I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, the longest running off-Broadway revue in history, has been revised for the 21st century. Carmel Community Players (CCP) will stage the latest version of this show for the first time anywhere in Indiana at The Cat in Carmel this month.
Preformed in a series of vignettes, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is connected by the central theme of love and relationships. The play’s tagline is “Everything you have ever secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws, but were afraid to admit.” While scenes stand independent from each other, the show is designed as an overall arc of relationships throughout the course of one’s life. From first dates, the highs and lows, to dealing with marriage, child rearing, empty nests and beyond.
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This is not Director Dee Timi’s first experience with I Love you, You’re Prefect, Now Change. She directed this play 10 years ago in Joplin, Mo. For the last six years she has lived in Indiana.
“These four actors play different characters with each song,” Timi said. “It’s not just fun, it’s funny! It goes from dating and relationship to marriage. Then at the marriage there is an intermission. Then we get into the other end of relationships.”
Timi told The Reporter there were a series of four auditions looking for the right group that would work well together and give CCP the best performance they could possibly get.
Four very talented actors portray all the characters. The cast consists of Libby Buck, Indianapolis; Christian Condra, Indianapolis; Jonathan “JB” Scoble, Carmel; and Brenna Whittaker, Noblesville; under the creative efforts of Director Dee Timi, Westfield; and Musical Director Sandy Baetzhold, Noblesville.
Christian Condra has been involved in theater for five years. Not only does he cite Jim Carrey as one of his influences, there are some moments in this production where Carrey’s influence clearly shines through Condra. “I love that it’s little sketches. It’s almost like SNL the musical.”
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Jonathan Scoble has been in community theater for just over one year. In that time, he has already been in seven productions. He says he comes to community theater through “some gentle encouragement from family and friends,” but did admit it was more a kick with people saying he needed to be on stage. He plays 15 characters in this play. “That’s what’s fun – the characters.”
Libby Buck has been acting for nearly 17 years now. The singing portion of this is old hat to Buck. “I used to get in trouble in first grade for leading the class in singing rounds while we were working,” Buck said. “I saw this show in 2002 in New York and thought is was hilarious. As I’ve gotten older and I have my own family now, I have seen the trajectory of the show play out in my life.”
Like Buck, Brenna Whitaker has a long history with this play and has seen her connection with it change over the years.
“I did this show about 15 years ago at Mud Creek, then two years later at Myers Dinner Theater,” Whitaker said. “When I did the show the first time the first act really resonated with me because that’s where I was in life. Fast-forward 15 years later – now I’m married and I have a son, so this time through it is the second act is what resonates more. I think that’s what’s great about the show. It doesn’t matter where you are, you’re going to find something that will ring true for where you are in your life.”
Because the Carmel Community Players do not have a permanent home at this time, rehearsals were done in homes, at the theater warehouse and anywhere else they could find. At the warehouse, Tim Moore had measured the stage at The Cat, then taped off an area of the same size in the warehouse for blocking. Moore told The Reporter the logistics of building a set to be transported and reassembled at The Cat has been a challenge, particularly because some of the set pieces have some technology that has to work on both ends.
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change opens Friday, Feb. 22 for a three-weekend run of nine performances at The Cat, 254 Veterans Way, Carmel.
For ticket information, email info@carmelcommunityplayers.org or phone 317-815-9387.