BWW Reviews: LOVE AND OTHER STRESSES at Toronto Centre for the Arts

Conceived and directed by Encore Entertainment founder Merle Garbe Love and Other Stresses, was first staged by Encore in 2002. This current edition is not strictly a remount, since many new songs and sketches have been added, allowing each of the seven cast members moments to shine. The well-chosen selections offer a welcome balance between heartfelt songs and amusing commentaries on contemporary life.

For example, shortly after Mickey Brown serves up a sincere version of Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me” she uses James R. Woods as her punching bag while wringing every bit of rage, pain and comic awareness out of the David Shire-Richard Maltby diatribe “You Want to be My Friend?”   

James also takes part in a pair of duets with Kristi Woods presenting contrasting views of weddings: First in Irving Berlin’s “Old Fashioned Wedding”  and then in Stephen Sondheim’s “Getting Married Today.”  For her solo effort, Kristi Woods offers a movingly melancholy rendition of Craig Carnelia’s “Just a Housewife” that is a lesson exploring a song’s subtext.

The same can be said about Phillip Cook, who uses his strong voice to great effect to turn the David Shire/Richard Maltby song “One of the God Guys” into a touchingly personal moment. He also makes a meal out of the seldom heard John Kander-Fred Ebb paean to “Sara Lee” which neatly sets up Deva Neely’s very funny story of fighting weight gain, “Fifteen Pounds.”  Neely also kick-starts the second half with the wryly comic song “Shopping cart of Love.”

Other comic gems include Jennifer Schembri singing Jill Leger’s “Googling My Ex” and Meagan Tuck belting out “Happily Ever After” from the musical Once Upon A Mattress, the lyric underscoring the unfulfilled promises of familiar fairy tales.

When the septet of performers join voices in the finale assuring us that all of these trials and tribulations are temporary (borrowing the song “For Now” from Avenue Q) it’s a moment of soothing reassurance to send the audience on its way.  This is followed by a coda, from The Producers, in which the cast warns “If you liked our show tell everyone but if you think it stinks keep your big mouth shut.”  I’m happy to tell everyone to take in Love and Other Stresses. Laughter is, after all, a great stress reliever.

Love and Other Stresses plays until Sunday November 6 in the Studio Theatre at the Toronto centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St. For tickets or more info log onto www.encoreshows.com  or call 416-872-1111.