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by music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Joe Masteroff, directed by Roger Hodgman

Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

May 25-December 10, 2000

“A Perfect Gem of a Musical”

"She Loves Me", the 1963 musical by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, book by Joe Masteroff, was overshadowed in that year by such blockbusters as "Hello Dolly" and "Funny Girl" and in the next year by the same trio's own "Fiddler on the Roof".  Nevertheless, over the years the reputation of this work as a connoisseur's musical has grown and the current production at the Shaw festival shows why.  There are no big choruses, no showstopping tunes or dance numbers and only the title song will be familiar to most people.  The show is written in almost anti-Broadway style since it is not big, brash or flashy in any way.  Instead, it focusses on the simple desire for love of a collection of characters working in the intimate setting of 1930s Budapest perfume shop.  The dialogue slides easily into and out of song and the songs are there to move the plot and the various subplots forward, not to stand out and call attention to themselves.  The result is the most charming, unpretentious and well-crafted musical since the days of Gershwin and Kern. 

The story is based on the classic 1940 Ernst Lubitsch film, "The Shop Around the Corner", which in turn was based on the 1936 Hungarian play "Parfumerie" by Miklos Laszlo, in which two people write pseudonymous love letters to each other not knowing that they both work in the same shop and, in person, intensely dislike each other.  (The story was recently filmed for the e-mail age as "You've Got Mail".)  While the central focus is on the bilevel relationship between Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash, the musical also follows the ups and downs in the lives of each of the five other workers in the store providing a richer and far more satisfying portrait of the lives of ordinary people than is common in musicals. 

The cast is uniformly excellent.  Ben Carlson, in his first appearance in a musical at the Shaw, acquits himself with full honours.  His role as Georg Nowack requires someone who is a fine actor as well as a good singer.  Carlson is expert at communicating the various frustrations and befuddlements of his character and at showing us his dawning feelings when he discovers who his correspondent really is.  In this he is perfectly matched by Glynis Ranney as Amalia Balash.  She rises fully to the challenges of a role that is far more difficult than the one she played in "A Foggy Day" last year.  Her Amalia is basically a shy person who has to force herself to be outgoing to get a job in the perfume shop, yet who knows she may have invested too much hope in the "Dear Friend" she has been writing to.  We feel what she feels all throughout the show. 

As Mr. Maraczek, the owner of the shop, Richard Farrell turns in another fine performance as a character whose public anger comes from private sadness.  Patty Jamieson as Ilona Ritter and Cameron MacDuffee as Steven Kodaly present the more obviously comic parallel to the Georg-Amalia relationship.  MacDuffee is very fine as the slimy, overproud, ultimately deceitful clerk Jamieson has fallen for.  And Jamieson is delightful as the girl who realizes she's got to train herself not to fall for such jerks.  She brings off each of her comic songs with panache.  Jay Turvey is well cast as Ladislav Sipos, the employee whose overriding philosophy is "Don't rock the boat".  In contrast, Mark McGrinder is the delivery boy who wants to move up in world.  The most traditionally Broadwayish number, "Try Me", given to him and celebrating ambition, tends to jar because it is so unlike the generally understated mood of the rest of the piece.  Patrick R. Brown makes a memorable impression in the small role of the Maitre d' who valiantly tries to maintain some dignity as his discreet little restaurant descends into chaos.     

The production is overseen by the Australian director, Roger Hodgman (once Artistic Director of the Vancouver Playhouse), who clearly has an unerring sense of pace and timing.  But getting the mood of this delicate piece just right is his greatest achievement.  He keeps the sentimentality of the show from ever cloying.  He keeps the comedy urbane.  He keeps the focus on the ever-changing nuances of the central George-Amalia relationship and its repercussions on the other workers.  He allows a pleasant nostalgia to suffuse the show about a time just before World War II when relations between co-workers could still be people's main preoccupation. 

This pervasive mood is admirably enhanced by the lighting of Michael Whitfield in his first show for the Shaw Festival.  If anyone needed proof of his mastery, just look in Act 1 at the way, through light alone, that summer subtly turns to fall and then into winter.  For anyone who has been there, Patrick Clark's sets and scene painting will immediately call Budapest to mind with its baroque architecture overlaid with art nouveau.  The highly detailed interior of the perfume store is delightful.  He has given all the salespeople and the clients smartly tailored costumes, appropriately allowing himself a freer rein in the satiric restaurant scene.      

The primary showcase for choreographer William Orlowski are the intricate and absolutely hilarious dance sequences he has devised for the restaurant scene in Act 1.  I haven't seen choreography this witty since Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake".  The score has been tastefully adapted by Paul Sportelli for only nine musicians while still retaining its essential Central European flavour.

Unlike the folk-influenced songs of "Fiddler' with their multiple repetitions, the  songs in the urbane "She Loves Me" don't stick immediately in the mind because they are much more complex in rhythm and lyrics.  Fortunately, this does not diminish the show's impact.  Rather than a typical musical, this is more like a finely detailed play in which people happen to break into song and where the focus is on subtle changes in emotion.  The jewel-box Royal George Theatre is the ideal setting.  The show, with its scenes of Christmas shopping, has been held over from its original closing date of October 29 to December 10 and would make a perfect holiday treat. 

©Christopher Hoile

Photo: Glynis Ranney. ©2007 David Cooper.