Written by the same team that created “The Fantasticks,” Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s “I Do I Do” is a sweet and sentimental little show written more than 30 years ago. Viewed today, this two-person chamber musical seems very old-fashioned in style and theme as it follows a married couple from their 1898 wedding day, through trials and tribulations, to an eventual loving maturity.
The husband and wife–played in Etel Billig’s Illinois Theatre Center production by Shelley Crosby and Jeffrey Wien–face all the predictable issues from a period when marital roles were more easily defined. He’s more sexual than she; she tires of playing a supporting role with the children; he becomes obsessed with his work; she craves attention. Back in the 1960s, such retro ideas did not seem so distant from the audience’s own reality.
But they sure do now. For folks who remember those simpler times, of course, the show has a certain nostalgic appeal. And just as you are ready to dismiss this whole affair as claptrap, a delightfully sappy song like “What is a Woman” or “My Cup Runneth Over” will come along and cause a lump right in the middle of one’s cynical throat. Jones and Schmidt knew what they doing–that’s why you can still see “The Fantasticks” off-Broadway.
Although the actors seem stiff and forced in the early sections of the show, Billig’s simply staged production eventually settles into a warm stride and features competent singing and honest attempts at truthful acting (it’s a pity the unattractive set is so caked in brown paint). There’s nothing here to live long in the memory, but it’s a pleasant little diversion.
“I Do I Do” may look back, but the indefatigable Billig (ITC’s artistic director) keeps going forward. She said Saturday that ITC will likely be moving to a new location in about a year–a converted retail store in the former Park Forest Shopping Center.
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`I Do I Do’
Where: Illinois Theatre Center, 400a Lakewood Blvd., Park Forest
When: Through May 3
Call: (708) 481-3510.
