The anticipation of two familiar names being cast together in a musical brought Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy like remembrances. In the past, whenever Jean Martin-Brown and David Usher were teamed together, an instantaneous response in attendance became evident. The blend of their synergistic voices did, once again, have the audience humming familiar passages (mentally, if not vocally) as they left the theatre. That was a guarantee.

Nowadays the number 50 applied to marriage usually refers to the 50% of marriages that fail. A marriage that survives 50 years and retains the romantic spark that prompted it is more rare than usual.

Alpena Civic Theatre brought a dandy revival with two actors whose voices do more than just credit to Schmidt's score and Jones's clever and touching lyrics.

To anticipate your question: This single set two-hander that started with the wedding night of a sexually uninitiated couple was just a bit quaint in this era of easy sex and smoke and mirrors production values. But that very quaintness and the Jones & Schmidt songs still charmed. Factor in the endearing performances by David Usher and Jean Martin-Brown, and even if you were more than an hours drive from Alpena, you found this I Do! I Do! a little gem that was well worth the trip.

At the outset (the wedding) both actors were pretty clearly a lot older and more mature than the naively hopeful lines suggest, and the wedding night scene, with the confessions of ignorance about sex, were distinctly awkward (even though in the sixties we probably did believe that folks went to their marriages in complete innocence back in 1898, it was pretty difficult to believe those two fully mature people were in that situation). But as the characters matured, the actors found their stride and we began to find it more possible to suspend that pesky disbelief. Just remember, in theatre, there is a distinction between perception and reality.