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| Tricia Lackey, Nicole Milne and Shaun Toohey star in the musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change! at the NAC Studio./Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen |
Same show, same cast, same director and musical director. You wouldn't think there would be much to say about the remount of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change! opening Wednesday for an 11-performance run at the NAC Studio.
Cast members Trish Lackey and Shaun Toohey have plenty to say, however, especially about the rare good fortune of being able to return to a show they both love.
"You put a show to bed and that's it, it's over," says Toohey, an Orpheus Musical Theatre Society regular whose last Ottawa stage appearance was as leading man Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun.
"I've never been able to go back to a show and rediscover it," says Lackey, a recent graduate of the musical theatre program at Sheridan College. She's delighted at this return engagement, even though it means once again donning that peach satin gown to sing Always a Bridesmaid.
Lackey reveals that the perfectly dreadful dress was sewn by her mom Joy, the show's costume designer.
You can tell Lackey's only half-kidding when she says, "I can't wait to get back into that dress again."
Toohey, Lackey and fellow cast members Kris Joseph and Nicole Milne are returning because I Love You was both a commercial and critical success when it played at the NAC's Fourth Stage last August. The show, the first production from Ottawa's Zucchini Grotto Theatre Company, was a sellout night after night. Ottawa audiences fell hard for the clever lyrics and catchy songs in Joe di Pietro's off-Broadway hit about the eternal quest for love.
In the process, Zucchini Grotto founders Troy Kay and Joseph made back the life savings they had invested and proved to themselves there was an audience in Ottawa for small-scale professional musical theatre.
When asked to explain the success of the show, Toohey and Lackey answer in unison: "Great songs."
The sassy tuned have roots in myriad musical genres, from country to boogie woogie, gospel to opera.
I Love You is a series of vignettes on the rituals of human mating. We see painful first dates, the first awkward steps towards intimacy, then marriage, parenthood, divorce and death.
"It's suprisingly human in all of its comedy," says Lackey.
First performed in 1996, I Love You is not completely up to date, says Toohey. For example, there's no Internet dating. Still, he adds, everyone can relate to the show's theme.
The four performers and musical director Wendy Berkelaar were all friends who met through the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society. They knew the show, loved it and wanted to do it.
Play: Likely the last time the four will perform together
Ken Godmere, a theatre professional with Toronto's Second City on his resume, was asked to direct. He owns the Institution, a comedy club on Besserer Street, which served as a free, if inadequate, rehearsal sapce. "We rehearsed on this ridiculously shaped stage," says Lackey. "I was playing to the wall," recalls Toohey.
With little money for promotion, the cast handed out flyers downtown. "I'd say, 'It's no religious, please take it,'" says Toohey. They also gave complimentary tickets to front-desk staff at hotels, hoping they would spread the word to guests. With these efforts, tickets sold well. The producers knew there'd be no money lost and the performers would be paid.
According to Toohey and Lackey, the true indicator of success came after the first Saturday performance. Godmere had instructed them to take a quick bow at the end of the show and exist - no curtain calls. That Saturday, they were all in various stages of undress when Godmere came backstage. "You have to come back out," he said. "They won't stop."
The audience was on its feet, common enough in Ottawa, but they were refusing to leave until the actors came back. "That was our Star Search moment," says Toohey.
Ottawa promoter Harvey Glatt saw the show and the response it was getting. He proposed a remount for the early fall. But Lackey had to leave for her final year at Sheridan College. The other three weren't sure they wanted to repeat themselves so soon, and besides, they have day jobs. Milne works in administration at the NAC. Joseph is with Nortel. Toohey is a freelance drama teacher.
That might ahve been the end of it, if not for an extraordinary and cruel change in circumstance. Godmere, who knew he was ailing when he directed I Love You the first time, was diagnosed in March with Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, a terminal brain disorder. The remount of I Love You could well be his last opportunity to direct.
Glatt was still willing to go ahead, there was available space at the NAC, and Lackey was back from Sheridan. The run was scheduled for Sept. 8-18, and rehearsals began in late August.
Even though it's the same crew, there are a few important differences.
"The big boys have stepped in," says Toohey, referring to the backing of Glatt and Dennis Ruffo, another well-established Ottawa promoter.
The produciton has been moved from the Fourth Stage, with a capacity of 150, to the 300-seat Studio. There are print ads and a TV commercial running on CHRO, so there's no need this time to stand on street corners handing out leaflets. "I'd be willing to go out and do that again," says Lackey.
It's likely the last time the four will perform together. After I Love You, Lackey will appear in Crazy For You with Orpheus, and then move to Toronto to begin a career in musical theatre. With an award for outstanding overall performance by a student, her future looks bright. Catch her performance in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change! and you'll be able to say you knew her when she wore peach satin.