San Diego Playbill

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
by San Diego Repertory Theatre

It's a musical version of Love American Style radically upgraded for the 21st century. This hilarious romp through the various stages of dating, marriage, parenthood, and divorce is all too familiar in its exploration of the differences between the sexes and the rituals we go through. If you don't recognize yourself in one of the scenes, you probably recognize someone you know.

The show boasts more than twenty individual skits. They begin with the first blind date between two people who decide to skip all the awkward preliminaries and jump ahead a few months to the first breakup, and they end with a look at dating strategies for widows and widowers. But the best ones are in between. Some of the highlights:

In Single Man Drought, two women rue the awful dates they are on. Despite having absolutely no interest in their loser dates, they both find themselves inexplicably lying trying to impress them with such tall tales as "I go to the gym every day" and, when caught dozing during an unbearably boring story, covering up by saying, "Oh, often times when I'm listening real hard my eyes are closed." Their despair with the quality of single men ultimately leads to the lament, "Lesbian! I should have been a lesbian!"

Not sexually satisfied by your partner? Don't put up with it any longer! The Law Offices of Jacoby and Meyers and Masters and Johnson will sue your mate for damages. If you don't get off, the legal team at JMMJ will make sure you get paid off!

Parents, expecting an engagement announcement from their son and hoped-for daughter-in-law, are shocked when the young couple instead announces they are breaking up. But the parents make no pretense regarding their displeasure, breaking into the patronizing Hey There, Single Guy/Gal song in which they predict the girl will live a miserable existence as an old maid and suggest their son, who is getting a little old to still be single, may be gay.

And in the only scene that did not satire dating or marriage, Robert Townsend sings the beautiful Shouldn't I Be Less in Love With You? to his wife of some twenty years. Though sitting across the table from him, she was busily reading the morning paper and unfortunately missed the whole serenade. When she asks him what he just said, he replies, "Oh, nothing." But the smile they share shows that the sentiment of the song was true for both of them.

All of the skits were performed by an incredibly talented, both comically and vocally, ensemble of four. Deborah Van Valkenburgh was just recently seen in the lead role of San Diego Rep's "smash" hit The Beauty Queen of Leenane. She is best known for her five-year stint as the brunette daughter of Ted Knight on the sitcom Too Close for Comfort. Her standout scene was in Always a Bridesmaid, where she pokes fun at her numerous "weddings" and the god-awful dresses that are beginning to fill up her closet.

Steve Gunderson was also just seen at the Rep in The Mad Dancers. This popular local actor was the original Sparky in Old Town's Forever Plaid and was seen last Christmas in the Old Globe's annual production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas as Papa Who. In I Love You, he got some of his biggest laughs in Tear Jerk as a guy who gets emotionally broken down in a movie theater by a chick flick and in a later scene as a hen-pecked husband who becomes a new man every time he gets behind the wheel of the car because that's when he's finally in control.

Robert Townsend was just recently seen at the Welk Resort Theatre's Oklahoma! as Curly and, like Steve, has also played Sparky in Forever Plaid. His best number was in A Stud and a Babe where he played a painfully nervous nerd on a first date with an equally nervous nerdette.

And finally, recent USC graduate and extremely promising actress, singer, writer, and composer Genna Ambatielos thrilled the audience with her charismatic and diverse performances. Her showstopper was as a recent divorcee making a video for a dating service. Though the video's not likely to get many responses, her dramatic bitterness was at the same time both poignant and humorous.

Not to end on a down note. I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is one of the most comedy-packed shows playing and is the perfect "date" play. Both genders will be able to appreciate the amusing differences between the sexes that make dating and marriage such an adventure!

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill