Lisa Kuchinski’s last show was “The Little Shop of Horrors” at The Belle Theatre.
“I was four months pregnant with my daughter Olivia,” Kuchinski noted.
Four years and another daughter later, she has made a triumphant although unexpected return to the stage.
“I was cast as Hope in ‘Anything Goes,’ Kuchinski recounted. “I had one solo and a couple ensemble numbers. So three weeks ago, I went to New York for New Year's to visit a friend, and Tyler [Young, the director] was like, what do you think about doing a four-person show? Sorry, ‘Anything Goes’ is canceled.”
That four-person show is Joe DiPietro’s musical comedy “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” It explores the journey from dating and waiting, love and marriage to in-laws and newborns, trips in the family car and pick-up techniques of the geriatric set.
It’s actually a better fit for a working mom with a toddler and an infant.
“My age and then being a mother and just life and experiences, I feel very connected to this show in different ways. I just understand things more in life now than I did years ago for sure,” Kuchinski said.
There have been a few changes since she last performed, such as less focus on written scripts and more reliance on digital apps. But one thing that hasn’t changed is Kuchinski’s strong voice and musicality.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” is onstage at The Belle Theatre in Cape Coral through Jan. 24.
MORE INFORMATION:
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change" is a comedy with book and lyrics by Joe DePietro and music by Jimmy Roberts. Through sketches and songs, this hilarious revue pays tribute to those who have loved and lost, to those who have fallen on their face at the portal of romance and to those who have dared to ask, “Say, what are you doing Saturday night?”
History
In 1995, “I Love You...” premiered at New Jersey's American Stage Company. In the middle of one early performance, a woman in the audience blurted out, “This is my life!” From that moment on, the creators knew they were on to something.
The following season, “I Love You...” moved to New Haven's Long Wharf Theater. Then, on Aug. 1, 1996, “I Love You...” opened off-Broadway at The Westside Theater.
The musical was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding Off-Broadway musical in 1997.
It ran Off Broadway for 5,003 performances. When it closed on July 27, 2008, “I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change” had become the second longest-running show and longest-running revue in off-Broadway history.
The musical has been showcased in more than 250 cities worldwide, including London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Sydney, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg.
In addition to its enormous success, the off-Broadway production was the site of over 50 marriage proposals.
More on Kuchinski
Prior to her layoff, Kuchinski regularly performed at a variety of Southwest Florida venues, including Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, Cultural Park Theater (where she was also Director of Fundraising), TheatreZone, Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance and New Phoenix Theatre. She also honed her skills as a cast member on the Murder Mystery Dinner Train.
Some of her most memorable local roles included Roxy in “Chicago” (for which she won a Cultural Park Theatre Marquee Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical), Sister Mary Theresa in “Sister Act” (for which she received a Cultural Park Theater Marquee Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play or Musical), Alanna Dale in “Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood” for Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance, a phantom in Richard O’Brien’s “Rocky Horror Show,” Harriet in “Wonderful Life” (at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre), Gilmer in “Godspell” (for Herb Strauss Theatre), Sandra in “Godspell” (for Theatre Zone/FGCU), Roz in “Moon over Buffalo,” Liat in “South Pacific,” and Helene in “Sweet Charity” at Cultural Park. She also appeared in New Play Contest winner “Repossessed” at Theatre Conspiracy.
A singer and dancer, Kuchinski also performed in “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” “Peter Pan” and “Jersey Girls.” She was also a swing in “Ha! Ha! Ho! The Holiday Show” in the Off Broadway Palm in 2022.
Kuchinski actually got a late start in theater.
“I didn’t act in middle or high school, and I went to work in the construction industry when I was 21. But [then I went back to school at Edison [now Florida SouthWestern State College] to get my AA [Associate of Arts] degree. One day, I saw a poster for a theatre class. It sounded interesting, so I enrolled.”
But Kuchinski dropped the class a short time later. By chance, she bumped into Florida SouthWestern Stage College Theatre Professor Stuart Brown a handful of days later. He asked why she’d dropped his class.
“The course required each student to audition for the play. I’d never auditioned for anything and had no idea how to go about doing an audition, so I figured I was in over my head.”
Brown wouldn’t be fobbed off that easily, telling her that he already had a part in mind for her. It turned out to be a supporting role, and that’s all it took. She’s been consumed by everything theater ever since.
She has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Florida Gulf Coast University.
Getting thrown in the deep end
Kuchinski had mapped out a slow, deliberate return to acting.
“I started doing the 'Joey and Maria's Comedy Italian Wedding' show with that troupe down there in the Naples area,” said Kuchinski. “They were looking for somebody. It’s just on a Saturday night, you get paid and you do this fun wedding comedy skit. You sing a song here and there and you dance and you have fun. So, I started doing that because it was just like a low commitment thing.”
But plans go awry.
She ran into Dave Rode and came in October to Belle Theatre to see him and Grace Koltz in “Young Frankenstein.”
“I was like, man, it'd be nice to be in a show again,” Kuchinski recalled. “You know, I've just missed it. I've just missed it terribly the last few years. Like something was missing in my life. So I just wanted to get back into it again.”
Kuchinski and Belle Theatre founder and Artistic Director Tyler Young have history.
“I've known Tyler since he was a teenager,” Kuchinski said, laughing. “We used to do shows together at Cultural Park and Broadway Palm, or he used to work there and then I was working there.”
So, she decided to audition for “9 to 5.”
She didn’t land that role, but Young cast her in “Anything Goes.”
But life gets in the way, and Young had to table “Anything Goes” because of a dearth of actors to fill the male roles in the musical. So, he proposed having her perform in “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” instead.
“I didn't know the show,” Kuchinski admitted. “I’d heard of it. But I’d never seen it. So I kind of like looked at it, and I was like, oh, this is a cute show. But I was in New York.”
By the time she returned, it was just two weeks before opening.
“For a professional show, it’s usually nine or 10 rehearsals and you open, but you’re rehearsing all day long. That wasn’t an option. I have a day job and two small children at home.”
In addition, Kuchinski was out of practice and there were more than a dozen songs, numerous lines and a lot of blocking to learn.
“It's been really very difficult for me having to learn so much so quickly, just coming back into theater,” Kuchinski conceded. “I was very intimidated at first. I was like, am I going to be able to do this? And then all of a sudden my brain just kind of soaked up everything and I was like, OK, great. I’ve still got it. I still got it. It's like that [Celine Dion] song, “It's All Coming Back to Me Now.” I feel like I didn't lose it, but I just kind of wasn't using it … aside from karaoke.”
However, there was a complication. Young decided to stage a newer revival of “I Love You ….”
“It had newer references and things in it, but we couldn't really find much out there on the web about it,” Kuchinski noted. “With the original, there’s YouTube videos, there's soundtracks. But there isn’t much for the revival.”
With a lack of video source material, the cast relied instead on Music Director Carrie Guffy.
“She taught us our harmonies and played all of our parts,” Kuchinski explained. “We recorded it so we had the music to listen to. She was a huge help.”
Going forward
Kuchinski definitely plans to do more shows, although not at the pace she performed prior to the births of Olivia and Azalea.
“I want to ease my way back in, kind of tap my toe back in because it does take me away from my children. They’ve been missing me,” said Kuchinski. “With sickness and doctors and work and everything, it's kind of a lot. So maybe a couple of shows a season.”
Kuchinski finds motherhood and work fulfilling, but performing makes her whole.
“It's kind of like therapy,” she said, sighing. “I just eat it up and enjoy it. I feel like it's healing my soul.”
About the playwright
Joe DiPietro has won two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and three Outer Critics Circle Awards. His musicals and plays have received thousands of productions across the country and around the world.
His Broadway credits include “Nice Work If You Can Get It” starring Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara (10 Tony Award nominations, including Best Book, Best Musical), “Memphis” (4 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score,) “All Shook Up” and “Living on Love” (starring Renée Fleming).
DiPietro’s Off-Broadway credits include “Ernest Shackleton Loves Me,” “Clever Little Lies” (starring Marlo Thomas), “The Toxic Avenger” (OCC Award – Best off-Broadway Musical), “The Thing About Men” (OCC Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical), the much-produced comedy, “Over the River and Through the Woods,” and “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” (the longest running musical revue in Off-Broadway history.)
Other recent regional credits include “The Second Mrs. Wilson” (Long Wharf Theatre & George Street Playhouse), “Hollywood and Chasing the Song” (La Jolla Playhouse), “The Last Romance” (The Old Globe) and “Creating Claire” (George Street Playhouse.)
His murder mystery, “The Art of Murder,” won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Play and his adaptation of Schnitzler’s “La Ronde” is the longest running Fringe play in London history.
He sits on the board of Only Make Believe, a charity dedicated to bringing interactive, therapeutic theatre to chronically ill children.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
