"I love you, You're Perfect, Now change"

I suspect I am not alone in admitting to having little previous knowledge of this show, although it does have the distinction of being the second longest-running off-Broadway musical revue and has had a few performances here and there in this country.  First performed in 1996, it has been revised and up-dated since and is presented here in its 2018 version, complete with reference to the then President. The show is a series of vignettes, some simply spoken, others in song but all exploring different aspects and challenges of love and relationships.  Dating, marriage, parenthood and even old age are covered and a title already used by a certain Lord Lloyd Webber would have been equally appropriate here.

I understand it’s usually done with a cast of four but, with so many talented performers at his disposal, director Neil Wood has used seven, but even then each of the four women and three men has several different characters to portray.  Although all delivered songs and spoken pieces with great confidence and meaning, it was this ability to switch between these characters which was the most memorable feature of the performances.  Sanna Jeppsson, for instance, first portrayed a frustrated tennis player whose experience of love is limited to her opponent’s score, then a rather happy, clappy member of the clergy and later still an elderly widow who makes a new friend at a funeral.  First a young lady leading so busy a life as to need to skip various parts of the dating process, Monica Frost later told us of always being a bridesmaid. Whilst this is a sentiment familiar to many of us from the music hall and perhaps even earlier, in this version it is given the country music treatment with the sad tale typical of this genre.  Other songs provided opportunities for other musical styles, such as “Marriage Tango” featuring Emma Dickinson and James Horsman, who also impressed as the other half of the couple at the funeral.  Richard Bayton, an experienced member of this company, also showed up in several different roles, including that of one of a male couple, perhaps a little over-protective of a new baby, whilst his partner, played by Mark Simmonds, gave us “the Baby Song”. Emily Hardy gave several good performances, including that of the bride in the up-tempo marriage ceremony, to the reception for which we were all invited as it extended into the interval.  

A series of shortish scenes with differing characters might suggest a rather disjointed affair but the way in which we progress through the various stages somehow provides a certain unity to it all and most of us can probably relate to some of them. In the hands of this excellent cast, well supported by Martin Lay’s quartet of instrumentalists, we were treated to an enjoyable and sometimes thought-provoking evening at a venue which is York’s equivalent of the show’s off-Broadway home.                    

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