By Ruby Nancy | Thursday, July 19, 2007
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!” is a series of musical vignettes that detail relationships in all their anguish and awe, calamity and comfort.
Twenty scenes and about as many songs address the topic from a
variety of perspectives, and, along the way, they provide us with an amazing
amount of insight and entertainment.
The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre is the latest group to stage this fun little
musical, and director Jerry Winters has assembled a cast of four — Josh Estrada,
Alison Luff, Josh Wright and Jennifer Gilbert — who do excellent work. Music
director Adam Wiggins, on piano, and violinist Kristen Jones (who plays from an
upstage platform) are equally superb throughout.
From the perils of dating to the emotions elicited from facing life alone, the
songs in “I Love You …” cover quite a range. Embedded in scenes with comic
titles such as “Men Who Talk and the Women Who Pretend They’re Listening” are
songs like “Single Man Drought” and “Why? ‘Cause I’m a Guy,” and these are just
samples of the many gems in this musical.
While the material is great stuff to work with, it is the talent and panache of
the performers that really make this show so much fun. Estrada shows off his
vocal chops on “Shouldn’t I Be Less in Love With You?” and in “A Stud and a
Babe,” a duet with Luff that is a favorite. He and Wright pull off “Why? ’Cause
I’m a Guy” with great humor, earning big laughs for their comic (and perfectly
pitched) delivery. With Gilbert, Estrada turns in a major crowd-pleaser with
“Marriage Tango,” and he is a strong singer whose work in the company numbers is
flawless, too.
Luff sings the heart-rending “I Will Be Loved Tonight” after she pairs with
Estrada in “The Lasagna Incident” scene, where she shows off her acting chops.
Her performance in the scenes “I’ll Call You Soon (Yeah, Right)” and “The Very
First Dating Video of Rose Ritz” are stellar examples of what acting can be, and
her vocals are perfectly delivered in the many company numbers.
Wright is a fine actor and comedian whose singing is equally excellent. He and
Gilbert start off with the scene “Not Tonight, I’m Busy, Busy, Busy,” and their
work on it sets the tone for all the fine scenes to follow. His vocals for “We
Had It All” and “I Can Live With That” — both duets with Gilbert — are just
beautiful, and he is funny as he delivers “Baby Talk.”
Gilbert also shines vocally. In addition to “Marriage Tango,” We Had It All” and
“I Can Live With That” — her duets with Estrada and Wright — she pairs with Luff
on the feisty and hilarious “Single Man Drought” to bring down the house early
in the first act. Act Two starts off strong with her “Always a Bridesmaid,”
which is a laugh-out-loud country anthem almost too good to believe.
Winters and Wiggins — and everyone else associated with this show — deserve any
feelings of pride they have for this “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!”
because it is a terrific show that is simply too good to be missed.