BWW Interviews: Dating Disasters with the Cast of I LOVE YOU BECAUSE

I Love You Because is a sweet, charming and funny original musical currently enjoying its Canadian Premiere at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.  The show is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, and revolves around the lives of a group of friends in modern day New York City who are trying to navigate tumultuous love lives.

The musical may be light fare, but at its core is a great message – that we should all strive to love our significant others because of their faults, and not in spite of them.  The characters in the show come to this conclusion after enduring their fair share of bad relationships, break-ups and dating disasters. 

Since sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction, BWW decided to sit down with the talented all-Canadian cast and dish about their personal dating horror stories.  After a sold-out opening night all six cast members (Jay Davis, Michael DeRose, Gabi Epstein, Elena Juatco, Cara Leslie and Jeff Madden) joined Kelly Cameron to dish out their worst stories.  Displaying the same chemistry that they exude on stage, the group expressed some initial trepidation over having their dating disasters splashed about online but quickly warmed to the idea and opened up.  What ensued was a hilarious evening guaranteed to scare any singleton looking for love in Toronto!

KC: Congratulations on the opening of I Love You Because – now let’s get to the good stuff.  I want your worst dating stories... Who’s going to start?

MD: I’ll kick it off.  I waited tables for years and years and my worst story happened on the job.  I walked up to this table holding steaks for the couple who were dining there, and the man was literally in the process of asking the woman to marry him.  And she said no.  Then he decided to ask again, while I was still standing there, and this time he called her tubby! He actually said “seriously tubby, will you marry me?”  She said no again.  The whole time I had to just stand there because I couldn’t exactly put the food down but I didn’t want to walk away – it was awful. So there’s two lessons for you… Don’t propose when the waiter is nearby and definitely don’t propose using the word ‘tubby’.

GE: Mine involves internet dating! After University I did the online dating thing as a way to meet people, and I was actually on JDate (those who have seen the show should appreciate this reference) .  The funny thing is , when I first started I was using Lavalife, and my Mom actually said to me ‘honey, if you’re going to do online dating let it be J-Date and we will pay for it!’  So being the cheap person I am I let my parents pay and switched services! I’m shameless.  I hit it off with this one guy who seemed really interesting, he used a lot of exclamation marks and seemed engaging and enthusiastic.  Then when we met he literally spoke in the slowest, monosyllabic sentences.  Isn’t that so bizarre? I actually had to do the ‘oh my God I have an emergency phone call’ bit.

EJ: You didn’t?

GE: I had to! He was so boring!

KC: Guess that’s the danger with online dating – good on paper, bad in real life?

GE: Exactly.  In person you get that spark and then you have to decide if they’re good on paper.  It’s hard with online dating.

JD: How exactly does that work?

GE: Basically you get someone who is good on paper and seems a perfect fit for you, but then you have to have that awkward meeting where you decide if there is actually any chemistry.

EJ: No chemistry and it doesn’t matter how good on paper they are!

KC: Ok, Jay’s turn…

JD: I need a subject! I’ve got too many stories!

MD: He really needs a subject? We could give him pickles…

JD: Ok, I’ve got an online dating story as well.  I was on Lavalife and I went out with this girl who lived down on the Lakeshore.  When I got to her door she was wearing the most fucked up outfit I had ever seen.  It was completely horrible, so bad that I didn’t know what to do.  I took her to the Drake rooftop patio and found out that she was actually writing a book about online dating! She dressed like that on purpose to see how I would react! So my online dating experience was basically fake…