For Jacksonville playwright David Sacks, a prenuptial agreement is the perfect setup for a comedy, especially when the bride’s wealthy Jewish parents and the groom’s blue-collar Irish family are about to meet for the first time.
Sacks will stage the world premiere of his new romantic comedy, “I Love You, You’re Perfect … Now Sign Here,” Friday through Sept. 20 at Players by the Sea. The production will benefit the theater’s Comeback Campaign following the devastating fire in April 2025.
“This was an idea I had as a fundraiser for the theater,” said Sacks, who also serves on the theater’s board of directors. “So last spring, I put together a proposal for a fundraiser and raised the money to pay for the production costs with the idea that every penny we raise goes right to the theater with no red ink.”
Tickets are $25 for general admission and $20 for seniors, students and military. Curtain is at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Reservations and information are available at Players by the Sea’s website.
The idea for the play came from a New York Times headline Sacks encountered more than two decades ago about the growing trend of prenuptial agreements. He banked the idea for 20-odd years before finally turning it into a script with a cheeky riff on the popular musical “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”
The story centers on Hannah, who comes from a wealthy, conservative Jewish family in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Michael, a third-generation Irishman from a blue-collar Brooklyn family. Their wedding plans bring the two families together, where cultural differences, family expectations and a prenuptial agreement threaten to complicate an otherwise happy occasion.
“Obviously the advent of prenuptial agreements is more 20th century, but it involves cultural clashes because the bride-to-be comes from a wealthy Connecticut Jewish family and the groom-to-be comes from a middle-class, blue-collar Irish stock from Brooklyn,” Sacks said.
Both Hannah and Michael are intelligent and well-educated. He is headed to medical school, while she is working on a doctorate. They are in love and ready to marry, but Hannah’s parents have other concerns.
“They inject themselves into the relationship with the request for the prenuptial because they are very wealthy,” Sacks said.
As it turns out, Hannah’s parents aren’t the only ones with a fortune to protect.
“Big feelings emerge as hard as they try not to,” Sacks said.
Written and directed by Sacks, the play explores familiar themes of love and family through his particular brand of comedy, inspired by his comedic trifecta: Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld and Woody Allen.
Sacks also gave himself a production challenge: Keep the entire play in one room.
He focused the action in a hotel room over roughly 24 hours, a decision influenced by an earlier play, “The Opposite of Normal,” which was produced at Players by the Sea in 2022. That play featured nine different locations.
“My set designer was pulling her hair out,” Sacks said. “She said, ‘You cannot write a play with nine different locations all to be on one stage.’ So I remembered this article and said, ‘I’m going to write a play that all takes place in one room.’”
The new production also brings back characters familiar to Players audiences. Michael and his best friend, Rick, were first introduced in Sacks’ 2006 play “Accidental Felon.”
“I Love You, You’re Perfect … Now Sign Here” is the second installment of what Sacks envisions as a trilogy. The third, “Family Life,” remains unproduced and picks up with Michael and Hannah after they are married and have children.
“‘Accidental Felon’ dealt with Michael trying to find his perfect mate. Now in this play, he has found his perfect mate and is getting married,” Sacks said. “Oddly enough, the second book was written last, so that’s kind of been the genealogy of it, so to speak.”
Sacks brings an extensive television résumé to his work as a playwright. He is an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning television writer whose credits include “The Simpsons” and “3rd Rock from the Sun,” along with work on “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Final Space.”
But he didn’t begin writing plays until 2005, after taking a workshop with local playwright Ian Mairs. In the two decades since, he has written nearly a dozen scripts.
“I don’t always write from personal experience. I write what I know, but I like to try and create also,” he said.
Acting has been part of Sacks’ life since childhood. He began performing in community theater at age 6, following in the footsteps of his mother, who established a community theater on Long Island in the 1960s.
“I was raised with it,” he said. “My first show was ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.’ I was the sixth dwarf and I had one line. It was first grade, but you’ve got to start somewhere.”
“I Love You, You’re Perfect … Now Sign Here” marks the fourth play Sacks has written that has been produced at Players by the Sea.
Whether audiences will eventually see the third chapter of Michael and Hannah’s story is up to the theater’s artistic team, Sacks said with a laugh.
“Tell them to find another director,” he said. “I can’t direct anything I write anymore. I vowed not to do it again after I did it the first time, and now here I am again.”
“Accidental Felon” was directed by his late wife, Shirley Sacks, known as “Drama Mama,” who died Aug. 17, 2022, following a battle with cancer. “Green Room,” which Sacks co-wrote with local theater legend Gene Nordan, was directed by Lee Hamby.
This time, Sacks is both the playwright and director, giving him a front-row seat to the process, even if he jokes that it’s a challenge to keep his feelings in check.
“Before I was able to go and watch the shows and just be spellbound. It was great. This is not the same thing,” he said. “But they are doing a great job. I have a wonderful cast. I got very lucky.”
