By Catherine Cervone
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Florida Southern College’s latest musical production, is a story that’s timed perfectly around Valentine’s Day.
The story around love, dating, and relationships, telling stories through a series of vignettes. Each scene features two or more different characters, with every scene unrelated to the past in everything except the theme of love. All 58 different characters in the show are played by a cast of eight BFA Musical Theatre students, four men and four women all ranging from freshman to juniors.
Though each scene is separate from the next, there is a clear arc from the beginning to the end of the musical. The musical tells the story of relationships, starting at a first date and ending at a funeral. Audience members get to see couples tackle every moment in between too: going on the fourth date, watching a sad movie together, telling their parents that they’re not getting engaged, but rather breaking up, waiting for a guy to call, going to a dating program taking place in a jail, getting cold feet at a wedding, having kids…you get the idea.
The musical also tackles sticky topics filled with sexual tension, like two parents just wanting to have sex after getting their children to go to bed and a lawyer who ensures sexual satisfaction in bed. While the show’s subject matter is not something I’d feel uncomfortable watching with my parents, don’t bring your baby sister with you.
Hilarity ensues as the characters tackle these crazy situations, but don’t be fooled. The play is filled with heartfelt moments, and each scene, whether showing the happy or sad moments of relationships, is played with the utmost sincerity by the actors.
The musical’s tagline is, “Everything you have ever secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws, but were afraid to admit.” That pretty much explains everything.
Being a theatre major myself, I tend to be a little more critical than the average audience members. That being said, this show is adorable, witty and the perfect musical to take a date too, whether it’s someone you’re romantically interested in or your BFF is up to you. The script is hilarious, and the cast and director have done an incredible job of bringing that out. They effortlessly bring to life the mundane moments that we take for granted, taking those and making theater magic out of them that is lovely and will have you leaving the theatre with a smile on your face.
The costumes, lights and set only enhance that too. There are flying robes and floating TVs and beautiful spirals of light. The stage is set up to create different sections where each scene takes place, so while a lot of the set pieces don’t change throughout the show, you don’t even realize you’re looking at the same set the whole time. The costumes help you to better grasp each character and their unique traits, and are very fitting to each personality in the show. Every crew member has done a great job of pulling together a beautiful vision created by Paul Bawek, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at FSC.
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change opened at Florida Southern College’s Buckner Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 16 and runs through Sunday, Feb. 26.
Shows are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:30. Tickets are free for FSC faculty and students; adults are $18 and non-FSC students are $9.
