Bickering co-workers, secret pen pals, a flashy playboy and a young and eager deliveryman round out the quirky cast of the 1963 musical comedy “She Loves Me.”
The Elon University Department of Performing Arts’ production of the show is wrapping up its final week of rehearsals in preparation for a weekend-long run from Feb. 9 to 12 in McCrary Theatre.
The musical revolves around Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash, played by seniors Adam Kaplan and Emilie Renier, respectively. Nowack and Balash are often-bickering colleagues at a Budapest parfumerie who unknowingly become pen pals after responding to a lonely hearts classified ad.
“Inevitably, Georg and Amalia must realize the truth about each other and their own feelings,” said director Linda Sabo. “But not before there are a few farcical mix-ups, sad misunderstandings and hard-won journeys to self-knowledge.”
“She Loves Me” is based on the same Hungarian play that inspired the film “The Shop Around the Corner,” as well as the popular 1998 film “You’ve Got Mail,” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Sabo, an associate professor of performing arts, said the decision to stage “She Loves Me” at Elon stemmed from a desire to add contrast to the program’s repertoire. The musical was penned by composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who are known for musicals like “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Apple Tree.”
Elon hasn’t performed one of the duo’s musicals for many years, and Sabo said she felt students would benefit from working on the score and learning more about the musical team.
“In particular, for me, I felt the difficulty of this score, paired with the depth of character available to actors in the roles written for this musical would pose a challenge our students could rise to and perform well,” Sabo said. “I thought we would be able to cast it well with the wealth of talent in our department.”
Sabo said she took a traditional approach to the material when interpreting Elon’s staging. The show’s dance component is its most unique aspect, as choreography and dance were not present in the original 1963 Broadway production, she said.
“The main difference in this production than probably any other is the choreography created to be danced to the Entr’acte music, which uses a central foundation of ballroom dances built around the Viennese ballroom flavor of the Entr’acte music itself: waltz, polka, rumba and quickstep,” Sabo said.
There is also a tango at the end of Act One, choreographed by junior Michael Callahan.
Matthew Webb, an instructor in performing arts, is the musical director and conductor for “She Loves Me.” Webb said the score of “She Loves Me” reflects various styles of music inspired by classical forms, as well as samba and Russian dance music with an underlying tango theme.
The score has proven fairly difficult for the vocalists and instrumentalists involved, Webb said.
“We have very talented students who have been training specifically for this production for several months,” Webb said. “It has been a challenge, but certainly our musicians have risen to the occasion and will wow the audiences each night with their musical precision, agility and drama.”
Sabo said she thinks the love story following the two main characters will directly appeal to college students and the young at heart.
“This show is very different from the past few shows that people have seen from the Elon music theater department,” said junior Sean Ronayne, an ensemble member in the production. “It is a very classic and standard musical comedy.”
Ronayne said final rehearsals are going well, but tend to be long and tedious.
“Every little detail needs to be worked out so that the show can run smoothly,” he said. “This show has several set pieces and the changes need to be carefully coordinated.”
Aside from the regular performance, the cast will perform a special show Saturday, Feb. 11, featuring the understudy cast and benefiting Little Pink Houses of Hope, an organization that provides retreats for breast cancer patients and their families.
“‘She Loves Me’ will be of the highest quality in terms of singing, acting and dancing – the performance triumvirate that we champion at Elon,” Webb said. “We always strive to provide innovative, thoughtful and dynamic performances at Elon and our production of ‘She Loves Me’ will be no different.”