“I Love You Because”

**** “Love makes the world go round”! That’s what they say. Dating, as I knew it in my youth, has changed. In fact, it appears that dating has changed entirely and has become messier than when I grew up. The one that we think is “Mr or Ms RIGHT”, may only seem to be the perfect mate. As one who has been married several times before finding the perfect mate, I can tell you that often we need to experience life before love, and why not show people how this can work with a musical. “I Love You Because” might just be the way to show your children wjat is out there today. With a book by Ryan Cunningham ( who also did the lyrics to the songs), and music by Joshua Salzman and orchestrations by Larry Hochman, this is a story that at tmes appears to be more of a musical revue rather than a play, but the six characters finely directed by Scott Shallenbarger, keep the part of the dating puzzle moving at just the right clip to keep our interest and open our eyes.

Two of the characters, NYC Man (Tommy Rothwells) and NYC Woman ( Daria Koon) serve as ensemble members, taking on several roles along the way. While they are not the main characters in the story, they are an integral part of making Cunningham’s story work. They are bartenders, waitstaff, potential dates, and a host of others, and as I have always said, a strong ensemble truly makes a play work. They are terrific.

The key to the story are two brothers and their love lives. Austin ( a solid performance by Aiden McCoy) has had a romantic break-up after several years, and still pines for his ex. His brother Jeff ( played to perfection by Maxwell J. DeTogne  is just looking with no intention of going any further than just having a “relationship” that is ready, able, and willing when he is ready, able, and willing. In this play, two girlfriends,  Marcy ( Hannah Kipp) and Diana ( Kristin Brintnall, become the ladies that end up with these men.

Marcy and Austin become a sort of item, but Austin finds that his ex continues to make it impossible, or maybe just improbable for the relationship to go further. Jeff, on the other hand, has it pretty much under control with Diana making them friends with benefits.What we see as the story progresses is that perhaps the old adage “opposites attract” might actually be true.

There are many short scenes indicating time and progress, or lack of same, in the two relationships. There are lots of musical numbers with musical director Aaron Kahn onstage playing the piano. While there are very few hummable songs, or even ones we might remember the lyrics to, the songs do help the story progress and give us a closer look at each character and relationship. As I said earlier, this is more like a musical revue with many skits that tie our characters together. One might also think of it as a sitcom where we are watching 5 episodes with zero commercials.

The production is quite smooth and flows quite easily. It never bothered me that the piano player was onstage, doing his thing, as he did just that, his thing, and after several minutes, I almost forgot that he was there. The set (Bob Knuth) is quite genius as this is a small stage, lined with shadow boxes on both walls that contained many props (Devin Meseke did an amazing job) that all played a part in the production. The lighting (Rachel Hemm) and sound (Maya Reter) were right on and while the costumes were nice (Danielle Reinhardt) I would have liked to see a little more style for the ladies trying to get a mate.

“I Love You Because” will continue thru Sep 13th with performances as follows:

The performance schedule is Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m.;
Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sundays at 3 p.m.

Additional Wednesday performances  Aug. 19 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.; Wednesday Aug. 26 at
7:30 p.m. (Understudy Performance); Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and Wednesday Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are now on sale for $55 at
OilLampTheater.org.
Oil Lamp Theater is located at 1723 West Glenview Road in Glenview ( just west of Waukegan Road)