Review: SHE LOVES ME, a Sublime Production of a Perfect Musical Comedy

The New York drama critics were exceedingly cruel to Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) and Joe Masteroff (book) when She Loves Me first graced the Broadway stage in 1963, calling their creation "charming", "romantic" and "a bon-bon of a musical" with "a candy box of a score."

Raves, yes, but not the kind of raves that are known to inspire long lines at the box office. It shut down just shy of a nine month run.

In the half-century since, another adjective has been frequently used to describe this enchanting escapade: perfection. Sandwiched between Bock and Harnick's Pulitzer-winner, FIORELLO!, and their fully-recognized classic, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, She Loves Me is a sweeping example of the team's knack for embracing the lives of simple, working-class folks and realistically presenting them as high art in a sublime concoction of sweetly funny words and sumptuous melody. It's romantic without being sappy. Its humor is soft, but effective. The story has some darker aspects, but they're presented discreetly and thoughtfully.

Director Scott Ellis mounted a fine Broadway revival for Roundabout in 1993, but his new production for the company far exceeds it in emotional depth, staging and design.

Based on Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo's PARFUMERIE, the story is set in 1930's Budapest where the romantically awkward Georg (Zachary Levi) spends his days charming ladies into buying soaps and creams at Mr. Maraczek's (Byron Jennings) shop while daydreaming over letters from a certain "Dear Friend" with whom he's been corresponding since the day she answered his personal ad. When the headstrong Amalia (Laura Benanti) visits the shop determined to see Mr. Maraczek for the purpose of asking for a job, she ignores Georg's insistence that his boss is not hiring. By a stroke of luck at Georg's expense, Amalia gets hired anyway and the animosity between the two of them grows with every work day. Of course, neither of them is aware that in their secret lives Amalia is Georg's "Dear Friend."

SHE LOVES ME was written differently than most Broadway musicals. Masteroff had never written the book for a show before, so Bock and Harnick advised him to just write a non-musical two act play. When it was done, the two of them dove into his script and musicalized everything possible, often using his dialogue as the structure for Harnick's lyrics. The result is a seamlessly integrated score fitting perfectly into an intelligent, literate book with interesting characters you can care about and an ending that will tug at your heart until you give it away willingly.

Although the score contains no hit tunes there's a wealth of material so vivid and juicy that musical actors are continually using its songs for auditions. Picking a favorite from the frenetically funny "Tonight at Eight", the heartbreaking "Dear Friend", the abundantly clever "A Trip to the Library", the rousing "Grand Knowing You", the glorious "Vanilla Ice Cream", the jazzy title song and seven or eight other selections is an impossible task.

The sterling cast is made up of actors who not only sing the score well, but are up to the task of bringing out the thrilling textures in Harnick's words. Benanti and Levi are perfectly matched as a pair of everypersons who have each fallen deeply in love with their anonymous pen-pal and are terribly fearful of not living up to the unknown person's standards when they agree to meet on a blind date.

Jane Krakowski is wonderfully touching, in her comical performance as their co-worker Ilona, who habitually falls for dashing men who disappoint her and resolves to find one more worthy of her time. Her latest waste of time has been shop clerk Kodaly, played by the devilishly handsome Gavin Creel with a physical manner that floats about the stage with elegance.

A more grounded elegance is provided by the classically handsome Byron Jennings as shop owner Maraczek, who tries covering up the heartbreak of his troubled marriage with nostalgic memories of the social whirl of his former bachelor life. Also quite grounded, in a dour comic manner, is Michael McGrath as shop clerk Sipos, who survives through life by hiding his own mediocrity. Nicholas Barasch's fun and energetic Arpad, is the young bicycle delivery boy full of ambition and as of yet unhampered by life's disappointments.

The first act's final scene features several entrances and a solo number by one of Broadway's uniquely comical character men, Peter Bartlett, as a frustrated headwaiter trying to preserve the romantic atmosphere of his sordid café. His angstful line deliveries bring down the house with laughter.

There are minor cuts to the score, most noticeably the elimination of Georg's "Tango Tragique," which is commonly deleted. Don Walker's sumptuous original orchestrations are replaced by Larry Hachman's fine work for music director Paul Gemignani's thirteen musicians.

The production looks gorgeous, with David Rockwell's candy box set design taking us from the streets of Budapest to an entrancing look inside Maraczek's parfumerie. Jeff Mahshie's smart costumes and Donald Holder's lights complete the attractive picture.

SHE LOVES ME is often forgotten when considering the greatest of Broadway musicals, perhaps because its artistic style is intentionally modest. It's a musical that pulls you in, rather than reaching out to you. But Roundabout's joyous and moving production provides an excellent argument for its place among the genre's finest achievements.