I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 comedy with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro

Joe DiPietro

Joe DiPietro is an American playwright and author.Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, DiPietro grew up in nearby Oradell. Son of the banker Lou, and Jean DiPietro. He attended Oradell Public School and River Dell Regional High School. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers University in 1984 with a...

 and music by Jimmy Roberts

Jimmy Roberts (composer)

Jimmy Roberts is a composer for the musical theater as well as a pianist and entertainer. His musical scores include: I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and The Thing About Men , both with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro...

. It is the second-longest running Off Broadway musical. The musical was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award

Outer Critics Circle Award

The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...

 as Outstanding Off-Broadway musical in 1997.

Production history

The musical premiered at the off-Broadway Westside Theatre

Westside Theatre

__notoc__The Westside Theatre is an off-Broadway venue located at 407 West 43rd Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building houses two auditoriums: the Upstairs theater, which seats 299, and the Downstairs theater, which...

, New York City, on August 1, 1996 and closed on July 27, 2008, after 5,003 performances. Directed by Joel Bishoff, the cast featured Jordan Leeds, Robert Roznowski, Jennifer Simard, and Melissa Weil.

First produced in the UK at the Churchill Theatre

Churchill Theatre

The Churchill Theatre in Bromley, south east London was built by the London Borough of Bromley to designs by its borough architect's department.It is carefully integrated into the central library complex overlooking Church House Gardens and Library Gardens...

, Bromley

Bromley

Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...

, followed by a short season in the West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 Comedy Theatre in 1999, it was revived in London at the Jermyn Street Theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre is a performance venue situated in Jermyn Street, London.Formerly a restaurant, under the leadership of Howard Jameson, it was transformed into a 70-seat studio theatre right in the heart of London's West End...

 in 2005, presented by Popular Productions Ltd. and by Maple Giant at the Bridewell Theatre in 2011. A Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....

 Chinese version debuted in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, China, on June 20, 2007, and it had been also reproduced by LANCreators, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

's only group producing Broadway musicals, and performed, in English, at the Crown Theatre, Taipei

Taipei

Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

, from November 3, 2007.

In 2009 It was reproduced in Istanbul (Turkey) by Enis Fosforoğlu Tiyatrosu, starring nationally known Turkish songwriter-singer Murat Evgin, Sibel Tüzün (who represented Turkey in Eurovision Song contest 2006), Seren Fosforoğlu, Barbaros and Başay Okay.

It has been translated into at least 14 languages, including Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, German, Catalan, Finnish, Mandarin and Norwegian.

It has played sit-down productions in Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, London, Tel Aviv, Mexico City, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Budapest, Sydney, Prague, Seoul, Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Tokyo, Manila, Wiesbaden, Heidelberg and Christchurch.

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 rearing. 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.

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.

Act 1
Scene 1: "Prologue"

"Prologue"

"Cantata for a First Date"

Scene 2: "Not Tonight, I'm Busy, Busy, Busy"

"We Had it All"

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"

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"