Review: ‘I Love You. You’re Perfect. Now Change.’: A HUMOROUS TAKE ON LOVE IN THE BIG CITY
Everyone is looking for love. By whatever means possible. Maybe it’s the old-fashioned way of meeting people, or by picking up your phone and swiping left or right on an app. Repertory Philippines’ latest musical I Love You. You’re Perfect. Now Change. tackles these age old conundrums, plus the baggage that comes with it, in a two-hour rollercoaster ride of laughter and song. It will have you walking out of the theater hopeful, jaded, or somewhere in between, but your sense of humor will have had a full workout.
The charm of this show lies in universality of its message. Love. Where do you find it, and how do you hold on to it? While the original show was staged in the late ‘90s, with an early aughts update, everyone’s dealt with a broken heart or two. Director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, who directs her first show at Rep in ten years, stays true to the I Love You’s DNA, but successfully transposes it into a social media-obsessed world. After all, likes, and loves don’t just mean what they used to. Her cast — Gian Magdangal, Krystal Kane, Gabby Padilla, and Marvin Ong — go in fully committed to this “Highway of Love,” and takes us on a crazy good ride.
Four Actors. Forty Characters.
As a musical revue, the actors took on the task of shifting from one character to across the different vignettes with ease. Forty in all, which is no small feat for this party of four. While some characters teetered on the caricature-ish side, none of it felt out-of-place, with punchlines landing as they should. In fact, Padilla and Ong just dance, literally, around it in “A Stud and A Babe,” as two introverts navigating an awkward first date. Kane, who said she was initially unsure about her comedic timing, slayed her solo turn in “Always a Bridesmaid,” in a convincing Southern drawl.
Lauchengco-Yulo’s direction placed the actors in roles where they would shine both individually and collectively. Ensemble numbers like “Hey There, Single Girl/Guy” and “Single Man Drought” were on the right side of exaggerated, and charmingly tongue-in-cheek. Padilla’s monologue as Rose Ritz, a divorcee giving online dating a go, laid on all the feels veiled under a layer of well-written comedy. The show’s final vignette — an elderly couple who meet a memorial (of course, it had to be there) and consider finding love again — closed the show on poignant, sweet, and all too real, note. Again, all the feels. Spoilers ahead, but do pay attention in the last two vignettes in the first act! Magdangal does a quick change between scenes that left everyone ROTFL.
All of it is a vibe.
As most shows go, it took a village. Props go to projection designer GA Fallarme for the creative, and equally witty, visuals used in the show. You know how the extras completed a scene in a film or TV show, that’s how Fallarme’s graphics added texture and nuance to the spaces across the vignettes. In Gen Z speak, it’s a vibe! From a montage of busy city streets, to dating profiles, and even emojis for a certain body part, they became the punctuation marks for some of the show’s best punchlines. Even the ‘technical glitch’ in one scene on opening night worked brilliantly — at least from the audience’s perspective. I certainly hope they kept it! Musical director Ejay Yatco put a fresh spin to the songs, bringing it into the energy of both the actors and the now.
Rep’s I Love You. You’re Perfect. Now Change. is a fun and funny way to spend an afternoon or evening in the theater. Under Lauchengco-Yulo’s intuitive direction, not a moment is wasted as the cast takes you through the revolving door of characters. Each one had a story to tell — googly eyes, life lessons, sort-of-scare tactics, and all. It reminds us that the search for love is on everyone’s mind and this little musical revue from the ‘90s still has a few tricks up its sleeve to teach this modern world.
The show runs until 6 July at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza. Tickets are available via Ticketworld and Ticket2Me. For updates and show schedules, visit www.repertoryphilippines.ph, or like and follow @repertoryphilippines on Facebook and Instagram.