The Musical Around the Corner

She Loves Me
South Bay Musical Theatre
January 25, 2020



Benjamin Hatch as Georg, Marie Finch as Amalia. Photo by Steve Stubbs.

SBMT continues a run of remarkable productions with a fine-tuned rendition of this 1963 charmer, based on Miklos Laszlo's 1937 play Parfumerie. The work was later turned into three films: The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart, The Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland, and You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
I first discovered this 1963 version (music by Jerry Bock, book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick) on late-night TV and I couldn't stop watching. The show's construction is a thing of beauty, fostering a kind of clockwork theatricality. Certainly, that's evident in SBMT's production. An early scene, "Sounds While Selling," sets up three pairs of beauty product sales clerks and customers and collages their conversations into absurd sentences, "I think what you really need... is to clip off... your earlobes." (Not an exact quote.) I can't imagine how hard one would have to work to get that scene to come off right.

The show also cuts a perfect line between drama and music, an aspect that director Martin Rojas Dietrich promised to dig deeply into. He absolutely succeeds. There are no "Now we're gonna sing!" speedbumps; the songs proceed cleanly from the actions, exploring characters' innermost thoughts or advancing the plot. In "Perspective," Stephen Sammands propounds the philosophy of schlub salesman Sipos (self-abasement as a survival technique). His delivery is so thoroughly thought-out that even a couple of forgotten lines didn't harm it.

The show represents a sort of golden age in Broadway music, which retained its roots in jazz and Tin Pan Alley but was venturing into new worlds of '60s inventiveness, including artful off-rhythms and modern tonalities. An excellent example is the title tune delivered by main man Georg (Benjamin Hatch) as he worries over the prospect of actual romantic success. ("I'm tingling, what the hell does that mean?") The tune's snaky jaunt reminds me of "I Believe in You" from 1961's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

The vocals are solid throughout, but the bonus round comes with Jessica Whittemore as hotsie sales clerk Ilona and Marie Finch as our heroine, letter-writing clerk Amalia. Whittemore's voice exhibits a pure, unforced power; Finch's is a clean soprano capable of overdriving into operatic (as she claims that a music box she's selling came directly from God). Their duet, "I Don't Know His Name" a rapid-fire comparison of their boyfriends, is pure audio dessert.

Carlos A. Nunez Carillo plays clerk Kodaly with a good balance of sexiness and schmuckiness, making Ilona's position as misused girlfriend that much more torturous. Hatch and Finch play the leads (bitter rivals unaware that they're exchanging anonymous love letters) as figures whose attractiveness must be discovered. Michael Johnson gives the boss, Mr. Maraczek, a grouchiness that seems out-of-character, deepening his mystery. And Parker Hough plays Arpad, the delivery boy, with ceaseless gee-whiz energy.

The café scene, "A Romantic Atmosphere," is outrageous fun, centering on busboy Ethan Glasman's dangerous clutziness and the divine bitchiness of his boss, maître d' Don Nguyen. Glasman's athletic capers (e.g., leaping over a standing customer) are straight from the Donald O'Connor school, and an unusual star turn for a cameo role. Another terpsichorean treat is Ilona and Kodaly's hot tango, "Ilona." Ilona's bronze dress (designer Y. Sharan Peng) features elegant diamond-shaped patterns. At the other end of the spectrum, we have Maraczek's blue plaid suit, so cheesy it's gorgeous.

Perhaps the lasting appeal of She Loves Me is its ability to convey so many different variations on romance: the imaginative courtship of the lead letter-writers, the primal forces of Ilona and Kodaly, the heartbreak of Mr. Maraczek. A play, three films and a musical don't lie - it's a remarkable story.

Through Feb. 15, Saratoga Civic Theater, 13777 Fruitvale Ave., Saratoga. 408/266-4734 SouthBayMT.com or watch their preview video.

Michael J. Vaughn is the author of 22 novels, including the opera novel Gabriella's Voice, which will be available for free download at Amazon Feb. 3-7. "Michael J. Vaughn has composed a literary opera that combines love, tragedy and music into a memorable tale of talent and artistry." -- BookPage