Relationships are front and center in two very different shows now running on North Bay stages through August 19.

The cast

Healdsburg’s Raven Players have converted the cavernous Raven Theatre into an intimate black box performance space and are presenting an updated version of 1996’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts musical revue holds the record as the second-longest running Off-Broadway show.

It consists of a series of comedic vignettes that follow the arc of human relationships from dating, sex, and marriage through children and aging. Four versatile performers (Bohn Connor, Kelly Considine, Troy Evans, and Tika Moon) sing and dance their way through eighteen scenes with songs like “Better Things to Do”, “Single Man Drought”, and “I Can Live with That”.  Recent revisions include 21st century additions like sexting (“A Picture of His…”) and same-sex families (“The Baby Song”).

It’s a very entertaining show helped immensely by the talented cast. All do well by the multiple roles they play, but the rubber-faced Connor really makes an impression with characters ranging from an incarcerated mass murderer giving dating tips to a hapless husband trying to put the kids to bed so he and the missus can get it on.

Rating (out of 5): ★★★★

‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ runs Thursday–Sunday through August 19 at the Raven Performing Arts Theater, 115 North St., Healdsburg. Thursday–Saturday, 8pm; Sunday, 2pm. $10–$35. 707.433.6335. raventheater.org

Photos by Ray Mabry

As originally published in the North Bay Bohemian and Pacific Sun.