The musical premiered Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre on August 1, 1996 and closed on July 27, 2008, after 5,003 performances.[1] Directed by Joel Bishoff, the cast featured Jordan Leeds, Robert Roznowski, Jennifer Simard, and Melissa Weil.[2]
It was first produced in the town where playwright Joe DiPietro was born, Teaneck, New Jersey. This production ran from February 24 to March 12, 1995 at the American Stage Company Theater (Artistic Director James Vagias and Managing Director, Glenn Cherrits), a professional theatre in residence on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ. Directed by Joel Bishoff, the cast included Robert Roznowski, Robert Michael and Melissa Weil.[3]
The musical was first produced in the UK at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, followed by a short season in the West EndComedy Theatre from July 28, 1999 to September 25, 1999. Directed by Joel Bishoff, the cast featured Clive Carter, Shona Lindsay, Gillian Kirkpatrick and Russell Wilcox.[4] It was revived in London at the Jermyn Street Theatre, running from March 1, 2005 to March 26, presented by Popular Productions Ltd. This production then opened in Dubai in 2006[5] and by Maple Giant at the Bridewell Theatre in 2011. A first Cantonese Chinese version debuted in Hong Kong, on October 28, 2005, produced by Wind Mill Grass Theatre .Another Mandarin Chinese version produced in Beijing, China, on June 20, 2007, and it had been also reproduced by LANCreators, Taiwan's only group producing Broadway musicals, and performed, in English, at the Crown Theatre, Taipei, from November 3, 2007.
It has been translated into at least 17 languages, including Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, German, Catalan, Finnish, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, French, Turkish and Romanian.
It has played sit-down productions in Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, London, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Barcelona, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Budapest, Sydney, Prague, Bratislava, Seoul, Warsaw, Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Tokyo, Manila, Wiesbaden, Munich, Heidelberg and Christchurch.[6]
In 2008, Kookaburra: The National Musical Theatre Company toured NSW Australia with version of the production with Australian accents and references. This production was directed by Darren Yap, and starred Hayden Tee, Katrina Retallick, Marika Aubrey and Anthony Harkin. Its near sold-out season scheduled for Sydney in April 2009 was cancelled after the sudden collapse of Kookaburra.
In 2017, there was a short run at George Street Playhouse at their interim theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey, starring Mitchell Jarvis, Karen Burthwright, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, and George Merrick.
In 2019, a Cantonese film adaptation directed by Wong Cho-lam was released.
During 2024 a new production was produced by the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, it ran at the theatre for eight performances from 16-20 July before moving to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the summer, from 2-24 August 2024. [7]
Synopsis
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is presented in the form of a series of vignettes connected by the central theme of love and relationships. The play's tagline is "Everything you have ever secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws, but were afraid to admit." With few exceptions, the scenes stand independent of the others, but progress in a fashion designed to suggest an overall arc to relationships throughout the course of one's life. A first date, for example, comes before scenes dealing with marriage, and scenes dealing with marriage come before those dealing with child bearing. Despite the large number of characters, the show is typically done with a comparatively small cast: the original Off-Broadway production uses a cast of four.
"We Had it All" (replaced in 2018 by "Better Things To Do")
Scene 3: "A Stud and a Babe"
"A Stud and a Babe"
Scene 4: "Men Who Talk and the Women Who Pretend They're Listening"
"Single Man Drought"
"Why? 'Cause I'm a Guy"
Scene 5: "Tear Jerk"
"Tear Jerk"
Scene 6: "The Lasagna Incident"
"I Will Be Loved Tonight"
Scene 7: "And Now the Parents"
"Hey There, Single Gal/Guy"
Scene 8: "Satisfaction Guaranteed"
Scene 9: "I'll Call You Soon (Yeah, Right)"
"He Called Me" (replaced in 2018 by "A Picture Of His...")
Scene 10: "Scared Straight"
Scene 11: (untitled)
"Cantata Reprise #1"
"Wedding Vows"
Act 2
Scene 1: (untitled)
"Cantata Reprise #2"
"Always a Bridesmaid"
Scene 2: "Whatever Happened to Baby's Parents?"
"The Baby Song"
Scene 3: "Sex and the Married Couple"
"Marriage Tango"
Scene 4: "The Family that Drives Together..."
"On the Highway of Love"
Scene 5: "Waiting"
"Waiting Trio"
Scene 6: (untitled)
"Shouldn't I Be Less In Love With You?"
Scene 7: "The Very First Dating Video of Rose Ritz"
Scene 8: "Funerals are for Dating"
"I Can Live With That"
Scene 9: "Epilogue"
"Epilogue"
"I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"
The current licensed version available for production includes a new song in Act I, Scene 2. The song "We Had It All" was added during the Off-Broadway run and was part of several tours of the show.[citation needed]
