She Loves Me

Studio 54, NYC, March 23, 2016

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

There is something irresistible about She Loves Me. It’s a candy-box musical that keeps on giving and, at the Roundabout Theatre, it generously offers Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s enchanting score, librettist Joe Masteroff’s frothy romance and the ebullient Laura Benanti and a supporting cast with Jane Krakowski and Gavin Creel.

She Loves Me began life as Miklós László’s comedy, Parfumerie, produced in Budapest in 1937. Three years later, the show became a film, The Shop Around the Corner starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan. A hit MGM musical version in 1949, In the Good Old Summertime, starred Judy Garland and Van Johnson. The play later inspired Nora Ephron’s 1998 film, You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The delightful Broadway musical that is now revived at Studio 54 originated in 1963 and starred Barbara Cook.

The plot is simple. In a 1934 Budapest parfumerie, two sales clerks, Georg Nowack (Zachary Levi) and Amalia Balash (Laura Benanti), are always at odds. Ironically, each is unaware that they are actually secret pen-pals, sharing their innermost thoughts with each other. It is these letters that eventually lead them to realize that each is the other’s “Dear Friend,” expressed in a lovely song repeated throughout the show.

Georg and Amalia’s road to romance, however, is far from smooth, and twisted with numerous turns and miscommunications. One standout snafu comes about when the two pen pals are about to finally meet, each with high expectations. They have a date at the posh Café Imperiale, a restaurant known for “A Romantic Atmosphere.
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” As expected, the meeting goes awry and Amalia is stood up by her date, but the scene is hilarious, thanks to the headwaiter’s (Peter Bartlett) scenery-chewing, an over-the-top turn that works.

Despite the mishaps, the romance is enveloped by the charm and brilliant talent of the cast and the direction by Scott Ellis. The shop’s owner, Mr. Maraczek (Byron Jennings), waxes nostalgic, remembering when he was young and handsome as he sings a bittersweet “Days Gone By.” (Jennings, seen in You Can’t Take It With You, is still handsome.) Now he is harried by failing business and a suspicion that his beloved wife is having an affair with one of his sales clerks. This leads to a dark twist in the plot.

Also working in the shop is impossibly limber Jane Krakowski (Nine) as the sexy, been-around Ilona who is having a relationship with another employee, Steven Kodaly, a dapper manipulator played by Gavin Creel. Their duet, “Ilona” is a comedic/acrobatic highlight. Michael McGrath, never a disappointment, plays hard-working Ladislav Sipos and Nicholas Barasch is likably eager as Arpad Laszlo, a delivery boy who aspires to be a sales clerk.

Tony Award winner Benanti (Gypsy) gives Amalia an effervescence and brightness that mingle strength and vulnerability. With her gorgeous vocals, she is a musical comedy treasure and she delivers her comedy lines with sharp acuity. She creates a humorous music soufflé in her frantic “Where’s My Shoe?” Singer/dancer Levi (First Date) is an appealing love interest.

Surprisingly, the songs never became hits. The most familiar is the title, “She Loves Me,” performed with endearing buoyancy by Levi  who cannot contain his happiness. The pairing of gaiety and music lightly builds into “Vanilla Ice Cream,” a Barbara Cook staple and still is a crowd-pleaser when Benanti lets loose her soaring crystalline soprano.

Wrapping the theater from both sides is a spirited orchestra with a sound that is rich with strings, directed by Paul Gemignani with orchestrations by Larry Hochman. Bock’s melodies fit the mittel-Europa rhythmic sparkle and Harnick’s lyrics neatly move the plot along and suit the characters like a perfect perfume.
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Warren Carlyle choreographed delightful dance numbers like “Good Morning, Good Day,” as each salesperson lines up to attend the customer as she leaves.

The staging is dazzling with David Rockwell’s doll-house of a shop with sparkling perfume bottles, soaps and shampoos, lighted by Donald Holder. The exterior of the shop is a picturesque narrow European city street.
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The upscale ladies and salesgirls are chic moderne in mid-calf flirty dresses and smart hats and the gents are dapper in snazzy fedoras, all kudos to Jeff Mahshie.

It’s hard not to fall in love with She Loves Me with this sprightly production that comes close to perfection.