Photo by Janelle McMenamin
"I love you, you're perfect, now change" is a series of sketches and songs - act one looks at dating leading up to a wedding, and act two deals with what comes after - children, routines and the possibilities of divorce and widowhood. Writer Joe DiPetro's gone on since this show to write the Elvis-themed "All Shook Up", Tony-winning "Memphis", the cult favourite "Toxic Avenger" musical, the delightful "Nice Work if you can get it", and the somewhat tacky "Diana" musical, while composer Jimmy Roberts career hasn't gone very far since this - but this is a show that's played wide and long all over the world simply by being relatable, small scale and quite entertaining.
It's written for a small ensemble playing multiple roles, and in Free-Rain's production it's immaculately performed by six performers - Amelia Andersson-Nickson, Connor McNaught, David Pearson, Deborah O'Toole, Sam Thomson and Sarah Copley - who cover multiple roles and relationships. As a show originally from the late 90s (though rewritten slightly in this version), it's very much from the "Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus" school of gender-essentialism, but the gags mostly hold up 30 years later. In this production, it's given a stylish look on an abstracted chessboard by Janie Lawson, with some sketches somewhat localised and other sketches staying in the US context of the original material. The musical accompaniment by Leo Amadeus (who has also coached the cast in the tight vocal harmonies) and Laura Ley on violin is small but impactful, going from speedy tense rhythms to touching ballads to genre spoofs. The cast is stylishly costumed by Louise Newey in a mix of reds, whites and blacks.
The ensemble cast play very well together, whether it be Copley and McNaught exploring alternate personas as "A Stud and A babe", Andersson-Nickson and Thompson fast-forwarding through a relationship in "Better Things to Do", or O'Toole and Pearson finding gentle resolution in "I Can Live With That", or in solo showcases like Thompson's Baby song, Copley's videodate speech, Pearson's scared-straight monologue or Andersson-Nickson's Bridesmaid's lament (aided by some clever lighting by Craig Muller).
As we transition into spring, it's not a bad time to think of mating-and-dating rituals, and this is a fun way to celebrate it - it's not a groundbreaking show so much as a pleasantly reassuring one. But it's fun to see this ensemble in some material that gives their talents room to show off.
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