 I DO I DO
Marriage is at the center of this Tony Award-winning intimate and nostalgic work by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones (Fantasticks). Watch Michael and Agnes as they journey from being newlyweds to parents to retirementall lovingly to the strains of a tuneful, charming score which includes the standard My Cup Runneth Over. Starring newlyweds Craig and Heather Weiskerger.
Our Light Bite Menu will be available for this performance at a separate cost.
Stars give good reasons to say 'I Do!' to musical.
By Jay Handelman
Watching the sweet musical "I Do! I Do!" at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre, you can feel the affection between the stars, Heather Kopp and Craig Weiskerger. That makes sense because they are playing out a least a part of their lives on stage each night. In the show, the real-life couple play Agnes and Michael from a giddy, champagne-fueled wedding day through the birth, growth and marriage of their children and on to old age when they finally move out of the big house and reflect on what that home has meant to them for the last 50 or so years.
Kopp and Weiskerger, who are due to be married themselves in March, make it feel mostly natural in this show by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, who also created "The Fantasticks." Only at the end, when they put on makeup to age themselves, do they seem to be pretending.
On Trez Cole's simple set, dominated by a four-poster bed and a couple of chests of drawers, they play out all the various stages of married life under Roberta MacDonald's sure-handed direction.
The show grows from the joy of their wedding day to the nervousness of sleeping together for the first time and the shifting changes and attitudes in their relationship as children arrive and grow up. Michael pursues an affair and Agnes decides to become a little more assertive, starting with an expensive hat.
But through the ups and downs, they stick together and grow old with grace and pride, built around the love expressed in the song "My Cup Runneth Over."
Though the musical may be set in the early half of the 20th century, when tastes and attitudes toward relationships and sex were more conservative, there is a universal appeal and familiarity to the story.
Kopp and Weiskerger play their characters with a touching mix of spirit, energy and tenderness.
Weiskerger's Michael comes off like a heel at times, Kopp makes you really root for Agnes, and there are times when you wonder why they're still together.
But by the end you realize that perseverance and patience are integral to married life, and you want to wish this couple well as they set out on their own journey.
Funny, touching I Do! I Do! debuts at Golden Apple.
By STEVEN J. SMITH
SCENE Magazine
Fix your top hat, fasten your cummerbund, shine your shoes, grab your honey and march on down the aisle for a ringside seat to the delightful confection I Do! I Do!, now playing through Feb. 13 at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre.
A charming two-character musical based on the well-known classic The Fourposter, I Do! I Do! spans the first 50 years or so of the 20th century, focusing on one couple’s up-and-down journey through love and marriage. We experience these trials and tribulations first-hand through the artistry of Craig Weiskerger and Heather Kopp, two thoroughly engaging performers who plan to tie the knot for real in March.
The duo explores the awkwardness of young love, the flush of first passion, the terrors, frustrations, and rewards of child rearing, and the agony and heartbreak of infidelity and impending divorce — a half-century’s look at an enduring marriage, all in one riveting evening. Under the capable and sure-handed direction of Roberta MacDonald, Weiskerger and Kopp warm our hearts and tickle our funny bones, singing a lovely score by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (of The Fantasticks fame) that features such appealing songs as “Good Night,” “Love Isn’t Everything,” “The Honeymoon Is Over,” “When the Kids Get Married,” “Someone Needs Me,” and of course the classic “My Cup Runneth Over.”
Highlights for me were Weiskerger’s funny and touching “I Love My Wife,” while Kopp stopped the show with the stormy “Flaming Agnes,” and soulful “What Is a Woman?” These two are absolutely terrific together, and if they are as compatible in real life as they are on the stage of the Golden Apple, they’re assured a happy marriage indeed.
Kudos also to musical director and keyboardist John Visser, scenic designer Trez Cole, lighting designer Benjamin M. Turoff, and costumer Dee Richards.
I Do! I Do!
Kay Kipling, Sarasota Magazine
I’ve seen the Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical I Do! I Do! several times, with very different actors essaying the main roles, and I’ve always enjoyed it, not only for its entertainment value but for the underlying truths about marriage it contains.
That’s still the case with the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre’s production of this two-member cast show, starring real-life fiancés Craig Weiskerger and Heather Kopp as a couple (Michael and Agnes) whose marital journey begins with a mixture of anxiety, hope and naivete on their wedding day. In the early charming scenes of the show (based on Jan de Hartog’s play The Fourposter), everything is pretty bright and rosy. And we sometimes feel, or think we do, the real affection this offstage couple has for one another in teasing little moments of intimacy.
But of course marriage is a marathon, not a sprint, and along the way Michael and Agnes deal with the joys and struggles of raising children, face outside distractions in the form of a younger woman, and, eventually, see their own offspring grow up and get married. It’s a simple story, simply staged by director Roberta MacDonald with that central fourposter bed and a multitude of props, but it remains effective 45 years after its Broadway debut.
Although Weiskerger and Kopp are younger than the actors I’ve usually seen portray Michael and Agnes, they do creditable jobs of aging over a 50-year period, with a change in hairstyle or costume aiding them, and perhaps a shift in vocal timbre (Weiskerger’s gets lower in the second act). They’re believable in both the funny and more somber moments of the show. Weiskerger’s Michael seems to have enough sweetness at the bottom to make his occasional obtuseness or pomposity amusing and not obnoxious; Kopp wins over the audience, especially with one of my favorite numbers from I Do! I Do!, Flaming Agnes, as the formerly submissive homemaker/helpmate decides to let it all hang out.
The most familiar song of the show is My Cup Runneth Over, but it’s nice to hear again some of the other Schmidt-Jones tunes, like the upbeat When the Kids Get Married, the touching What Is a Woman? and the finale,This House. I Do! I Do! continues through Feb. 13 at the Golden Apple; for tickets call 366-5454 or go to thegoldenapple.com.
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