In the mood for love? McCoy Theatre’s production of the musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change opens today, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
The Rhodes production of the once longest-running off-Broadway musical features a newly updated script, which charts the ups and downs of partnerships between people of all genders and includes revisions that reflect changing norms of human intimacy in our increasingly technologically-mediated world. Through catchy tunes and a playful sensibility, the show celebrates the risks we take when we dare to love each other.
A student committee made recommendations about what audiences at Rhodes want to see out of the theater, and all three mainstage shows produced by the McCoy this season were chosen as a result.
“Our audiences are hungry for plays that ask hard questions and avoid easy answers, and at the same time, we want to see works that are funny and perhaps a little bit inspiring— plays that entertain,” says Dr. Joy Brooke Fairfield, assistant professor of theatre and director of the show. “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change seemed to fit the bill— especially, as one student suggested, if we featured same-sex relationships in addition to straight couples. We were also looking for a production that could honor the fact that the majority of students in McCoy Theatre auditions and classrooms are women.”
Fairfield says they were pleased to find out the musical had an updated script to match the reality of today’s relationships.
“Like our theatrical lineages, our conventions governing love relationships are also inherited, and historical forces shape our assumptions about coupledom and what constitutes normal or divergent human intimacy,” she explains. “We are in a time of great change surrounding consent, commitment, and equity within the social contract of partnership. We do not yet know how to love each other into collective liberation, yet we must continue to try.”
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change runs Feb. 14-16 and Feb. 21-24. All shows are at 7:30 p.m. except for the Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. Admission to all McCoy Theatre productions this season is free.