True Love Forever

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Jennine Willett, one of the three artistic directors of Third Rail Projects, saw there was a need for a show like True Love Forever. After successes with the company’s site-specific school building repurposed as a mental hospital in Then She Fell, a Bushwick warehouse decked out as a tropical resort in The Grand Paradise, backstage at a Lincoln Center theater for Ghost Light, and a real Union Square cafe dressed up as Shakespeare’s Athens for Midsummer: A Banquet, she set her sights on love, specifically getting an audience to explore their personal experiences with love. Depending on who is sitting in that audience, it can bring up memories that are sublime, or something relegated to the “Oh No, Not Again” pile. While there is much introspection called for, the combination of an indie rock concept album concert and an immersive theater performance provide a thoroughly enjoyable bouquet.

Getting to the show early provides you with a chance to “pick a card, any card” at a table hosted by one of the performers. This is intended to be a pre-show icebreaker with no response intended to be too rehearsed. Be forewarned, this experience may not bode well for a couple who are new to each other and haven’t worked out those nagging, yet necessary boundaries yet. Pardon the pun, but this is where “ALL the cards are on the table.” At this critic’s table the (paraphrased) questions that came up were: “What attracts you the most in a partner?”; “What is the most romantic thing a partner has done?”; and “How would you feel if your partner is besties with his or her ex?” Others in the audience commiserated about their selection, “Do you believe in love at first sight?” Questions such as these could very well make for some cringeworthy uncomfortable moments on a first date, and you may want to reference lyrics from the Eartha Kitt standard, “Proceed With Caution”…”Travel at your own risk/Danger zone!/For love is fatal/And the heart you lose/May be your own.”

It is very much an ensemble work, but if you want to select a performance that moves you deeply, look no further than the man doing the singing. English recording artist Coyle Girelli leads a quartet of stunning musicians, The Heartbreak Band, in about a dozen songs he wrote for his debut solo album, Love Kills. The songs fit this show like a glove. Girelli’s vocals are sublime, bringing to mind the velvety Roy Orbison, and the delivery is an effortless sexiness suggestive of a young Keith Urban. The band performs behind knee-high pedestals adorned with red roses giving the minimal scenic design just the right touch of romance.

Girelli’s lyrics provide wonderful support to Willett’s choreography. A motif for the song “Valentine” has the dancers in tango movements covering their hearts with their palms. The playfulness of musical chairs takes over another song where chairs are left empty so prospective partners can sit in each other’s laps. The song “Tonight You’re Mine” provides for a very athletic, relentlessly physical duet danced by Marissa Nielsen-Pincus and the bare-chested Ryan Wuestewald. A passionate duet for Devika Chandnani and Noah LaPook is performed to “King of Tears,” a song that confronts the deep emotional pain from heartbreak, emotional vulnerability, and personal struggle to recover from a relationship that has ended.

Members of the company would call out things to the audience as a way of engaging them in the next aspect of love to be analyzed. “If you’ve ever been ghosted, stand up and line up to the right…If you’ve ever ghosted someone, stand up and line up to the left.” A cast member then came out with carnations and instructed the ones who ghosted to give a carnation to an individual who had been ghosted, along with an apology. It’s not quite the same as getting it from the actual offender, but it’s the thought that counts.

Where there is much discussion of heartbreak and break-ups, we find there are rewards for longevity in relationships. At this critic’s performance, a cast member asked how many people in attendance were there as part of a couple. Couples were asked to stand. The countdown began; if you were together more than a year, remain standing. Five years, remain standing. Then ten, then twenty. Finally the last couple standing (in the balcony) were asked to come down to center stage. For their 40-some-odd years together, they were rewarded with beautiful corsages, and an opportunity to join the ensemble in a slow dance.

The plight of single people is addressed with humor, infinitely more desirable than pathos. One of the more hysterical dances has each of the cast putting together an online dating profile, using only dance moves for the categories they claim are necessary when one is putting him-or-herself out there. Assets such as hobbies, general happiness and friendships are all danced. Proof of friendship necessitated mock-selfies with the dancers befriending members of the audience long enough to strike a pose.

While the bulk of the show is performed with the audience seated on three sides, the audience gets broken up into smaller groups around tables where they put together How-tos for the parting of the ways in a relationship. Little slips of paper with aphorisms that start that conversation with “openers” and “reasons” are distributed to the audience teams. “You’ll always be very special to me,” “You are great, we’re just not great together,” and “I’m just not ready for a serious relationship” are just some of the breakup lines that are offered as suggestions that are then  compiled and read out loud by a pair of the actors. Resolutions such as “I’m taking the dog” resonated with a lot of the animal lovers in attendance.

The new venue, ART X NYC, is a combination gift store/gallery/event space that lends itself to the free spirit of a show like True Love Forever. Willett and her co-production designer Nicole E. Lang make excellent use of the space. Lang as the sole lighting designer fills the rafters with all manner of lampshades in various shapes and sizes and dresses the room in reds, pinks and blues, as per the mood of the songs. Alexandra & Juliana of Atelier Abene provide the costumes that give the performers freedom to dance, roll around the floor and climb all over each other when needed, while special mention is due to the dapper red and black tuxedo jacket worn by cast member Edward Rice.

A fun section of the show focuses on missed connections similar to the ones you read about on Craigslist. A choreographed number has a steady heartbeat to mimic the heartbeat of the performers in their anxious quest of a person who made eye contact on the train but got lost in the crowd. Right now the show is on hiatus until mid-February. Lovers of ingenious immersive theater should not let this be a missed connection and plan this one fun night in their February theatergoing.

True Love Forever (on hiatus until February 13 – 15, 2025)

Third Rail Projects

ART X NYC, 409 West 14th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.trueloveforever.show

Running time: 90 minutes without intermission