I Love My Wife
I Love My Wife
Book and Lyrics by Michael Stewart
Music by Cy Coleman
Directed by Michael Edwards
Choreography by Roy Alan
Musical Direction by Chris Leavy
Winter Park Playhouse, Winter Park, FL</strong>
I can’t remember a time when I felt so motivated to put a dollar bill in Heather Alexander’s underwear as I did tonight. “I Love My Wife” takes the WPPH crew down an unusually racy path.While no actual naughty bits appear, this show is a risqué, sometimes uncomfortable journey in the 70’s age of wife swapping and group sex. The Svengali of this proposed orgy is Wally (Michael Colavolpe); he explains to his reticent buddy Alvin (Shawn Kilgore) how a poly-sexual life style is MUCH nicer than doing it with the same woman over and over. Alvin waffles, the band look on in despair, but when he brings this radical idea home to his wife Cleo (Natalie Cordone) she tells him to pound sand. But only for a few lines; pretty soon she’s in a hot short skirt and ready to do it with Alvin. The three then team up to surprise Alvin’s wife Monica (Heather Alexander) at Christmas dinner. After she throws the most justified tantrum in musical theatre history she agrees as well. Now all that’s left is the cleanup.
With a cast of four troopers and an expanded band entering into dialog this show raises the anemoia of the sexual revolution so few of us experienced. While Ms. Alexander fights hard on stage for her honor, she also seemed to have the most fun sinning. Slick Mr. Colavolpe wore exceptionally flammable and tight fitting polyester shirts, he also had the air of “Trust me, I’m REALLY gonna like what happens next!” Mr. Kilgore was everybody’s whiffle ball, he just wanted to get along and go along and not get in any trouble. A bad reputation might have destroyed his moving business, as you might guess; his failure to launch became the moral center of this comedy. Ms. Cordone’s Cleo had the strongest arguments against swapping but she also led one of the best tunes in the production “Love Revolution.” In the expanded band section even percussionist Sam Forrest had a grumpy line on stage. He’s the guy that stretched artistically the farthest in this show.
The music is perky, the message dated but the only real concern concerns the forced script. When confronted with morally questionable suggestions the females reject, argue and then quickly collapse. I know you need this for a fast paced romantic comedy but it just feels weird. Were a generation or two away from the undulating seventies, and a whole new sexual revolution is already behind us. But we should remember those early waves of glorious promiscuity and drug use for what they taught us. And I forget what that was exactly, that decade is all just a hazy memory. Must have been the hashish…
For more information on Winter Park Playhouse, please visit http://www.winterparkplayhouse.org
