A lot to love

With a full and happy heart, may I tell the good word: This theater season has a play with which everyone can fall in love.

She Loves Me (aptly named) is a theatrical jewel, an intimate musical that affectionately enfolds an audience instead of shouting it down. It is charming and wholeheartedly romantic.

The Walnut Street Theatre production is just gorgeous — handsomely designed by Charles Kading and beautifully dressed in costumes by Colleen McMillan. Leading Broadway musical man James Brennan usually can be seen at center stage but, in this show, he leaves his dynamic imprint everywhere, directing and choreographing the quickly paced production.

Having a frank fairy-tale quality, She Loves Me employs without embarrassment the premise of a boy and girl working in a shop who think they hate each other, although they actually have fallen in love through anonymous letters they have been exchanging. The situation may be obvious, but it is handled with disarming humor.

The Walnut Street version not only radiates charm; it also proves what a first-rate singing cast can do to enhance an infectious score. Sheldon Bock and Jerry Harnick pay due respect to all the obligatory moods, nuances and rhythms of this sentimentally lighthearted romance, from the violin cadenza in the overture to the music-box tinkling of No More Candy. The score does right by the cast, singly and collectively, and the flawless Walnut Street cast returns the compliment.

She Loves Me is based on the play Parfumerie, by Miklos Laszlo, which probably is more familiar to Americans as the classic film The Shop Around The Corner, starring Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart.

Playwright Joe Masteroff has returned the story to a perfume shop in a European city about 60 years ago. Here, two of the clerks bicker, not realizing that each is the other’s unseen correspondent. So the contest is one of shield against shield until the defenses are gradually and guardedly lifted to reveal the vulnerable affections. The secret is revealed to everyone else, including the audience, but only at the end do the two lovers finally know.

The humors of She Loves Me are gentle rather than robust. The characters are the familiar figures of happily bittersweet fairy tales, yet they have individuality and charm. The secret success of this show is that everyone concerned with She Loves Me has played fair with the basic ingredients.

The show has attractive melodies, but it is heavily laden with the sort of number that goes out of its way to peddle plot information. The result sometimes seems like a blackboard diagram, with odd clauses shooting off everywhere. Considering the limitations imposed by traditional book musicals, She Loves Me has an unusually large number of songs — 24 compared to the usual 12 or 15.

The expression "sings her heart out" certainly applies to Brigid Brady, who plays the female lead Amalia. She has both the heart and voice to do it. Her clear soprano conveys all the vitality, brightness and strength of her feminine young personality.

Jeffrey Coon as Georg is the perfect leading man, with his attractively informal and assured stage presence. He charms the audience with his acting and singing skills.

David Hess is an insidiously handsome Steven Kodaly and he exits with a rousing resignation song, Grand Knowing You. Larry Raiken is trusted with one of the show’s best ballads, Days Gone By — and he does it in grand style.

Chip Klose, the perfect specimen of the prudent clerk, and John-Charles Kelly as the headwaiter also add sparkle to this production. Linda Romoff as Ilona Ritter is a ravishing spitfire who gives the subplot a sizzling turn.

She Loves Me is a diverting frolic for escapists. I found no soapboxing, no messages, just a welcome relief. It’s an appealing salute to nostalgia.


She Loves Me
Walnut Street Theatre
825 Walnut St.
Tuesday through Sunday through Oct. 20
Tickets: $10-$55
215-574-3550