I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change

This long-running Off-Broadway revue was a perfect fit for the Savoyards audience - a middlebrow look at male-female relationships presented in a series of sketches and songs that covered nerds on a date, macho posturing, baby-talking parents, geriatric romance and others. Not the wittiest or incisive work in the world, the music mines the pastiche basket and lite rock, the lyrics rhyme (even if falsely at times), but it’s genial and undemanding.

It is the second longest-running show Off-Broadway at over 5,000 performances, where, according to the book American Musical Theatre (Gerald Bordman with updates by Richard Norton), "the show struck a chord with audiences so deluged with gay themes they're relieved to be reminded that ninety per-cent of the time men date women".

Julie Eisentrager impressed with her solo “Single Man Drought”, as did Nadia Vanek with “He Called Me”, and Kate Doohan with the country-flavoured “Always a Bridesmaid”. The guys did well with the machismo, “Why? Cause I’m a Guy,” whilst Mufaro Maringe, Joshua Thia, Vanek and Eisentrager found some fun in “Sex and Marriage” (there’s none after you take the vows). Best sketch of the perfomance was Jenna Saini and Tia as seniors who almost managed to bring some pathos to “Funeral”.

Accompaniment was by a tight three-piece group (piano, violin and bass) conducted on-stage by musical director Danika Saal. Gabriella Flowers’ direction was schizophrenic, with the pre-show announcement to turn-off mobile phones made in a strong American accent and most songs sung the same way, but bewilderingly she let an ‘ocker’ voice frequently cut through, which was totally out of place. What country were we in – America, Australia, or no-man’s land? Who knows? And in this show about heterosexual relationships why stage the song “Shouldn’t I be Less in love with You” as a gay partnership instead of between a man and a woman as it was in the original?

The show is dated, having been written before iphones, twitter and facebook, and often lame, but this talented cast do their best to infuse life into it and sometimes succeed.

Peter Pinne    

Photographers: Michelle Thomas and Christopher Thomas.