Musical satirizes world of dating

The show's music and characters spice up the love/hate war between men and women.
By MARGARET NERY
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LISBON -- Television's much-heralded "The Bachelor" and its equally pretentious forerunner, "The Dating Game," were merely mildly amusing love matches when compared to the hilarious mating game that was played by a strange assortment of uninhibited characters in "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" Friday night at the Outreach Center, 234 Lincoln Way.
With Kandace Cleland as their director and music by Jodine Palmer and Georgene Recchi, 16 talented Stage Left Players of Lisbon turned tales of the trauma of dating, waiting and relating into a series of hilarious vignettes that provided an often explicit look at all phases of love and marriage.
Appropriate, lively music provided the background for the amusing scenes that covered the gamut of emotions encountered by the couples as they experienced the complexities associated with trauma of dating, mating, breaking up, marriage and parenting.
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the ensemble pulled no punches as each performer put heart and soul into songs that focused on everything from youthful fantasies to life after death.
The nonstop musical comedy even invaded a bedroom where a salesman offered an unsatisfied couple a solution to their inadequate sex life as he sang "Satisfaction Guaranteed."
Music with a message
The show is filled with such delightful numbers as "Shouldn't I Be Less in Love With You," in which an older couple finds marriage isn't so bad after all, and "I Can live With That," in which a man and woman discover they have so much to offer each other and must live life to the fullest after a mate dies.
It also pokes fun at the back-seat drivers of the world in a fast-moving number titled "On the Highway of Love," focuses on bridal fashions in the poignant lament, "Always A Bridesmaid," and kids about men watching sports while women buy shoes and plan the wedding in the crowd-pleasing song, "Waiting Trio."
Perfectly cast
It would be unfair to single out any member of the cast as the most outstanding because each is perfect in an excruciatingly funny variety of roles. The amusing evening's entertainment was presented by Erin Roberts, Liz Rubino, Adam Zagotti, Kandy Cleland, Randy Brammer, Ali Cleland, Devon Cleland, Spencer Cleland, John Doyle, Robert Dubec, Anna Frabutt, Ryan Gillis, Olivia Hazen, the Rev. Kari Lankford, Jared Mason and Alan McCreary.
This show is not for a prude, because during some moments it is rude and crude, but basically it was down-to-earth humor about situations and events that are too often taken too seriously. The enthusiastic characters tackle each delicate subject and tell it like it is!
"I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" is a perfect date show. It is a must-see production that is downright silly at times but never foolish as every comic strip also delivers a message. And, of course, the final amusing message is: Find someone to love and spend the rest of your life trying to change the mate.