"Dating isn't typically a team sport, but Heart Throb: The Dream Date Show plays by its own chaotic rules. Ten minutes before the show's September edition began, audience members submitted their relationship "green flags" and "red flags" via a QR code. This edition of the monthly Kickstand Comedy performance featured a twist: The flags had to be sports-related. What are sports-themed red flags?, I thought."
"On stage, a rotating projector lamp flecked colored light across a backdrop of soccer ball-patterned fabric panels, lending Kickstand's Hosford-Abernethy space a house-party charm. Heart Throb's sports angle was just one piece of an improv show that thrives on romantic bedlam. Loosely inspired by a hot-pink, '80s-era Milton Bradley game, Heart Throb guides one eligible single toward the (questionable) best of three dating prospects. Hosts Aleah Liebenau and Mack Lee play referee throughout the show's tight hour-and-change runtime."
"Arriving onstage against Europe's "The Final Countdown," Lee appeared in a pinstripe suit styled over a Lakers jersey; Liebenau sported bedazzled eyeglasses. The rules, they explained, were simple. "If you're polyamorous, get out!" Liebenau hollered. The hosts "don't condone divorces," either. Their aggressive pro-monogamy stance felt intentionally retro, laying the groundwork for Heart Throb's ultimate goal: To find a big, all-encompassing L-O-V-E for one lonely soul."
Heart Throb: The Dream Date Show stages an improv dating game where audience members submit sports-related 'green flags' and 'red flags' via QR code shortly before the performance. Hosts Aleah Liebenau and Mack Lee moderate as one single evaluates three improvised dating prospects over roughly an hour. The production leans on retro, campy aesthetics — hot-pink game inspiration, pinstripe suits over jerseys, bedazzled glasses, soccer-ball backdrops — and aggressive, pro-monogamy humor. Characters, like comic Blade Weedman's gum-smacking Brenda McDaniels, embody exaggerated romantic chaos. The result is a chaotic, theatrical search for a big, all-encompassing L-O-V-E.
Read at Portland Mercury
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