OpeningNight.Online Theater Logo

Love Online

L-R Pianist Gerry Dieffenbach, Jay Nickerson and Diane Love in Love Online. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus
L-R Pianist Gerry Dieffenbach, Jay Nickerson and Diane Love in Love Online. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus
Search by review category
Rating
4.5/5

Love Online portrayed a gentle, passionate look at online dating for individuals recently cast into a search for a loving relationship. We soon discovered that while our couple loved and lost, they earned insightful wisdom from their travails.

Diane Love. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus
Diane Love. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus

There is some humor gleaned from experiences with newfangled online dating apps, but from the onset, dominant themes are love, heartache, nostalgia, and the hope associated with new relationships – all beautifully expressed. We also sense yearning and how one might question their self-confidence when delving back into dating.

The show began with pianist/music director Gerry Dieffenbach masterfully performing an overture of songs from the American Songbook. This set the stage for what was to be a sojourn through romantic themes and the concomitant complexities and rewards of starting anew.

Jay Nickerson and Diane Love in Love Online. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus
Jay Nickerson and Diane Love. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus

Diane Love and Jay Nickerson begin with a playful conversation as they ascended to the stage from the back of the audience. Love possessed a kind, sagacious, and tender tone as she sang and bantered with Nickerson. Nickerson responded in kind as he sang and spoke. At times, Nickerson utilized a charming half-singing/half-speaking technique like that of Rex Harrison in his film characterization of Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964). Audrey Hepburn co-starred as Eliza Doolittle. I recall the film’s delightful romantic tensions and wondered if Nickerson employed that style of singing to evoke the references. Two individuals sitting nearby mused similarly.

Love and Nickerson showed that through song and dramatic dialogue, they can share with us a rich range of emotions, visual references, and places. A sampling of the songs they performed illustrate this idea and includes Burt Bacharach’s “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” Stephen Sondheim’s “We’re Gonna Be All Right,” and “The Road You Didn’t Take,” “Everybody Has the Right to Be Wrong,” by Sammy Kahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, Jerry Herman’s intensely gorgeous and heartbreaking “I Won’t Send Roses,” and “Kiss Her Now,” the hopeful “The Second Time Around,” by Sammy Kahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, and the charming and nostalgic “Two Sleepy People” by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser.

Jay Nickerson. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus
Jay Nickerson. Photo credit: Edward Kliszus

Love Online was a delightful musical journey enhanced by some of the finest songs ever written. It was performed by two enchanting, empathetic, and erudite individuals who understand life, heartache, and love. Love and Nickerson took our hands and hearts, drew from their inner psyches, and shared times, worlds, and lives. It was storytelling at its best. The messages are universal.

There’s one performance left on November 2, so don’t hesitate, as the October performance was sold out.

Readers may also enjoy our reviews of Debbie Gibson, Dianna Agron, Jeff Harnar, and Liz Callaway.

Artistic

The York Theatre Company presents 
Diane Love and Jay Nickerson in 
Love Online at the Laurie Beechman Theatre
407 West 42nd St.
New York NY

Conceived and scripted by Diane Love 
Music direction by Gerry Dieffenbach 
Directed by Joseph Hayward
Producing Artistic Director James Morgan
Executive Director Evans Haile

Love Online performance schedule 

Wednesday, October 19, 7 pm
November 2 at 7 PM. Doors open at 6 PM.

Runtime 70 minutes.

Tickets for Love Online are available at https://www.westbankcafe.com/laurie-beechman-theatre.

Tickets are priced at $49 with a $25 per person food/beverage minimum (not including gratuity). Ticket-issuing inquiries may be sent to beechmantheatre@westbankcafe.com.

Readers may also enjoy Eli Bolin Has No Friends, Debbie Gibson at 54Below, Isaac Mizrahi at 54Below, and Amanda McBroom at Birdland.

More to explore...

The Company of the 2021-2022 national tour of CATS. Photo by Matt Matthew, Murphymade.

CATS at the Mayo Performing Arts Center

There are so many beautiful songs in the first and second acts, too many to list. Still, song after song and with mindboggling dance presentations, the theatergoers waited in anticipation to hear Grizabella’s full performance of Memory, and it didn’t disappoint. It was so powerful that everyone in the theater held their breath momentarily.

In a scene of The Conductor at The Theater for the New City. Above: Brian Simmons as Warren Chipp. Below: Imran Javaid as Shashi Parmar. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

The Conductor at the Theater for the New City

The Conductor celebrated emotionally charged discourse governed by mutual respect, intellectual rigor, and passionate argument without the hostility, recriminations, and violence sometimes seen in today’s national debate. As with any well-crafted, intellectually fueled discourse, Reed’s work evoked exciting questions and ideas for viewers desiring continued debate.

Tyce Green in Turn the Beat Around at 54 Below. Photo by Gloria Alvarado

Turn the Beat Around at 54 Below

The thrill of the disco era returned to 54 Below on March 1 for an exciting night as the famous and glamorous nightclub opened the dance floor to all who came to participate in two sold-out shows of Turn the Beat Around.

COMMENTS

Love Online

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Laura K
Laura K
November 12, 2022 4:11 pm

That is some beautiful music, profoundly sung…

1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x