LIBRARIANS IN LOVE
nytheatre.com review by David Fuller
August 15, 2002
Librarians in Love has a lot of potential. The music and lyrics
by Gary Negbaur serve the piece well. The music is standard musical
comedy fare, but in a positive sense. The lyrics move the action forward
and are often quite clever without being predictable. The story, by
Negbaur and John Cariani, is a simple one: two librarians, Louise and
Lance, work together and share an attraction that is embraced by Louise
and denied by Lance. It takes the ensuing half hour for Lance to finally
come around and agree that the two are “Librarians in Love.”Brad Negbaur (brother to Gary) is perfect casting as the bookish Lance, Debbi Bauml is equally well cast as Louise, and both performers bring a certain charisma to their roles that would belie real librarians but is very suitable to musical comedy librarians.
This production makes no apologies for its simplicity of tale and economy of execution. It’s not quite tongue-in-cheek, but it does take a pronounced wink at the proceedings. This makes for an enjoyable half hour, during which you will be smiling a lot, laughing frequently, and applauding appreciatively.
