I hope everyone understands that when I review plays here, it's more for my own benefit than yours: A little "diary" to myself so that in the future, I can read back and remember what I saw and what I thought at the time. These aren't recommendations because in most cases, by the time I see it, it's probably too late for you to get tickets and see it, even if you're local and so inclined. She Loves Me, which I saw last night, is just such an example.
Which is a shame…for you. Because it's very good. This is the Reprise! revival of the 1963 musical based on the play Parfumerie by the Hungarian writer Miklos Laszlo. It's about a man and a woman who work in a perfume shop and don't get along. At the same time they're fighting, each has fallen in love with a pen-pal whose identity they don't know…and guess what happens next. It may sound silly but the story must have something going for it, as it's been adapted into three movies just in this country alone: The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You've Got Mail. The original production of She Loves Me was only the second Broadway show directed by Harold Prince, and it starred Daniel Massey, Barbara Cook and Jack Cassidy. It had a book by Joe Masteroff (who would later write Cabaret) and a score by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock (whose next show, Fiddler on the Roof, may be the most-produced theatrical work of the twentieth century). But none of them fared as well with She Loves Me, which only ran 302 performances and has rarely been revived since.
Which is a shame…for all of us. It's a fun score with terrific lyrics, and it lends itself to superb musical performances. In the Reprise! mounting, those are supplied by Scott Waara, Rebecca Luker, Larry Cedar, Kaitlin Hopkins, and several other terrific folks. Rebecca Luker is the lady I thought was so perfect as Marian the Librarian in the recent Broadway revival of The Music Man. Gordon Hunt directed, Gerry Sternbach was the musical director, and I'm not going to spend any more time raving about this, because you can't go see it. Heck, I can't even go back and see it again because it closes tomorrow. Which is a shame…for me.