Review: I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE at Candlelight Music Theatre

Aisle Say was a trifle surprised at the first dialogue interchange of I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE, the current production at Candlelight. It was risqué, somewhat risk-taking from the norm, owing to the senior citizen demographics of their audience.

The show premiered off-Broadway and is its second longest running production, now translated into 17 different languages. It speaks to the emotional baggage of male/female, husband/wife relationships. T dissects, slice and dices, pulverizes and then makes whole all facets of a marriage. The book and music are combined to present one of the wittiest shows I have ever seen. Throughout the evening the entire audience was convulsed in laughter; perhaps seeing the dynamics of their own personal relationships set to dialogue and music.

It is a series of skits as one travels through the travails of being single, dating, sex, marriage and growing old. Perfectly cast are veteran troupers Jared Calhoun, Jessica Ball, and real husband/wife Tori Healy and Max Redman. All four sing superbly, dance superbly and better yet, are consummate comedians. Oh boy, are they.

The characters breach the 4th wall, engaging with the audience from time to time. Additionally, an absolute perfect idea from director Jody Anderson is to have clips of interviews from local husbands and wives projected on a screen. The couples speak to their own relationships and creates a cuddly, warm feel that pervades the theatre; a wonderful touch.

The tableaus are hysterical. Healy singing "Always a Bridemaid". "I love my dress", she laments. "Not sure where I will wear it again". Healy goes through the number of bridesmaid dresses she has worn and who they were for. "For Heather, I wore leather!" Funny. Her elastic, nerdy expressions are priceless. Calhoun plays a crazed prison inmate, terrifying poor Mr Redman. He reminds one of Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING or any Nicholas Cage in any film he was ever in. This scene ranks as one of the funniest Aisle Say has ever witnessed at Candlelight. Calhoun sang "The Body Song", a takeoff on gay parents dancing a marriage tango.

Super techie Anthony Connell brings out a camera to film Ball as she prepares a video for a dating site. That real time vid is projected on the stage monitor. For anyone who was forced through this misery, one relates. In another, Redman and Healy are parents attempting sex but constantly being interrupted. In yet another vignette, we see the ennui of marriage, where one is engaging the spouse while he reads the newspaper. (We've all been through that scenario).As elderly people they attend funerals for something to do, never having laid eyes on the deceased.

The pit orchestra, with Amanda Wise-Harris, Len Defrank, Jerry Tannenbaum and the multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Mauck was outstanding.

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