Broadway Theater Review: She Loves Me

Loving She Loves Me – This is How Revivals Should Be

By Lauren Yarger

She Loves Me, one of two Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick musicals getting a Broadway revival this season (Fiddler on the Roof is just a couple of blocks away), is something to love all right. This delightful, feel-good musical produced by Roundabout Theatre Company is just what revivals should be – fun that brings a smile to our face.

The title might not sound familiar, but trust me, you have seen the story. You might know it as the play Parfumerie by  Miklos Laszlo, or the 1940 film “The Shop Around the Corner” starring  James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.

Or maybe you remember another film, 1949’s “In the Good Old Summertime,” starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson, or perhaps the 1998 remake “You’ve Got Mail,” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.  They’re all the same story at their root. Two pen pals meet in person, not realizing who they are, and while they fall in love through their anonymous letters addressed only to e”Dear Friend,” in person, the sparks that fly are more combative in nature.

Here (in a book by Joe Masteroff) the pair is Laura Benanti (as Amalia Balash) and Zachary Levi (as Georg Nowack), clerks in a Budapest Parfumerie owned by Mr. Maraczek (a steady Byron Jennings). They fight from the moment Amalia lands a job at the shop, much to the amusement of their coworkers, dependable Ladislav Sipos (a solid Michael McGrath), Lothario Steven Kodaly (an oily Gavin Creel) who has been taking advantage of fellow employee, Ilona Ritter (a fun Jane Krakowski), and delivery boy Arpad Laszlo (a wide-eyed and youthful Nicholas Barasch).

Things get complicated when Mr. Maraczek believes Georg is having an affair with his wife and is in despair over being betrayed by the boy he has come to love as a son. Some tension also surfaces when Ilona won’t allow Kodaly to toy with her emotions any more and when the “Dear Friends'” plans to meet go awry. And that’s truly all the conflict there is in this two-hour-30-minute, ice-cream sweet musical (there’s even a whole song about ice cream). Will Georg and Amalia ever meet realize that true love has been standing right in front of their faces?

It’s whimsical, charming and fun – made so much more so by Warren Carlyle’s delightful choreography. He has a gift for knowing when less is more. As a result, movements are precise and exaggerated. A swivel on a stool conveys so much more than a waltz across the floor. But when dancing makes sense, they do.  There is a party scene incorporating various forms of dance, but it never feels overwhelming or distracts us from the story.

In addition, director Scott Ellis pays attention to detail. Every movement of each character means something and helps define personality. A splash of leaves ushers in a whole season. Jeff Mahshie creates flattering period costumes that contribute to the storytelling with David Rockwell’s detailed multi-tasking set (which gets its own rounds of applause) to create a delightful, visual odyssey.

Barasch makes us smile with his enthusiastic, bicycle riding youth who believes anything is possible. Peter Bartlett has some over-the-top fun as an annoyed waiter and standing out is Michael McGrath, whose comic delivery puts us in mind of Lou Costello.

  

The one draw back here is vocally. There are some flat notes, some duets where the voices aren’t in sync. This might be due to difficulties of having the band (under the Music Direction of Paul Gemignani) split in house boxes above the stage on either side, but the conductor is plainly visible on a monitor, so perhaps there is difficulty in hearing the accompaniment (Sound Design by Jon Weston) or I just attended on an off day?

Benanti’s operatic soprano seems a bit too overpowering for the light sounding Bock tunes, but a friend pointed out that the original orchestrations (done here by Larry Hochman) were for Barbara Cook. Somehow, though, Benanti doesn’t seem a match for Amalia.

She Loves Me entertains through June 12 at Studio 54, 2524 West 54th St., NYC. Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 pm; Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets are $52–$157: roundabouttheatre.org.

Additional Credits:

Lighting Design by Donald Holder

Dance and Incidental Music David Kraine.

Ensemble: Cameron Adams, Justin Bowen, Preston Truman Boyd, Alison Cimmet, Benjamin Eakeley,  Sara Edwards, Michael Fatica, Gina Ferrall, Jenifer Foote, Andrew Kober, Laura Shoop, Jim Walton.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS:

--God's name taken in vain

-- Suicide attempt