Hit or miss?

We have commented on the stage version in these pages before, but could not resist reproducing this Australian review in The Age of the music of I love you because:

‘Loosely based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this is a typically slick Manhattan contemporary boy/girl musical in which characters sing endlessly about their unsatisfactory relationships. Such musical navel-gazing can be overrated as entertainment, but in this case it is distinguished by smart lyrics by Ryan Cunningham. He and his composer collaborator Joshua Salzman are only just out of music theatre school, so their careers should be worth watching. Central character Austin (Colin Hanlon), a writer of greeting cards who says things like “life is like a see-saw – it’s a lot more fun with someone else”, is set up by friends with photographer Marcy (Farah Alvin). Her first task is to divest him of the baggage of his previous girlfriend. The lyrics consistently point out the pitfalls of modern romance with wit and insight, and “The Actuary Song”, in which a character calculates the “rebound time” of a break-up in the form of a mathematical equation, is exceptionally clever writing.’

You saw it here first! (You can hear a clip at www.psclassics.com/music/ilyb1.mp3).

Lyrics can be found here