She Loves Me Paper
Taking place in a charmingly delightful Parfumeria in Budapest during the 1930s, this gem of a musical is based on the film, The Shop Around the Corner, starring Jimmy Stewart and Maureen Sullivan. The delightful premise playwright Miklos Laszlo puts to words in this work never fails to appeal to the romantic in all of us: while the lonely shop clerk Georg Carries on a very public feud with Miss Amalia Balash, a newly hired shop girl who grates heavily on his nerves, he is unwittingly falling in love with her by corresponding through a lonely hearts club. As a counterpoint to this engaging couple, the shop girl, Miss Ritter, is trying to extricate herself from an unhappy love affair with the man about town and cad of all cads, assistant shop manager, Mr. Kolady. Talk about a contrast in love affairs. It is no wonder that the New York Times called She Loves Me "the happiest musical with a score that is a sheer delight for the theatergoers." Theatre in a "box" setting, I find is usually best for one-person shows or melodramas. And in this case, I will not disagree. Putting on a musical in a box theatre was one of the worst moves
But if the worst part about a play is the place in which it is produced, it can't be all that bad, right. The most outstanding part was when the time came for Act I, Scene 4 that is set in the "Cafe Impiriale". At times it did lag a bit, but as soon as I would feel my attention start to wane, something or someone would come buzzing up and capture my attention all over again. Through their acting I was able to get into the story line, so much so that I almost yelled out at Georg (Ray Joseph) "just kiss her!" when he was too wishy-washy with Amalia (Keite David). Both of these individuals have great voices and they definitely used them with ease, despite the rather small theatre. The stage was amazingly well put together in such confines; which is important, not only to make the play believable, but also because the play takes place in more than one location. In order to really get one's voice across to an audience, projection is usually in order. Every time he walked by me as he walked off stage I wanted to jeer and tell him what a jerk he was. ?Right! The acting in this production of She Loves Me was top notch! When people go to a "school" production they do not expect professional theatre, yet that is what they got at this performance. Not only were they so fun to watch, but they were a joy to listen to. I felt like they had to (obviously) adjust for being in such a small space, with a band to boot. This completely took me by surprise, as did it other audience members and made for a brilliant change of scenery. The theatre provided did not allow for much of that at all.
Common topics in this essay:
Foothill Musicals,
Georg Amalia,
Cafe Impiriale,
York Times,
Amalia Balash,
Miss Ritter,
Miklos Laszlo,
Parfumeria Budapest,
Leonard Kodaly,
Kolady Talk,
shop girl,
miss ritter,
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Acceptance Essays
