Entertainment

[Stage]

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change

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Jacob Coakley

Relationships are the territory of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, the musical revue now playing at the Las Vegas Little Theatre. Accompanied by a piano and violin, on a red-and-purple set that evokes Valentine's Day at its most art-deco, six performers sing, dance and kvetch about the foibles and frustrations of romance. Not exactly high-concept, but Hallmark cards don't need to be in Petrarchan verse to work.

The Details

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
Three stars
Through July 25, $25
Las Vegas Little Theatre
lvlt.org

The performers are all likable, and in fine voice. Drew Yonemori, in particular, is always fun to watch, and Kelly Ward-Radan is delightfully sparky when she takes a character's neuroses to the extreme. Their number together, "A Stud and a Babe," comes to life as they sell it, and that's generally the shape of the show. The jokes, though well-worn in spots (single men are unrepentant slobs!) kick to life thanks to staging and acting. Steve McMillan as a convict/matchmaker commands laughs as he orders singles about. A bit about men being lead-footed in the car is saved by ingenious choreography with office chairs and the gusto of the players. And in some cases, the bits do take you to places you didn't expect to go. "Always a Bridesmaid," sung with poise by Kim Glover, starts as a fairly standard singleton lament, but transforms into an unlikely song of empowerment. It's not surprising that in a show explicitly about relationships there aren't more songs about the joys of being single, but that kind of depth beyond platitudes is sorely missing in many of the other songs. Then again, judging by the rounds of laughter, I was decidedly in the minority opinion about this. Sometimes low-hanging fruit tastes just as good as the headier stuff.

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