By Michael Grossberg For The Columbus Dispatch

I Do! I Do!, a mid-1960s Broadway vehicle for Mary Martin and Robert Preston, is rarely revived these days.

Yet, thanks to the warm humor and affectionate sweetness of two topnotch performers, CATCO makes a sentimental case for the musicals old-fashioned portrait of a 50-year marriage. CATCOs season finale, which opened Friday in the Riffe Centers Studio Two Theatre, finds its heart in a husband-wife team of veteran actors.

Joe Bishara and Liz Wheeler have an easy comfort level and noticeably genuine chemistry with each other that naturally anchors their performances throughout the two-character, two-act, two-hour show. As Michael and Agnes Snow, the pair build an amusing, touching and convincing relationship from wedding night until well past honeymoon's end.

Bishara embodies Michaels initial romantic idealism but also his flaws, from unconscious arrogance and a writers self-absorption to a male chauvinism more common (and less disturbing) generations ago. Wheeler shapes a compelling arc from the girlish nervousness of a nave bride to the greater maturity of a patient housewife and mother. Well, patient up to a point.

Director Steven C. Anderson trusts the material, even when its quaint, and guides the performers to highlight the gentle humor and lilting melodies.

The singing is especially lovely in My Cup Runneth Over, the stand-out hit from the tuneful score by The Fantasticks team of composer Harvey Schmidt and author-lyricist Tom Jones. But the duet Nobodys Perfect has greater comic impact because the lyrics ring true.

Wheeler revels in the flamboyant opportunities for comic melodrama in Flaming Agnes, a revenge fantasy that follows Michaels confession of adultery. (Today, though, the song seems to trivialize the betrayal, as if men will be men and women should put up with them at their worst.)

Parental issues enliven the shorter second act, whose highlights include Michaels funny The Father of the Bride and the wish-fulfillment duet When the Kids Get Married.

Music director Quinton Jones expertly backs the performers on piano, visible behind a translucent rear grid and four movable cushioned squares of furniture that combine to form the couples four-poster bed.

The crisp staging and abstracted scenic design - by Darin Keesing, with golden-hued lighting by Cynthia Stillings - helps make the somewhat dated script seem timeless, or at least not as obviously rooted in the shows original era (1895-1945). Such rueful comedy-drama, about the predictable but comforting rites of lifes passages, sparks laughs of recognition as well as sighs.

Older couples, in particular, are likely to appreciate this musical the most because theyve lived through much of it.

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CATCO will present I Do! I Do! at 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday through June 10, 2 p.m. June 11, 11 a.m. June 14, 8 p.m. June 15-17 and 2 p.m. June 18 in the Riffe Centers Studio Two Theatre, 77 S. High St. Tickets cost $40 Fridays and Saturdays, or $35 Sundays, $30 Thursdays, $20 Wednesdays, $15 for students two hours before showtime. Call 614-469-0939 or visit http://www.catcoistheatre.org

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Theater Review | I Do! I Do!: Topnotch performers, genuine chemistry make musical believable - The Columbus Dispatch