A Nice Escape at Actors’ Summit
Reviewed by Roy Berko
Every once in a while it’s nice to go to a theatre, relax, hear some pleasant music, enjoy stories of love and life, and smile. That’s the situation at Actors’ Summit with their present offering, I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE.
ILY,YP, NC is a review by Joe DiPietro (book) and Jimmy Roberts (music) which takes a journey from dating and waiting to fall in love to marriage. Then it lightly probes into the agonies and triumphs of newborns, children, and the pick-up attempts of geriatrics. Not mind blowing, not even mind bending, just a series of songs, some light-hearted vignettes, and an occasional emotional twist.
The music is nice. Not memorable, but pleasant. No top ten hits on the play list here, but also nothing grating, ear splitting, or heavy bass.
The Actors’ Summit cast have nice voices, interpret the songs well, hit the right emotional levels and make the ideas flow right along. Stephen Brockway, Aubrey Caldwell, Abigail Allwein, and Keith Stevens play multi-roles with comfort.
It is ironic that Stevens does a charming song, complete with baby talk about the joys of fatherhood, since he is a very, very recent new daddy!
New grandpa Neil Thackaberry’s directing keeps the show moving at a pleasant pace. And, new grandma MaryJo Alexander does a great job with the costumes and props.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE makes for a pleasant afternoon/evening of theatre.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Roy Berko. Berko’s blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2011, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://RoyBerko.info. His reviews can also be found on NeOHIOpal and CoolCleveland.com.
Roy Berko, who is a life-long Clevelander, is a Renaissance man. Believing the line in Robert Frost’s poem “Road Not Taken,” each time he comes to a fork in the road, he has taken the path less traveled. He holds degrees, thought the doctorate from Kent State, University of Michigan and The Pennsylvania State University. His present roles, besides husband and grandfather, are professor, crisis counselor, author and entertainment reviewer… Read Roy Berko’s complete bio here