Love, Incorporated

I have a low tolerance for cute romantic musical comedies but this one (at the Midtown International Theatre Festival) won me over. The plot doesn't have any suspense - from the get-go we know that the wallflower female exec and the dreamy tv newscaster will work it all out - but the show manages to be charming anyhow and, partly thanks to Igor Goldin's direction, never lags. While the characters could use more personality and detail on the page, the four delightful performers in the ensemble - Tally Sessions, Jennifer Blood, Jonathan Rayson, and Hollis Scarborough - compensate splendidly, and Marc Castle's breezy, often catchy score is well-matched to the tone of this material. (It's also often witty besides: Castle is especially good at writing songs or parts of songs that are reprised with a twist by a different character.)