Theater Review / Run, don’t walk, to see I Do, I Do At the Red Barn

By Joanna Brady

The Red Barn production of I Do! I Do! started Feb. 21. You’d be well advised to book your tickets soon–this one will sell out fast. A delightful revival of an upbeat musical that is ‘classical musical’ at its best, with timeless themes, a lot of laughs and poignancy; altogether a wonderful evening of entertainment.

Maribeth Graham and David Black star in this superb production. I Do! I Do!  ran for 560 performances on Broadway in the late 1960s. The entire two-character play takes place in a bedroom dominated by a large four-poster bed.

I Do! I Do! begins with a young couple, Agnes and Michael Snow, young, happy, and optimistic, getting married, and then later, on their wedding night. We watch them talk and sing their way through the fresh new relationship; we’re wrenched observing its deterioration as it changes and shapes itself throughout the play. The timeline spans fifty years, from 1895 to 1945. It focuses on the ups and downs experienced by Agnes and Michael throughout their marriage, one with much the same problems that couples do today. One is reminded of the Voltaire quote that marriage is “like a long meal, with the dessert at the beginning.”

Directing the play is the multi-talented Joy Hawkins, along with David Black—two local icons who seem to excel at everything they do. Black is, as always, terrific, playing his role of Michael with just the right pomposity, humor, tactless insensitivity, and poignant affection. His feelings evolve from uxorious adoration of his new wife to indifference, fault-finding, and infidelity. Then we see him grow wiser with age, tracing the way back to his original feelings, altered and mellowed with time.

Maribeth Graham is the perfect foil for Black. She begins as a chirpy, happy ingénue; becomes a devoted mom cheerfully bearing the brunt of the work involved in raising their children, and turns into a high maintenance, shrewish fault-finder for a time. She threatens to leave after the children marry, and comes full circle as she too accepts the realities of a changing monogamous relationship, staying on as they grow old together.

The play features some good songs with clever lyrics. Both Black and Graham have good voices and sing convincingly. The writing is great, with some very funny lines and visual gags. Black is hilarious as he struggles to get his pants on and off, Graham performs a funny number using a plumed hat and boa. We watch with interest as they stop the action to make themselves up into an old, doddering couple.

Kudos to Rick Worth for set design, to Gary McDonald and Jack McDonald for its execution, the originality of the talented Carmen Rodriguez’s costumes, and the rag-time piano music of Corey Wachala.

The Red Barn Theater is located at 319 Duval Street (Rear). Tickets for all performances can be had through http://www.redbarntheatre.com/tickets or by calling 305 296-9911. Shows all start at 8 p.m.

Joanna Brady is a Key West writer, author of The Woman at the Light, a historical novel of early Key West, published by St. Martin’s Press.

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