On Friday night, we went to a performance of "She Loves Me" at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities.
The 1963 show is based on a 1937 play called Parfumerie by Miklos Lazlo. It's been turned into movies such as The Shop Around the Corner (1940, with Jimmy Stewart), In the Good Old Summertime (1949 with Judy Garland), and You've Got Mail (1998 with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan). The basic idea is a pair of employees at a shop who can't stand each other in person, but are madly in love with each other as anonymous pen pals.
The show, with book by Joe Masteroff, and here directed by Gavin Mayer, was quite enjoyable, with a strong cast and an excellent array of music by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (better known for Fiddler on the Roof). Indeed, the play is chock-full of music, not just as interludes but near-operatic in its use of musical numbers to advance the story rather than dialog.
If I have a criticism for the show it's that, having set up a variety of conflicts in the first act, they all get settled, scene by scene (and song by song) in the shorter second act, including the primary conflict between the characters. It's fun to watch, but hardly a dramatic challenge .
The cast was all solid, both the leads and the versatile support players. The music also performed well, critical for a show like this.
It was our first time at the venue, which was a pretty nice theater and arts center. We'll definitely be back.
