At Candelight: ‘I Do! I Do!” — And they did!

This real-life recently married couple takes the stage to show all the years that make up a marriage

Candlelight Dinner Playhouse has been plenty busy since they reopened their doors three weeks ago. They have not one, not two but three shows happening on their stage at various days and times. I reviewed their first-ever play, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap a few weeks back. They’ve also got a musical for young audiences, The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, and I Do! I Do! A Musical About Marriage.

Making this particular production even more special is the fact that the two actors who play our married couple on stage, Agnes and Michael (Sarah Forman, Phil Forman) are recently married themselves. It is this true chemistry that makes the kisses steamier, the fights more heated and the love undeniable.

I Do! I Do’ is indeed ‘A Musical About Marriage.’ We follow the couple starting on their wedding day, with the title song, “I Do I Do!” showing the excitement, fear and doubt many experience on that most important of days. Then we’re with them through 50 years of marriage. There’s the wedding night, which leads promptly to baby number one and then two. We watch the rise of Michael’s career as a writer as Agnes slips into the role of doting mother and wife. There’s resentment and adultery, laughter and joy.

During the hilarious song, Nobody’s Perfect, the couple plays off one another perfectly along with two accompanists (piano players Heather Holt Hall and Zach Stailey). The audience is rolling with laughter as the two air their grievances to one another. One chews in their sleep, one spends too much money — sound familiar?

Except for the opening wedding scene, the entire play takes place in the couple’s bedroom, with a four-poster bed and a couple of dressers. We know the passage of time because the actors slip in and out of costumes right on stage. She dons a baby bump, he dons a top hat to attend a prestigious event in his honor. Later on, she dons a grey wig as he starts using a cane.

Forman and Forman bring alive Agnus and Micheal’s journey through a 50-year marriage, no doubt, borrowing from their own real life love story. The laughter between the two is real, the romance is genuine, and even the fights are rife with real passion.

Casting a real life married couple was indeed a great decision on the part of director Pat Payne. The audience will surely find themselves laughing at and groaning at just how well this musical captures the ups and downs and all the in-betweens of marriage.