Some things are good alone, but when paired they offer a different experience. Think peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs at a baseball game or dinner and a show.
Indeed, that’s the basis for the 57 years of success by Lake George Dinner Theatre. They offer a good show and a decent meal at a price less than if experienced separately. For most people, it’s an ideal night out.
What works best is a pleasant show that will please a majority of people. Combined with a meal of the quality you might expect at your favorite moderately-priced restaurant. Together they offer the average couple an affordable evening out.
This year, the dinner theatre is presenting a pleasing musical, “You’re Perfect, I Love You, Now Change.”
As one character explains, its humor comes from the reality that we fall in love with a perfect person and spend the rest of our lives trying to change them.
The show is a series of vignettes that track relationships through the courting stage to marriage to becoming families and even individuals later in life.
With 22 segments, it is natural that all skits will not be equal. And they aren’t. However, since each is brief, the chances are a better one will quickly follow. And there are a lot more good than not.
The opening act that tracks various couples from first meeting to marriage is guaranteed to please younger audiences.
It focuses on the universal sense of being uncomfortable on a first date. It quickly moves on to finding the ideal number of dates to move the relationship forward. Then it wonders how long a courting stage should last before entering a state of commitment?
It’s fun for all age groups to see the humor in how modern technology has altered the dating scene.
In this act it was hit or miss on a midweek evening. Some segments got knowing laughs, others received only polite applause.
Indeed, some updates to the show came about in 2018, including a bit on sexting. It and some added moments of off-color jokes felt inappropriate to the otherwise tasteful mood of the material.
The second act was better received by the older-skewed audience. The humor was not grounded by cheap laughs and the writing was more honest and mature.
The show has no memorable songs, and the space in the Holiday Inn and Resort is not acoustically perfect. Attention must be paid, or hearing aides turned up, in order to catch every word.
Whatever the inconsistencies of the production, the performances by the four-person professional Equity actors were uniformly good. This is one of the most consistent and talented casts I’ve seen at Lake George in several years.
Two women and two men play people of various ages in a mix and match manner.
Young, attractive and talented, I can see a future in show business for Alexandrea Cooke, Nicholas Grevera, Myles McHale and Katie Sweeney. But if there is a first among equals, McHale’s talent matches the Glen Falls native’s imposing size.
A fifth member of the cast is John Benware who accompanies the performers on piano. On stage throughout the show, he is unobtrusive and yet an important element to the success of the production.
The direction of the musical by the company’s artistic director Jarel Davidow is phenomenal. It’s clever, fast paced and original, which is amazing for a work that’s been around for almost 30 years.
Helping Davidow is a unique set consisting mostly of moveable crates designed by Shawn R. Morgan. Costumes by Gina Kowalski help to establish character and facilitate quick changes.
The food served by a gracious staff is about a lower three star quality. My salmon, though a tad dry, had great flavor, companion had the same to say about her center cut bone-in pork chop.
Others at our table ordered Chicken Francaise and the Vegetable Pasta. The only negative comments at the table concerned the vegetarian dish.
Meals come with salad, garlic mashed potatoes, a vegetable, chocolate cake, rolls, coffee and tea. Gratuities are included.
“ I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” continues through August 31.
Bob Goepfert is theater reviewer for the Troy Record.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
