‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ Opens Round Barn Season
NAPPANEE — There are four very talented actors on stage at Amish Acre’s Round Barn Theatre. Rory Dunn, Joesy Miller, Lauren Morgan and Ryan Schisler join to present “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” Also on stage are Paul Rigano at the piano and Amber Burgess with her violin, furnishing music for the numerous songs in this whimsical production.
It’s cute. It’s fun. It keeps the audience in stitches the entire evening. There are young lovers. There are married couples. There are senior citizens trying to make their way through the twists and turns of love. The show features 20 scenes of couples in different situations and different stages of life, with the antics never ending.
The production opens with the prologue and the cast dressed in Druidical robes as they celebrate love from the beginning of time.
Dunn and Morgan meet after having been selected for each other by a dating service. She’s busy, busy, busy and they rush through their relationship one step at a time during that meeting. Schisler and Miller aren’t compatible in the second scene but they manage to get along in spite of it as a stud and a babe.
The four work their way through such scenes as “Men who talk and the women who pretend to listen;” “The lasagna incident,” with his favorite food being lasagna and she doesn’t know the first thing about making the Italian dish; “And now the parents,” offering advice to the single gal/guy: and “He called me,” featuring Miller’s excitement her boyfriend actually called her.
The first act ends with a couple (Schisler and Miller) getting married. Dun and Morgan officiate at the ceremony and Rigano and Burgess play appropriate music as “Wedding Vows” is featured.
The second act starts with that same married couple on their honeymoon and quickly moves to Morgan singing “Always a Bridesmaid.”
“Sex and the Married Couple” with the “Marriage Tango,” is fun as a married couple decides with the children in bed they, too, can retire early; “The Very First Dating Video of Rose Ritz” is done on a screen as Miller, as recently divorced Rose Ritz, tries to make a video and get back into dating; “Funerals are for Dating” features an elderly couple, Dunn and Morgan, as they meet at a funeral home and he convinces her she needs to go on a date with him.
The costumes change from scene to scene and the facial expressions tell the story. All four are talented and each adds his/her own twists and turns to the musical.
Of all the scenes my favorite has to be the car ride with Dunn featured as the father and Miller as the mother. Morgan and Schisler are their children. The car (use your imagination as the four are seated on chairs with wheels) makes its way around the stage as the family talks and sings, “On the Highway of Love.”
In the opening production the actors and musicians wear many hats. Bouquets to all for jobs well done. Burgess is the theatre’s artistic director and serves a choreographer for this production. Schisler is the prop master and archive videographer. Morgan is in charge of wardrobe and is the costume assistant. Miller is the company manager. And we would be remiss if we didn’t give credit to executive producer Richard Pletcher and the host of others who have worked hard to make this production a success.
For tickets or information call (800) 800-4942 or go online to www.amishacres.com.