Robyn Lynne Norris’s free-form satire makes its premiere that is off-Broadway at Westside Theatre.

Go on it from the veteran: on the web suuuuucks that are dating. Yes, apps like OkCupid, Tinder, and Hinge reduce in the awkwardness that is included with approaching prospective love passions in individual and achieving to discern another person’s singlehood within the first place. But placing apart the truth that perhaps the many complex algorithm can’t constantly anticipate in-person chemistry, forcing potential daters to boil on their own down seriously to a self-summary leads people to not merely placed across an idealized pof usa type of by themselves for general general general general public usage, but additionally encourages individuals to latch on the many surface-level aspects to quickly see whether someone’s worth pursuing romantically. For females especially, internet dating can also be dangerous, making them available to harassment or even even even worse from toxic males whom feel emboldened because of the privacy of this Web.

Yet, online dating sites remains popular, therefore which makes it a target ripe for satire. Enter #DateMe: An OkCupid Test. Conceived by Robyn Lynne Norris, whom cowrote the show with Bob Ladewig and Frank Caeti, and located in component on the very very own experiences, the job is simply an extended sketch-comedy show, featuring musical figures, improvisatory portions with market involvement, and interactive elements (the show possesses its own OkCupid-like application that everybody is encouraged to install and create pages on ahead of the show). Rather than a plot, there is a character arc of kinds: Robyn (played in this premiere that is off-Broadway Kaitlyn Ebony), finding by by herself forced to try OkCupid the very first time, chooses to see just what is best suited in the software by producing 38 fake pages. If it appears overzealous, a number of her guidelines — including never ever fulfilling some of the individuals she converses with online — declare that this alleged test has been made to fail through the outset. The cynicism and despair underlying Robyn’s overelaborate ruse is periodically recognized for the show, with items of pathos associated with tips of the troubled romantic past and recommendations that she’s got difficulty making deep connections with individuals in basic peeking through the laughs.

When it comes to part that is most, however, #DateMe is content to keep a frothy tone while doling away its insights

Robyn’s findings of seeing a number of the exact exact exact exact same expressions and personality faculties on pages result in faux-educational portions where the remaining portion of the eight-member cast, donning white lab coats (Vanessa Leuck designed the colorfully diverse costumes), break people on to groups. Perhaps the creepiest of communications Robyn gets on OkCupid are turned into cathartically amusing songs (published by Sam Davis, with words by Norris, Caeti, Ladewig, and Amanda Blake Davis). If such a thing, the two improvisatory segments — one out of that the performers speculate how a date that is first two solitary market users would get centered on their pages and reactions with their concerns, one other a dramatization of a gathering user’s worst very very very very very first date — grow to be the comic features associated with show (or at the least, these were during the performance we went to).

It really assists that the cast — which, along with Ebony, includes Chris Alvarado, Jonathan Gregg, Eric Lockley, Megan Sikora, Liz Wisan, Jillian Gottlieb, and Jonathan Wagner — are highly spirited and game. Lorin Latarro emphasizes a feeling of playfulness in her own way and choreography, particularly with a group, created by David L. Arsenault, that mixes the aesthetic of living spaces and game programs; and projections by Sam Hains that infuse the show with all the feeling that is appropriate of overload.

#DateMe can be so entertaining when you look at the minute that just do you realize afterward just just how trivial its view of online dating sites in fact is. Because of this audience at the very least, it absolutely was disappointing to see the show’s blind spot with regards to battle and exactly how discrimination nevertheless plays away on dating apps today. As well as on a wider degree, the show does not link the increase of dating apps into the predominance of social media marketing most importantly, motivating a change more toward immediate satisfaction than in-depth connection. Like the majority of of this very very very very first dates dating apps are going to give you on, #DateMe: an experiment that is okCupid a completely enjoyable periods without making you with much to remember after it is over.