Unsurpassed talent makes realism sing

06/11/2001

By Lawson Taitte / The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH – There's a reason that I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change has been setting attendance records at smaller theaters all across the country. It touches a nerve in dating singles – especially those over 30 who, in the words of the show's first song, aren't "studs" or "babes."

Circle Theatre's new production, which opened Saturday, puts an interesting spin on Joe DiPetro and Jimmy Roberts' show. Director Todd Hart has found a cast of four – including himself – who go against expectations of what actors in a show so centered on sex and romance should look like. Each has a few more pounds, a few more years, or a little less hair than a conventional stud or a babe might.

Luckily, they're all enormously talented. You'll never find a show better sung or acted. In fact, this version tops the excellent version just celebrating the first anniversary of its long run at Theatre Three in both departments.

Mr. Hart himself has often done rather sexless parts such as the title role in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and one of the harmonizing nerds in Forever Plaid. Here he's a bundle of repressed energy just waiting to be set free. Watch his face when – as an exhausted parent of young children or as a guy too shy to make a pass at the gal who beats him at tennis – he realizes he's about to get lucky.

Mr. Hart also sings, touchingly, the most moving of the men's songs, "Shouldn't I Be Less in Love With You?," in which a husband serenades his wife of many years over breakfast. Lois Sonnier does equally well by the corresponding ballad for a woman – "I Will Be Loved Tonight." If you can get past the song's essential sadness – this woman has so much skin hunger that casual sex can pass for love – it's a fine a lyrical moment as you'll find in a recent musical.

The script assigns Neil Mowles and Jenny Thurman many of the show's funniest moments. Ms. Thurman's "Always a Bridesmaid" uses her powerful belt voice (spiked with a twist of country) to lampoon not only all those terrible dresses but the unwise marriages the character's friends are making. Mr. Mowles has a love affair with his car to distract himself on a family vacation. Both actors imbue the widowed older singles in "I Can Live With That" with a certain dignity without sacrificing any laughs.

The Circle production's musical finesse carries over to the two instrumentalists, Jeff Lankov and Chris Smith. You probably can't do better by I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change than these six performers have done.PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, presented by Circle Theatre, 230 W. Fourth St., Fort Worth, Thursdays through Saturdays through July 14. Tickets $15 to $30. Call 817-877-3040.