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The big news about ”I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” playing at Cohoes Music Hall weekends through May 23, is that it’s the first area indoor theater production in over a year. The good news is that though the material is inconsistent, it’s a well-performed, swiftly directed effort that provides a lot of laughs.
“I Love You…” is a lighthearted evening of comedy and song that will warm the heart of anyone who loves theater. The cast of four is relentless in its energetic desire to make the audience laugh. This is a hard-working, talented quartet that is asked to create almost 60 characters in a two-hour period and make them distinctive and funny. Most work well, a few miss completely, and others are moderately entertaining. However, overall, it’s admirable work.
COHOES, N.Y. â The big news about âI Love You, Youâre Perfect, Now Change,â playing at Cohoes Music Hall weekends through May 23, is that itâs the first area indoor theater production in over a year.
The good news is that though the material is inconsistent, itâs a well-performed, swiftly directed effort that provides a lot of laughs.
âI Love Youâ¦â is a lighthearted evening of comedy and song that will warm the heart of anyone who loves theater. The cast of four is relentless in its energetic desire to make the audience laugh. This is a hard-working, talented quartet that is asked to create almost 60 characters in a two-hour period and make them distinctive and funny.
THEATER REVIEW: No changes necessary in this production | The Daily Gazette
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COHOES The late, great Debbie Reynolds once sang “Love Is a Simple Thing,” a pop standard by June Carroll and Arthur Siegel.
But according to lyricist Joe DiPietro and composer Jimmy Roberts, it really isn’t, and therein lies the hilarity (and occasional poignance) of this musical from 1996, now in a sterling production at Cohoes Music Hall.
Producing artistic director Owen Smith and his Playhouse Stage Company have thrown open the doors after all of these awful months and, with proper protocols in place, invited us to try indoor theater again. If you feel up to it (vaccinations provide both a medical and psychological measure of comfort), you will be rewarded with a script that charts the course of true love which, as another noted wordsmith wrote, “never did run smooth.”
Review: I Love You, You re Perfect ideal way to bring back theater
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From left, the cast of Playhouse Stage Company s production of I Love You, You re Perfect, Now Change : Molly Rose McGrath, Dashira Cortes, Brandon Jones and Marc Christopher. The show runs through May 23, 2021, at Cohoes Music Hall. (Photo by Sabrina Flores for Playhouse Stage.)Sabrina Flores for Playhouse StageShow MoreShow Less
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Molly Rose McGrath and Brandon Jones in Playhouse Stage Company s production of I Love You, You re Perfect, Now Change. The show runs through May 23, 2021, at Cohoes Music Hall. (Photo by Sabrina Flores for Playhouse Stage.)Sabrina Flores for Playhouse StageShow MoreShow Less
COHOES, N.Y. â When asked why âI Love You, Youâre Perfect, Now Changeâ has remained popular for 25 years, Michael LoPorto, the director of the comic-musical revue that opens at Cohoes Music Hall tomorrow night, laughs and answers, âIt has no subtext.â
During our telephone interview, he explained that the show, produced by Playhouse Stage, is pure fun as it charts the frustrations of people struggling to learn about love. There are about 20 scenes, almost all with music. The first act is about dating, falling in love and marrying the ideal mate. The second act is about staying in love after both parties discover there is no such thing as the ideal mate.