North Coast Repertory Theatre has created a comfy little niche for itself in the house of musical theater by producing small-scale, off-Broadway shows worth introducing locally.
And so it goes with "I Love You Because," a benign 2006 effort by the young songwriting team of Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham. The show borrows its "opposites-attract" premise from Jane Austen's 19th-century novel "Pride and Prejudice," though the genders (of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy) are reversed and the setting is moved to modern New York City, where the writers met as grad students at New York University.
San Diego State University theater professor Rick Simas directed the lively little show for North Coast Rep, assembling a vocally strong cast with sharp comic instincts, ably accompanied by three musicians, including (O, bliss!) Matt Best on woodwinds.
Brothers Austin and Jeff Bennet are opposites themselves, Austin a control-freak geek, a greeting card writer who, in the seemingly upbeat opening scene, finds his girlfriend in bed with another guy. Jeff's a slob, too lazy and hurt to get involved with a woman again. He's bound to flee anyway. Enter Marcy and Diana ---- thanks to a very funny spin on a specialized dating service.
The two best girlfriends are opposites as well: Marcy's an artsy, impulsive, independent photographer and Diana an actuary who claims she likes to "go by the numbers." In the evening's most eccentric tune "The Actuary Song," writer Cunningham has fun crunching those numbers. The women decide to find the worst possible boyfriend for Marcy, a guy to date during Rebound Time, the better to snag Mr. Perfect six months down the romantic road (once her heart has had time to heal).
You don't need me to tell you what happens. But as the formula plot wends its merry way toward a happy ending, the two contrasting couples sing such witty and sometimes memorable tunes as "But I Don't Want to Talk About Her" and "We're Just Friends." In the former, Austin (Nick Gabriel) can't stop talking about his ex; in the latter, Diana (Kristen Mengelkoch) and Jeff (Jason Maddy) recapitulate their jolly times as friends who just happen sometimes to "see each other naked."
The nicely varied if borderline bland music includes several sweet romantic ballads. Kelsey Venter's pure soprano is especially attractive in Marcy's first-act closer "Just Not Now" and her "Even Though." All four leads harmonize in the soaring, intricately structured spotlit quartet, "But I Do."
The couples are aided and abetted in their squabbles and reunions by a pair of bartenders at the neighborhood pub. Geno Carr possesses a wonderfully secure voice as the shape-shifting male factotem. He plays the genial bartender, as well as a (too) stereotypically flouncy Latino barista and a surly faux-Chinese restaurant waiter. Joining him in these accessory shenanigans is a glowing Heather Anne Paton.
Mengelkoch and Maddy are well-paired as Diana and Jeff. She was a comic mainstay of several local stages before moving to New York a few years ago and she's lost none of her big-eyed, high-spirited radiance and crack timing. Maddy's got lanky, throwaway ease onstage and here reveals the big heart behind Jeff's careless-seeming facade.
Gabriel overplays the nerdy side of Austin at first, and both he and Venter are costumed in over-the-top outfits from the wrong era; they have to fight their clothes to make a positive impression, not only on each other, but the audience. And eventually, they do.
Though the first act is overlong and could shed a song or two, in the end, "I Love You Because" has you rooting for its characters and touched by the title sentiment. These kids connect not despite their differences, but because of them.
Marty Burnett's set is a simple cityscape with enough nooks and crannies for furniture moving, but also enough space for the dance-like numbers to breathe, a big plus on the theater's small stage. Simas has staged those musical numbers with his accustomed expertise. The zest of the cast does the rest.
"I Love You Because"
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 27
Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987D Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach
Tickets: $44-$50
Info: 858-481-1055
