Reviews of CO-OP
Part of Thicker Than Water 2008 at Ensemble Studio Theatre

"Blessed with several tuneful songs by Matt Schatz, this meet-cute musical stars performers whose delicate, wavering voices nicely complement their characters’ nervous states of mind. Steve Boyer plays the equally angst-ridden (though not quite as unhappy) Ethan with an earnestness that you find almost exclusively in musicals. Embarrassing things are said, eyes are rolled, and a connection is made. By the end of this persuasively sincere one-act, you may well be charmed."
                                          
"The curtain opener and the best of the bunch, Co-Op is a cute minimusical set in a crunchy-granola community food shop in rural Oregon. Using a folk-pop score and shamelessly silly lyrics (there’s much rhyming with the state’s name: “door again,” “unsure again”), book writer Brooke Lauria and composer-lyricist Matt Schatz craft a portrait of sad-sack Bean (Julie Fitzpatrick), who aches to leave her dull town, and Ethan (Steve Boyer), a shy local who actually kinda likes it there. Grizzled store manager Ted (Thomas Lyons) provides witty romantic advice in the ditty “Don’t Date Your Double.”
"The night starts with the gentle touch of Co-Op The Musical (book by Courtney Brooke Lauria, music and lyrics by Matt Schatz), directed with a breezy air by Jordan Young. It's a simple story of the first contact between two shy and lonely souls: Bean the shop girl at a quaint Oregon produce market, and Ethan the boy who shops there every day. They are so sweetly awkward you will root for them all the way. It also sports one of the best songs I've heard in a long while, "Don't Date Your Double" (because the two of you would "finish each other's life sentences!")."