I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
Presented by: Ballarat Light Opera Company
Venue: Helen Macpherson Smith Theatre, University of Ballarat
Reviewer: Nathan Soutar
Date Reviewed: Saturday 21^st February 2009

I was excited to make the trip down to Ballarat to see BLOC’s production of ‘I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change’(ILYYPNC), with the strong traditions that city has in the theatrical world, I was curious to see how they would handle such a challenging piece of musical theatre.

 ILYYPNC is a show about the various stages of love and relationships, the exciting beginnings, the nervous waits for phone calls, first dates, marriage, sex, lack of sex…I think you catch the drift. From a prestigious background of being the longest running show in Off-Broadway history it delivers hilarious writing, beautiful songs and insightful moments that ensures every audience member will find something they can relate to and enjoy.

From my arrival at the theatre there was already an excited buzz from the crowd waiting to get in the doors, in fact I noted several people turned away due to a completely sold out season. An impressive effort for any amateur show. The performance was being held at the Helen Macpherson-Smith Theatre and the first thing I noticed when entering was that theatre had a hexagonal set up with the audience surrounding the stage on all sides bar the back, a form of theatre in the round if you will. Since the show was being performed in a concert style there was no set to be seen; simply 8 wheelie-chairs, 4 blue and 4 green on either side of a grand piano, with props already sitting on top of the chairs.

The lights dimmed and the show began with the haunting prologue number. Straight away the advantages and disadvantages of the hexagonal shape of the theatre were seen. The cast entered through passages behind the audience, dressed and chanting as monks, the effect of the sound coming from behind without microphones got the crowds attention from the offset, straining their necks to try and figure out where the sounds was coming from. However, as the number progressed and the cast made its way to the stage the shape of the theatre made it difficult to hear some of the ensemble when they were singing or speaking towards the audience on the other side.

Another thing that was interesting to note from the opening number was the decision by director, Matt Hustwaite to perform the show in Australian accents. To be completely honest this immediately confused me, having seen the show performed before I knew there were various references to American shops, landmarks, products, etc. and thought that this choice was a very strange one. As I pondered this more after the performance I thought back on the meaning behind the show and how the crowd reacted to some of the more ‘Australianised’ numbers, such as “Why? Cause I’m A Guy” (which may have more accurately been called “Why? Because I’m A Bogan!” in this version of the production). The crowd truly loved these numbers and I think this is because they could relate to the experiences being depicted themselves; they weren’t watching a musical about the love lives of Americans but rather seeing the situations and people they themselves have dealt with in their own romantic lives. That being said I prefer the show being performed in its original form (perhaps the Advanced Hair joke was just a bit to ‘Australianised’ for me) but the decision to perform in it Australian accents allowed for the audience to connect more with the material being performed, so in that context it could be considered the right decision.

Being the epitome of an ‘ensemble show’ where each cast member must perform a magnitude of different roles, inevitably the strengths and weaknesses of the cast will be on display, there were bound to be ups and downs throughout and as could be expected there were. Overall the quality of the cast was good with the clear standout performer of the night being Joel Parnis who was involved in the best received numbers of the first and second act, Tear Jerk and Marriage Tango respectively. Joel had a great tone and control to his voice, could be heard across the entire theatre no matter which direction he was singing to and not too mention fantastic comic timing to boot. He brought out the best in each of the partners he worked with and should be congratulated on his performance. Other performances of note included Allie Sutherland who handled the challenging dating video monologue very well, walking the fine line of humour and sadness with skill and Maddie Woodster who did a great job of connecting with the audience in all of her numbers and showed off a pretty mean belt at times as well.

While there were some parts of the show that did not work for me, overall I truly enjoyed BLOC’s production of ILYYPNC. They delivered on a show that requires a great deal of talent and commitment from each performer in a relatively small ensemble cast and judging by the 5 minute ovation from the audience after the cast had left the stage they certainly succeeded in connecting with their audience. Congratulations to director Matt Hustwaite, MD Nathaniel Taylor and the entire cast on a thoroughly enjoyable show.

Nathan has been performing and directing for over 10 years in musical and “straight” theatre. While living in Perth some memorable highlights included playing Nick Bottom in “Midsummer Nights Dream”, Hassler in the ‘The Pyjama Game’ and Big Jules in “Guys and Dolls”. After the big move across the Nullarbor, Nathan took some time off to finish studying but still found time to perform in Werribee Theatre’s “Urinetown” as Mr McQueen and several other shows along the way. Following his graduation from university last year, Nathan has ensured any free time he may have enjoyed in 2009 will be now dedicated  to the roles of Vice Principal Panch in Catchment Player’s “25^th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee” and Ali Hakim in “Oklahoma” with MDMS.

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