If anybody’s interested in catching up on the realities of dating in the current age, Oil Lamp Theater in downtown Glenview has the ideal, very hilarious, primer. First Date, conceived and created by three friends and native Californians, plum their own experiences to lay the foundations for a rollicking love focused adventure.
According to a New York Times interview following the musical comedy’s 2013 Broadway debut, two of them, Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary, have enjoyed a long association that reaches back to their high school days in Los Angeles. Even in the elementary grades, their attraction to musicals and the theater was well established. When they declared themselves drama jocks at the Oakwood School, it was just confirming the inevitable. Cut from very similar cloth, Austin Winsberg was writing and winning awards for his playwriting abilities as a teenager. When Weiner and Zachary met Mr. Winsberg in 2000, they all recognized how much they shared in common and became friends who wanted to join forces creatively. At the time, all of them were also struggling romantically. First Date can be seen as a fun soaked stroll through those anxious days when love for them was so elusive.
Pieces of each of the three find their way into Aaron (Adrian Thornburg), a young professional in finance who seems to be about as knowledgeable about dating as an elephant is about extreme skateboarding. Aaron’s plight is that of a lot of men. The kinds of girls he’s attracted to aren’t interested in him, making disappointment a regular part of his romantic pursuits. When you’re in that position and someone at work offers to set you up on a blind date, you tend to listen. That’s where we find Aaron, going into a New York bar to meet a stranger in the hopes of making a meaningful romantic connection. Buttoned down and visibly stressed, everything about him begs for an intervention. Kyle Twomey, in his role of a drolly sympathetic bartender, tries to help; but there’s only so much he can do. When Aaron’s date shows up, it becomes even more clear how far Aaron’s out of his depth.
Weiner and Zachary composed the musical’s songs and lyrics while Winsberg wrote its book. From the outset, when the cast sings The One, you can see how well the three work together to create flawlessly cohesive transitions. That tight alignment between story and song remains ironclad throughout the production.
The opposite of Aaron in every perceivable way, Casey’s battle tested when it comes to the dating game; blind dates included. On the sly, she queries the bartender about her date and gamely moves ahead following his encouragement. There’s plenty of confident zest in Dani Pike’s portrayal of Casey, who’s wise enough to have a backup plan if things head south. They use small talk to size one another up; neither being particularly enthralled with their initial reads of the other. She’s wilier. When she tells him about her fictious 4-year-old just to see how he would react, the audience is as taken in as much as Aaron to the ploy. It ends humorously and well; but the scene points to how much reality is packed into this very fine effort.
Still, she sees him as a dull money chaser and he sees her as maybe being a little too “indie”. First Impressions, their duet together highlighting those perceptions lets you know this isn’t going to be a staid musical mired in the conventions of a past era. As crystalline as they are smart, the lyrics have edgy overtones that lets plenty of breezy cosmopolitanism peek through; rooting First Date firmly in the here and now.
Although this story centers on Aaron and Casey, there are plenty of other voices that chime in on this tremulous love quest that add contextual heft. Random people in the bar, Aaron’s ex, a couple of Casey’s past bad boy flings, her sister and other characters are all there to fill in crucial gaps of knowledge about these two searchers. That means the rest of the cast, including Twomey as the bartender, plays multiple roles. And they do so with such aplomb they threaten to overshadow our love hunters. Director Christina Ramirez is far too savvy to let that happen, though. You appreciate the supporting casts’ contributions and talent, but not at the expense of anything else. Twomey who’s also Man 1, Nikolai Sorokin as Reggie and Man2, and Mari Duckler as Woman 1 and Allison-the-ex, are sensational to watch as they fill their zanily ordinary characters with electrified life.
Also wearing her choreographer hat in this production, Ramirez incorporates lots of physicality and choreographed movement to generate and sustain ample propulsive energy. Not only is Thornburg more engaging by the minute as Aaron, he could be as animated as a hyperactive standup comic. His dynamism along with the slew of mini dance sequences built into the song structure were invariably delightful and impressive.
As Aaron and Casey’s blind date progresses, there never seems to be a strong chance that anybody would be walking home on a cloud. The fact that he’s Jewish and she’s not isn’t the hindrance. They simply never found that single toehold that would take them to the next rung up. That mutual recognition opened the door to the unexpected and a touch of magic that make this first date triumph and one you’ll long remember.
First Date
Through October 20, 2024
Oil Lamp Theater
1723 Glenview Road
Glenview, IL 60025