Flashback time: The year is 2002. Home computers ring with the signature tones of dial-up internet. Tune to a top-40 radio station and you’ve got a 50/50 chance of hearing the lyrics “He was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious?”
For those who aren’t automatically transported back to a time of acne and algebra class, that’s a line from Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi.” But it might as well be the motto for “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” a musical comedy that launched in August 1996 and went on to become the second-longest running off-Broadway musical. Centenary Stage Company (CSC) in Hackettstown recently produced its own version that ran from Aug. 1 through Aug. 11.
Like the earworm Avril Lavigne song, the musical is old enough to walk into a bar and order a shot of whiskey. It also knows it’s not telling you anything new. Boys, girls, men, women, the pursuit of love and the battle of the sexes – you know this story already. Can playwright and Teaneck native Joe DiPietro make it any more obvious?
He certainly tries. The musical depicts a series of vignettes in which different characters endure the travails of the (mostly) heterosexual mating dance. The six able actors of the cast switch out costumes between vignettes, swapping a track suit for a business suit or a wedding dress for pajamas, to slip into the next scenario.
Taken together, the vignettes follow relationship arcs from the beginning – as in, in “The Beginning,” with Adam, Eve and the first friendzone. We skip from those primordial origins to the modern-day dating scene, complete with references to Netflix, Tinder and swiping right. Act I ends with two terrified newlyweds stuttering out their vows with the expressions of two people who just found out they invested their life savings in an MLM scheme. Act II follows the results of that investment: the drudgery and tension of married life, full of mingled recyclables, children fighting in the backseat and, ultimately, widowhood.
Every musical depends on the strength of its cast, and CSC’s cast delivers. Cassandra Krajcik magnetizes the stage with the same commanding presence that brought her Ursula to cackling life in CSC’s production of “The Little Mermaid” back in December. Kevin Wehrhahn alternates between channeling Justin Timberlake and Hugh Jackman (in his “Oklahoma”/”Greatest Showman” phase, not that Marvel movie now playing).
In the comedic department, Cody Jackson stands out in his turn as a stereotypical action movie aficionado who discovers the joy of tearjerkers. Kayla Chirip’s forceful stage presence shines especially bright when she gets to play the put-upon mother, singing passive aggressive remarks about the grandchildren she won’t have.
If that situation sounds familiar, so will most of the joke material. The stellar cast brings charm, kinetic choreography, and vibrato shockwaves to humor that would have felt well-plumbed in the ’90s. Men like football and Nascar and don’t ask for directions. (Is that still a stereotype in the age of Google Maps?) Women like shoe shopping and complain about their friends’ taste in bridesmaids’ dresses.
Few of the scenarios will surprise you. Some will find them relatable – or even, to channel Avril Lavigne from the same era as this musical’s run, obvious. What’s more, the musical ends with a reprise from one of its first numbers. The lingering message is that love is like a Greek tragedy, doomed from the start. The fatal flaw is daring to love at all.
But if you’re going to see a story that you know, it might as well be like this: with clever set design, impressive vocals, and a cast with enough emotional power to penetrate the script’s stereotypes and pull out moments of true poignancy. Their genuine, even heartbreaking, vulnerability reminds us why we go looking for love in the first place, no matter how the story ends.
CSC has finished its run of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” Catch its announced 2024-2025 lineup at https://www.centenarystageco.org/.
Chip O'Chang is an educator, fiction writer, and lifelong resident of New Jersey. He has also written for My Life Publications and NJ Indy. He lives in the NJ Skylands with his partner, two cats, and and a bearded dragon.
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
