Your Love, Our Musical treats the audience to a real life love story, set to music. The performance at the New York International Fringe Festival is memorable and entertaining, but to truly appreciate the talent on display, a few important factors must be recognized.

First, a couple is selected from the audience and they sit in the hot seat for a few minutes, as Rebecca Vigil and Evan Kaufman ask them to tell their love story. Key details are pried out: how they met, any other people that were involved, and the nature of their relationship in general. The couple gets teased slightly, but the performers keep it fun and make the audience laugh throughout the questioning.

Second, Vigil and Kaufman, backed by their live band, make up Broadway-style songs to retell the lovers’ story. The performers choose some key moments, such as how and when the couple met, but also focus on unexpected details. For example, the couple briefly mentioned a roommate named Jim during the Q and A, and Jim ended up as a fully developed character who also added comic relief; this was a good example of an on-the-spot choice made by the performers.

Finally, it’s a rush to realize that you’re witnessing a once in a lifetime performance. Since it’s the telling of a unique story, the same story will not be told again in this way. This creates a sense of complicity in the audience; we grow to love the couple, and we root for the performers as they improvise song after song and deliver us a complete story by the end of the show.

This is not a polished, Broadway-caliber musical, and that’s what makes it special. A song lyric might not exactly rhyme, or might sound clunky. But we are witnessing talent that seems impossible so we can forgive an imperfect song; in fact, it’s what we hope for. Whether in love or an improvised musical, there’s no room for perfection. The best we can hope for is an hour of belly laughs, which Your Love, Our Musical delivered to us.