UMD’s Delightful Holiday Musical Rom-Com Prods Audiences to Fall in Love All Over Again
Sheryl Jensen
The Duluth News Tribune
December1, 2016
She Loves Me is one of the most under appreciated musicals in the American theater canon. The UMD theater department production gives audiences the gift of this effervescent little gem of a show.
The classic rom-com plot device of two unassuming people who fall in love through love letter correspondence, while hating each other in person, was central to the original 1937 play by Hungarian writer Miklos Laszlo. The story was also used in the films “The Shop Around the Corner” and “You’ve Got Mail.”
In 1963, in the hands of Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), who would next write Fiddler on the Roof together, the familiar story takes on a rosy glow, awash in an evening of delightful songs.
As Amalia Balash, the distaff side of the anonymous correspondents, Rebekah Meyer has one of those crystal clear, glorious soprano voices, perfect for musical theater heroines. Her takes particularly on “Dear Friend,” “Vanilla Ice Cream” and “Will He Like Me?” are the show’s heart and soul.
Playing Georg Nowack, the other “Dear Friend,” Ole Dack utterly charms from his first entrance. His firecracker performance of the title song “She Loves Me” was the highlight of Act II.
Every supporting player brings magic to the stage. The ever-adorable Brian Saice shines as Arpad, the delivery boy who aspires to greater things. Simon Van Vactor-Lee gives a charming performance as an unassuming, wise and intuitive store clerk, who ultimately saves the day.
In a small gender-bending role as a head waiter, Erica VonBank, channeling a cross between Cruella De Vil and Morticia Addams, has a wonderfully comedic turn in “A Romantic Atmosphere.”
Baby-faced Luke Hanger (Kodaly) may not look the part of a Lothario and home-wrecker, but he finds his inner cad and slays both of his tunes, the sexy “Ilona” and his hilarious exit song, “Grand Knowing You.” Playing opposite him, Emily Sue Bengston has great fun as well with the ditzy, jilted woman role.
While student designer Jenna Mady’s set is serviceable, it lacks some of the glitz of an upscale European parfumerie. Patricia Dennis, however, brings her experienced hand to beautiful period costumes, helping to recreate the magic of another time and place.
Under the crisp direction of musical director/conductor Patrick Colvin, the nine-piece orchestra brings wonderful European nuances to the sumptuous score. Rebecca Katz Harwood’s choreography, especially in the cafe number, is clever and witty.
Guest director Michael Brindisi, Chanhassen Dinner Theatre’s longtime resident artistic director and one of the co-owners, has been instrumental in building an alliance between UMD’s theater program and the Chanhassen.
With this whimsical production, he was able to work with some potential future actors for his Chanhassen stage and to share his considerable talents and insights as a seasoned director with the students on their home stage.
As Brindisi puts it in his playbill director’s note, in seeing She Loves Me he hopes that “you fall in love, or fall in love all over again.” For holiday audiences, what a lovely theatrical present to unwrap.
