By Dale King
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, the musical comedy that wraps up its three-week run at Delray Beach Playhouse this weekend, has brought some unusual trappings to the Lake Shore Road venue this time around – in addition to a bag full of laughs for the audience’s holiday entertainment.
The four-person cast includes a married couple – actor/singers Jim and Diane Tyminski. That might seem an odd pairing for a show that spends the entire first act examining things related to dating – including first-encounter jitters, idiosyncrasies of single men and women, chick flicks and their impact on both sexes and the strain of waiting for phone calls from people who promise to telephone, but don’t.
A Delray Playhouse veteran who hasn’t been around in a while – Michael DeGrotta – is back. Not only does the actor who first appeared at DBP 35 years ago in Ah, Wilderness, still have a keen grasp of stage wit, his voice seems even more capable of carrying melodies with flair.
Rounding out the on-stage quartet is Helen Buttery, who stage-managed last year’s Delray Playhouse production of Little Shop of Horrors. She was part of the four-person cast of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change in 2004 – and has brought that expertise with her.
The two-act, two-and-a-half hour production directed by Delray’s capable man-in-charge, artistic chief Randolph DelLago, weaves together a series of vignettes that run the gamut from dating disasters to altar anxieties, having babies, family travels miscues and trying to re-enter the singles world after divorce. It even shows – in a gentle, non-judgmental manner – that people can meet, greet and get to know each other even at funerals.
Playwright Joe DiPietro (The Last Romance, Nice Work If You Can Get It) wrote the book on this show – literally – and also provided the lyrics for songs crafted by Jimmy Roberts. The show premiered Off-Broadway in 1996.
The music is live – from Toni Stamos on piano. Ian Wilkinson can be heard playing violin on a couple of tunes.
The play is told in 20 vignettes – 11 in Act 1, nine in Act II. Every skit stands alone, and features a song, but all follow the same progression from youthful getting-to-know-you involvements to marital bliss, marital blues and elder capers.
The show opens with the cast singing what sounds like a chant, and walking toward the audience in hooded, monk-like garb. In the spotlight, Adam and Eve show up. Adam asks Eve for a date. She doesn’t decline, but she says she’d like to see other men, too.
“There are no other men,” Adam notes.
The show kind of runs like this, with offbeat jokes and bouncy songs. There’s even a TV commercial for a law firm that will represent you if you sue your marriage partner for not providing sexual satisfaction.
Buttery opens Act II with a wonderful rendition of “Always a Bridesmaid (Never a Bride).” The lyrics paint a vivid word picture of a woman who has closeted many ugly bridesmaid gowns while never having taken the big walk down the aisle. It is sad, yet funny at the same time, vocalized excellently by Buttery.
Perhaps the funniest scene, called “Scared Straight,” brings all four back on stage. DeGrotta, in a wild, overly hairy wig and orange prison suit, offers a jailhouse talk that scares the Tyminskis so much that they agree to marry – even though their characters are exact opposites.
Two songs bring a sweet and touching message to the production. DeGrotta movingly sings, “Shouldn’t I Be Less in Love with You?” to Buttery, who is ignoring him, reading the newspaper at the breakfast table. It’s poignantly points out how we all need to assess our marriages and rekindle the reasons we’re together.
The other skit, featuring the tune, “Funerals are for Dating,” spotlights DeGrotta and Buttery as elders who learn to love again at a wake for someone they don’t even know.
Supplementing the humor in the play are members of the scene-change ensemble who bring their own comic style to the stage as they rearrange couches, chairs and tables between skits: Diandra Angelica, Kaylee Cooper, Mikayla Perry, Bianca Beche, Shai Cohen, Leah Sloan, Capri Bold and Dominic Geragi.
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change concludes with shows today at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St. (Lake Shore Drive), Delray Beach. All tickets are $30 and may be purchased online at delraybeachplayhouse.com or by calling 561-272-1281, Ext. 4.