Couple navigates calm waters, stormy seas of marriage in ‘I Do! I Do!’

This play is about ... what?

"OK," the director tells his two-person cast. "Let's do it from, 'Go to hell' on."

Right. Marriage.

"You are so exciting!" hubby says.

"You make me sick," wifey responds.

Seems ages ago when she said "I Do!" When he said "I Do!"

Which brings us to "I Do! I Do!," the '60s Broadway two-hander of marriage and music, this night working the details in a sparse, hideaway rehearsal hall next to Hank's Gym in the Commercial Center, a row of storefronts away from the Onyx Theatre, its home this weekend.

Cue a marital chitchat with a flying pillow. He wrestles her onto the bed -- and not for that energizing marital act -- yanking the fluffy headrest between them as if it's a weapon, slamming it down in that way intelligent people can descend into primitive breast-beating.

"PUT IT ON THE BED!"

"YOU PUT IT ON THE BED!"

"PUT IT ON THE BED, I SAID! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

Great tenderness does mix with upper-register rage, as when they gaze into each other's eyes and sing, "My cup runneth over with love." Count the marital hills and valleys -- first blush of newlywed life, growing comfy and bored with each other, cheating, parenting, separating, reconciling, aging and, ultimately, the half-century-long love of two doggedly devoted spouses, Agnes and Michael -- and it's all in "I Do! I Do!"

"I enjoy intimate, two-person pieces," says director David Andino, an opera singer/gondolier at The Venetian, during a break in the rehearsal room hallway. "Not a lot of people know 'I Do! I Do!,' especially my generation and younger. It's a show that isn't done a lot."

Originally starring Broadway legends Mary Martin and Robert Preston (and later touring with Carol Burnett and Rock Hudson), "I Do! I Do!" is based on the 1951 play "The Fourposter," following a couple's coupledom from 1895 to 1945, set to a score by Tom Jones (no, not that Tom Jones) and Harvey Schmidt.

Though containing no tunes as affectionately remembered as those from their forever-running "The Fantasticks" (the lovely "Try to Remember" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain," among others), the "I Do!" score neatly propels the wedded ones from decade to decade with songs including "I Love My Wife," "Nobody's Perfect," "The Honeymoon is Over," "When the Kids Get Married" and "This House."

One keyboardist will interpret the score, and the set is simple: a bedroom centered by the fourposter bed that has cradled the lovers through their long-lasting love, until they exit, leaving their home to the next pair of newlyweds.

"People get married with the idea that it will survive, but nowadays they're much more impatient and apt to leave the marriage, even in times of cheating, instead of making it last," Andino says. "My grandparents, they're together almost 50 years. There are parts of the show that remind me of them."

Unhitched actors -- Kara von Aschwege and Patrick Matzig -- portray the partners, aging onstage (Matzig applying gray in his hair, von Aschwege donning different wigs), subtly modulating their voices and physicality in roles demanding evolution of their characters over time. "That's the big challenge," Matzig says. "You have to change the way you walk, how you lift your arm to gesture, how you sit, your voice."

Adds von Aschwege: "It's a fun process when you pick the physical characteristics. Maybe Agnes has a back problem in her 40s, then it's moved to her hip by her 50s, and the changes in how she walks."

Yet it's emotional elements and relationship shifts that make "I Do! I Do!" a charming chronicle of lives shared. "I have a feeling during some of the fights people will think, 'It's the end of the relationship,' but it's about going through the obstacles," Matzig says. "It doesn't end in divorce, which a lot of relationships do today."

Given the play's time period, however, specific cultural changes affect the twosome, particularly Agnes. "You see her frustrated with being the mousy housewife, so it's cool when it gets into the 1920s and '30s when women's rights were becoming more prevalent," says von Aschwege, who, despite her single status, found inspiration in real life.

"I've seen my parents' joys and harder moments, and everybody has that moment in their childhood where you accidentally hear your parents having an argument you weren't supposed to hear, so I've been able to pull from my own experiences. But my parents are still together, and for me personally, divorce isn't an option, so I know there's struggles you go through."

Back at rehearsal, Andino carefully choreographs the intense pillow/bed-wrestling scene between his stars, right down to how they angrily grab each other's shoulders in midshout.

"Now," he says, "let's go again from, 'Go to hell.' "

Elsewhere, they play the heaven. And everything in between.

They do. They do.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.