For Lovers Only comes complete with the subtitle, Love Songs . . . Nothing But Love Songs, and that’s exactly what you get from this pleasant show.
What This Show Is About
For Lovers Only features five singers; a piano player, who joins in the vocals from time to time; a keyboardist; and about 100 songs in two acts.
The show begins in what you might call “Every Bar,” where on the surface, it’s lonely people trying to connect, but in the characters’ minds, we learn through the songs what’s going on inside. As you might imagine, it’s a time for a lot of standards, including “Almost Like Being In Love,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “You Made Me Love You,” and way too many more to name.
Fittingly, the scene shifts to the characters each alone at home watching old movies and singing movie love songs.
It’s in the second act where the set and costumers are simplified, and we get to focus on the excellent voices of the singers.
If there are a hundred words of dialogue in the whole show, it would surprise me,
Who's Who and What's What
I’ve seen enough off-Broadway to know just putting a musical up in New York doesn’t guarantee strong singing. Not the case here. Trisha Rapier, Monica L. Patton, Dominique Plaisant, Glenn Seven Allen and Kevin Vortmann are all spot on. From Broadway to pop to blues and from first soprano to tenor to baritone, these guys knock the vocals out of the park.
If you don’t get thrilled when they put Stephen Sondheim back to back with Rodgers and Hammerstein, then you just don’t like musical theater.
For Lovers Only is a simple show that delivers on the limited ambition of giving audiences nearly two hours of well-sung songs we all know. Ken Lundie, the show’s co-creator and musical director, conducts, sings and acts from the piano and deserves an award for stamina if nothing else, but his playing and arrangements make the evening work.
Where and When
- New World Stages
340 West 50th Street
- Show Times and Tickets
- Previews: April 24, 2009
- Opening: May 11, 2009
- Closing: Open-ended run
- Run Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes (with intermission)
- Genre: Musical
- Advisories: Simulated gun fire