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Entertainment
'She Loves Me' tells a timeless story
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published December 16, 2005
The story in the musical She Loves Me has been a favorite for a century, first in the Hungarian play Parfumerie, then in Hollywood's The Shop Around the Corner with James Stewart, In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland and, most recently, You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks.
The 1963 Broadway musical version by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (the duo who did Fiddler on the Roof and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiorello!), with book by Joe Masteroff, opens at 8 p.m. today at Richey Suncoast Theatre and continues at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
It's produced by the professional Salerno Theatre Company of Tampa and stars Michael Mathews and Nicole Allegretto in the romantic leads.
In this version, Amalia Balash (Allegretto, Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner) lands a job at a perfume store right before the Christmas shopping rush. Her boss, Georg Nowak (Mathews, Jekyll in Jekyll & Hyde; Joe in Damn Yankees) tries to get along with her, but she constantly rebuffs his profferred friendship. Instead, Amalia dreams about her romantic pen pal, whose identity she doesn't know.
Of course, the object of her written affection is Georg, who doesn't know the identity of his pen pal either.
Eventually, one of them figures it out - but can't decide exactly what to do about it, if anything.
New York critics loved Bock and Harnick's melodies: Tonight at Eight, Dear Friend, She Loves Me, Grand Knowing You and Twelve Days to Christmas.
"This music does not thrust itself forward," wrote Norman Nadel of the (now defunct) World-Telegram & Sun. "Instead, it gracefully embellishes the action, accents the speech, adds sparkle to the humor and transcends the power of words when the mood is romantic."
Frank Rich of The New York Times said the 1993 revival of She Loves Me was "a continuously melodic evening of sheer enchantment and complete escape."
The New York Daily News' John Chapman said it was "so charming, so deft, so light and so right that it makes all the other music-shows in the Big Broadway shops look like clodhoppers."
At a glance
WHAT: She Loves Me, a musical
WHERE: Richey Suncoast Theatre, 6237 Grand Blvd., New Port Richey
WHEN: 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
TICKETS: $15 adults, $8 children ages 12 and younger, $12 season ticket holders. Box office is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and Saturday and an hour before each show. Call (727) 842-6777.
[Last modified December 16, 2005, 00:54:19]
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