{"id":88301,"date":"2026-02-26T10:26:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=88301"},"modified":"2026-02-26T11:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:45:37","slug":"theater-review-i-love-you-youre-perfect-now-change-hilarously-skewers-and-reveals-modern-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/do\/theater-review-i-love-you-youre-perfect-now-change-hilarously-skewers-and-reveals-modern-romance","title":{"rendered":"Theater Review: \u2018I Love You, You\u2019re Perfect, Now Change\u2019 hilariously skewers and reveals modern romance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays. Or\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0for our Eat See Do newsletter to get it in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first play of International City Theatre\u2019s new season \u2014 \u201cI Love You, You\u2019re Perfect, Now Change\u201d by Joe DiPietro with music by Jimmy Roberts \u2014 is an unexpected blast. Funny, sometimes poignant and filled with lively singing by a talented cast of four accompanied by on-stage piano and violin music, it\u2019s perfect for couples, singles or friends\u2019 night out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because anyone who\u2019s in, was in, or has ever tried to be in a romantic relationship will immediately recognize themselves. The play consists of a series of skits, each of which sends up an aspect of modern relationships\u2014 from dating to marriage to kids \u2014 in skewering ways, and sometimes meaningful ways as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the while, music director Daniel Gary Busby on piano with Joe Buzzelli on violin provide immersive and lyrical music to accompany the songs, occasionally getting involved in the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The four actors playing Woman #1 (Erika Schindele), Woman #2 (Whitney Kathleen Vigil), Man #1 (Will Riddle, last seen locally as Buddy Holly<\/a>) and Man #2 (Michael Deni) lay themselves bare, sometimes literally, through costume changes and becoming a variety of characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series of vignettes they portray roughly follows the arc of most relationships but first goes back to Adam and Eve before segueing into a modern couple\u2019s first date, or rather first, second and third dates that they decide to skip in the interest of time and their busy schedules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also get comically lamentable dates with \u201cA Stud and a Babe,\u201d sung by a non-stud and non-babe, women compelled to lie in \u201cSingle Man Draught,\u201d and \u201cTear Jerk\u201d in which a guy who likes action flicks gets emotionally sucked into his female partner\u2019s tear-jerker movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left: Will Riddle, Erika Schindele and Michael Deni in “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” at International City Theatre. Photo by Jordan Gohara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While some of these scenarios are familiar, some are outlandish, as in \u201cHey There, Single Gal\/Guy,\u201d in which a dating service uses the assistance of an imprisoned mass murderer to get couples to commit, and a hilarious scene in which the parents of a young man are super ready to celebrate his engagement only to hear of his and his partner\u2019s breakup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also sweet stories celebrating the subtle beauty of love as in \u201cI Will Be Loved Tonight\u201d \u2014 in which a couple awkwardly decides to take the next step \u2014 and \u201cShouldn\u2019t I Be Less in Love With You,\u201d featuring a middle-aged couple at the breakfast table. A potential relationship between an older man and woman who meet at a funeral in \u201cI Can Live With That\u201d is both amusing and poignant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All four actors excel in portraying more than a dozen different characters, necessitating aerobically quick costume changes (no doubt keeping costume designer Kimberly DeShazo busy) and transforming into new personalities while delivering amazing singing, each shining in different ways in different scenes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left: Erika Schindele and Will Riddle in “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” at International City Theatre. Photo by Jordan Gohara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Schindele is especially acerbic as the mom of the non-engaged man. Deni is especially droll in \u201cOn the Highway of Love\u201d as a father who becomes more dangerously masculine when driving, enacted by all four family members rolling in a \u201ccar\u201d made of wheeled chairs. And Riddle and Vigil embrace the sheer physicality of \u201cMarriage Tango,\u201d about parents eager to have sex despite numerous interruptions by their young children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First performed off-Broadway in the late 1990s, and set in the early 2000s, some scenes are getting a bit dated, such as a woman overjoyed that her man actually calls when he says he will (\u201cHe Called Me\u201d), though these days he would probably text or DM. And all the relationships depicted in the play are heterosexual and also monoracial, which seems anachronistic today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left: Erika Schindele, Will Riddle, Michael Deni and Whitney Kathleen Vigil in “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” at International City Theatre. Photo by Jordan Gohara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But overall, \u201cI Love You, You\u2019re Perfect, Now Change\u201d is a refreshing delight, thanks to this production\u2019s talented cast and musicians, expertly directed by Barry Pearl (who himself played a T-Bird in the 1978 film \u201cGrease\u201d). Whether you\u2019re in a relationship or not, you\u2019ll be entertained by the stories, songs and humor in these timelessly human depictions of men and women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International City Theatre\u2019s \u201cI Love You, You\u2019re Perfect, Now Change\u201d continues at the Beverly O\u2019Neill Theater, 330 E. Seaside Way, with shows Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-436-4610 or visit <\/em>ICTLongBeach.org<\/em><\/a>. Run time is 2 hours and 15 minutes, including intermission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International City Theatre’s production is poignant and funny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":88304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"International City Theatre's production is poignant and funny.","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32367],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32310],"class_list":["post-88301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-do","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88301"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88312,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88301\/revisions\/88312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88301"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=88301"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=88301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}