I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

C    5 - 31 August @ 21.00    Exeter University Footlights

It’s hard to believe that this show, with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts, was written as recently as 1996. Elderly aunts will certainly find nothing objectionable in its coy treatment of sex and relationships. Some may find it curious that homosexuality is never mentioned but should remember that this, off-Broadway's longest-running musical (after The Fantasticks), had the strapline “The musical revue about heterosexual love” and that it was greeted by the New York Times “They’re here! They’re straight! Get used to it!”

We are used to it. It’s familiar and stylised stuff and its outdated humour seems to belong in some old American sitcom: the women bemoaning the shortage of suitable single men, the interfering parents, the he-man who bursts into tears watching a slushy film, the bridesmaid who’s never the bride, the beer-drinking husband who can’t be dragged away from the ball game on TV.

The Exeter University Footlights cast play the various stereotypical characters with extraordinary enthusiasm and conviction. The keyboard and lacklustre violin add little, but the tunes are easy on the ear, the singing is just right and the harmonies are handled deftly.