Pauper Players’ “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” presented a flawlessly executed and off-the-wall funny performance Friday night.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” is a romantic comedy and the second-longest running Off-Broadway musical. The book and lyrics are by Joe DiPietro; the music is by Jimmy Roberts.
With scene titles such as “Men Who Talk and the Women Who Pretend They’re Listening” and “Satisfaction Guaranteed,” and song titles such as “Why? ‘Cause I’m a Guy” and “He Called Me,” the back-to-back vignettes were short, enthralling and stayed true to the play’s tagline: “Everything you have ever secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws, but were afraid to admit.”
The 19 scenes suggested an overall chronology of romance, from singles too busy to date, to widows at a funeral contemplating a second love.
The play addressed all the stereotypes of love, including people wishing they were more attractive, parents lamenting their son’s singleness, and a man wondering what’s happened to his personality since he became a father.
Something notable could be said of each well-performed scene.
Some were touching, some overly flamboyant — though all proved to be quite entertaining.
The audience laughed loudly at every scene, minus the one where a husband reflects how he is still very much in love with his wife.
The fourth scene, “The Family that Drives Together…,” made very creative use of chairs as props, with the four actors pretending to be driving in a car.
As the family’s fighting reached a climax, the chairs split up and each actor spun around, out of control.
Each of the eight actors, a significant number of them impressive first-time performers, had honed their precise comedic timing, and were talented singers with great voice control.
Scene seven’s “The Very First Dating Video of Rose Ritz,” was the most impressive display of outright acting.
Flaws were mainly timing with the music, but went mostly unnoticed.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” gave both singles and couples a highly entertaining show and left the audience in a delighted, love-filled mood.
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