the baby carriage, the heartbreak of breaking up, and the age of silver singles and dating over fifty.

Every scene is a zany come-to-Jesus moment of what happens when boy meets girl, or when boy meets boy.  Directed by Joel Ferrell, ILYYPNC’s casting choices reflect contemporary updating, with a gay couple going through the throes of new parenthood, and interracial couplings in combinations of Black, white, and Brown actors.

There are only four performers in the show, but it feels like a cast of many more: a delightful variety of characters poke fun at relationships in each scene.  The standout ensemble brings the singing chops, the skill in dramatic characterization, and most importantly, the comedic timing of seasoned stand-ups.  The audience howled at every punch line—and there were quite a few!

Allison Bret, Lauren LeBlanc, Davian Jackson, and Sergio Antonio Garcia are all just fantastic in this production.  Their praises cannot be sung loudly enough.

Working on a very small black box stage, these fabulous performers break through the fourth wall and engage the audience with flirtatious teasing, stirring up rollicking laughter at the pitfalls of falling in love. Yet they give us enough appealing believability to make anyone still want to “keep coming back for more” by taking a chance on love.

Musical Director Vonda K. Bowling’s superb performance at the piano also showcases the cast’s stellar vocal talents. With only Bowling’s lilting solo accompaniment for musical support, there’s no vocal camouflaging here—the singing’s just great.

Composer Jimmy Roberts’ score pulls from a variety of music genres from Broadway showtune to country twang, R&B, gospel, tango and Rap. Songs include “A Stud and a Babe,” “Single Man Drought,” “Hey There, Single Gal/Guy,” “Wedding Vows,” “Shouldn’t I Be Less in Love with You?” and “I Can Live With That.” The Epilogue happily ends up declaring “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!”—such is love!

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! is total hilarity, and the lively cast had little more than their formidable talents to rely upon with Jeffrey Schmidt’s simple set of a few chairs, a bed, and a couch.  Amanda West’s lighting design is also minimalist, with flecks of light bouncing off a sparkly, multi-colored curtain backdrop.

The glittering curtain, however, gives the continued feeling of being at a Mardi Gras party or maybe a cabaret; it feels somewhat distracting and out of context for the themes of the play. On the other hand, perhaps this ILYYPNC is saying that life really is a cabaret, and falling in love the grandest show of all.

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! is pretty much a pitch-perfect production.  Please don’t change a thing.

But please, go see it!

When:  Through February 18

Where:  Theatre Too (downstairs @ T3), 2688 LaClede Street, Dallas 75201

Web:  theatre3dallas.com