Review: THE PERFECT MATE Is Fantastic, and Fantastical, at Pittsburgh CLO

As a musical writer, let me just say: it's TOUGH to launch a new musical. The best thing you can do is have a company commission a show from you based on your pitch, otherwise you're going to have a long, difficult but hopefully rewarding journey as an indie theatre creator. (Ask me how I know!) In Pittsburgh, the CLO has become a beacon of support for theatre writers focused on shows for five people or less, through the SPARK program. Over the last few years, we've seen a number of shows move through SPARK to the CLO cabaret stage. Now, director Carolyn Cantor is shepherding the most ambitious SPARK offering yet, the intricate and quirky sci-fi one-act The Perfect Mate.

Set in the distant future, the new musical by Dan Lipton and David Rossmer tells the story of tech exec Susan (Josey Miller), whose company provides all the amenities of future luxury: food materializers, cleaning robots and more. Her latest project is Perfect Mates, androids totally indistinguishable from human beings except that their looks, personality and backstory have been custom tailored to be a single human's absolute ideal. To test her androids (most of which, but not all, are played by Jimmy Nicholas), Susan takes schoolteacher Joan (Autum Hurlbert) as her guinea pig. Soon, Susan finds herself on a series of overlapping whirlwind romances with a number of human and android lovers... not all of whose nature is easy to tell at first glance. Will she find love? Will it be with humans or androids? What's the downside to a technologically oriented future? Is there one? And what tastes best: artificial carbonized champagne, or boxed lamb?

Writer-composers Lipton and Rossmer have packed their show with color and stylistic touches, including a Wicked-like lexicon of future neologisms ("yay" has replaced "yes" in the future, for one.) While Hurlbert and Miller hold down their lead roles at the heart of the show, Nicholas and two-person Greek chorus Marissa Buchheit and Ryan Cavanaugh tornado rapidly through every other role in the show, with Nicholas as a series of various human and virtual himbos and Buchheit and Cavanaugh as family, coworkers, love interests and robots of various kinds. It's a uniformly talented cast; Hurlbert's gentle, nerdy warmth grows as she gets her groove back, and Miller projects a fascinating, truly inscrutable mix of cold efficiency, sinister vibes and genuine affection. It's a winning pairing.

The supporting cast gets dozens of opportunities to show off both their versatility and singing chops. Marissa Buchheit features as Joan's sister, a "Gen Z in the future" legal eagle and fashion icon who mocks the notion of robot love until it seems to be working. Ryan Cavanaugh repeatedly steals scenes as an overly cheerful robot vacuum cleaner, and his appearances, always at the worst possible moment, wound up getting instant applause by the end of the show. Buchheit and Cavanaugh also feature as exec Susan's two scientist minions, goofy but genuinely sinister at the same time.

Jimmy Nicholas, familiar to TV drama fans as the chief paramedic on Chicago Fire, has a sort of James Marsden meets Bruce Campbell quality: half flawless hunk and half parody of the same. His various characters are all different flavors of eccentric, from spiritual gym bro to overly involved sensitive guy to neurotic nerd next door. It's a testament to Nicholas's skill that he makes his handful of characters pop so distinctly with only the slightest outfit changes. Nicholas's chemistry with Hurlbert is instantly winning, even as he repeatedly deconstructs the fantasy cliches of romantic archetypes.

The scenic design by Bryce Cutler is elaborate and inventive, a perpetually transforming unit set full of cubbyholes, trapdoors, lights and sounds you didn't see coming. Combined with Bob Bollman's sound design and Greg Anthony Rassen's music direction, the show is in perpetual bubbling, electronic life. It's a totally immersive experience: even before the show, advertisements from the future are displayed on the video screens, and the preshow music is futuristic remixes of real-world pop music. I strongly recommend coming early to take in the sights and sounds, and maybe ordering some of the CLO Cabaret's signature foods and drinks. 

New musicals, like I said above, can be a tough sell: without name recognition, all you've got is the reputation of the presenting company to bank on. Well, let me give you my own affadavit. Under Mark Fleischer's leadership, with a near-exclusive focus on new shows, CLO has not gone wrong yet. Any new show the company presents is more than worthy of your time. Grab a date, or maybe program one, and see The Perfect Mate while you can.

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