You’ll adore ‘She Loves Me’ at Gulfshore Playhouse

ARTS COMMENTARY by Nancy Stetson, Florida Weekly

There’s nothing like receiving a hand-written letter from a friend.

Emails and texts and DMs are all preferred, instant ways to correspond now, but there’s something special about holding a piece of paper with a handwritten note, knowing that person took the time to sit down and write to you.

“She Loves Me,” playing at the Gulfshore Playhouse through April 21, is set in 1930s Budapest in Maraczek’s perfume shop. And in that shop are two clerks cor- responding with each other via letters addressed “Dear Friend.”

Amelia (Lee Harrington) and Georg (Ben Fankhauser) fall in love through their letters, neither one of them knowing the true identity of the other.

In real life, they’re full of animosity toward each other — partially because they’re denying their attraction, and partially because Amelia unintentionally showed him up in front of their boss when she applied for a job.

The shop, like any other workspace, is filled with differing personalities. There’s Arpad (Jack Mastrianni), the young delivery boy who aspires to be a clerk; Sipos (David Baida), the hard-working, long-faithful, yes-man who just wants to keep his job; Kodaly (Daniel A. Lopez), the narcissist who’s a cad; and Ilona (Kate Marilley), a young woman who keeps attracting the wrong kind of guy.

Maraczek (David Studwell) owns the parfumerie, and is overbearing at times with his employees. Secretly, he fears he’s being cuckolded by his wife, and rues the passing of his youth. In his solo, “Days Gone By,” he wistfully sings of how he’d dance all night “til dawn lit up the sky/ no one’s younger than I.”

It is an elegant, sophisticated shop (designed in Art Nouveau style by set designer David R. Arsenault.) Somehow Arsenault makes the tiny stage seem spacious, and even with a dozen characters (more than Gulfshore Playhouse has ever had in a single production) it doesn’t look crowded.

The musical was originally a 1937 play by Miklos Laszlo and adapted into the film “The Shop Around the Corner” in 1940. It was also adapted into another film, a musical starring Judy Garland, in 1949: “In the Good Old Summertime.”

The material was turned into a musical in 1963, with book by Joe Masteroff (who went on to write the book for “Cabaret”) and music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. (The duo also wrote the music and lyrics for “Fiddler on the Roof,” among others.) “She Loves Me” was the first Broadway musical directed by Harold Prince.

(The story was also updated and adapted for film in 1998 by Nora Ephron: “You’ve Got Mail,” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.)

This musical’s the last show Gulfshore Playhouse is putting on in the Norris Community Center before moving to its new site, and it’s a love letter, a thank-you note, to its patrons. And what a thank you it is.

Under Kristen Coury’s confident direction, every scene, every number in this musical sparkles.

Nancy Stetson, Florida Weekly

You cheer for the two seemingly mismatched lovers who are actually perfect for each other. Harrington and Fankhauser’s characters don’t realize that love is right in front of them. Amalia is winsome, Georg an everyman who finally understands how to woo a woman.

You laugh as the one-shoed Amalia hobbles around the room in “Where’s My Shoe?” and feel for her when her secret pen pal doesn’t show at the appointed time.

Your heart swells as Georg literally dances with joy in the title song, “She Loves Me.” It’s a declaration of love as grand as Gene Kelly swinging around a lamppost in the rain.

Marilley, who always picks the cad, eschews stereotypes and makes her Ilona a nuanced woman. She has two stand-out numbers, “I Resolve” and “A Trip to the Library,” where, much to her surprise, she unexpectedly meets a decent guy.

Baida is sheer comedic gold, yet doesn’t overdo it and veer into slapstick. He provides much of the show’s laughs in a scene when Illona tells him of her new romance, and when Georg talks him into accompanying him to a romantic café to see if his mysterious letter-writer is still there.

Adriana Milbrath, Olivia Gjurich, Hana Culbreath, Kevin Patrick Martin, and Ben Sears portray the shop’s various customers, as well as sundry other roles. Gjurich is outstanding as the sultry hostess of a romantic café, while Sears portrays a clumsy waiter who’s always dropping his tray.

The dancing, choreographed by Dann Dunn, runs throughout the show like the theme of romance does. Particularly enjoyable is the ensemble’s dance at the café and “Twelve Days to Christmas,” in which the music speeds up and the customers’ choreography grows more frantic as they get closer to Christmas, day by day. Music Director Andrew Smithson leads a four-piece orchestra that never overwhelms the singing — and the singing, quite simply, is exquisite.

This is an old-fashioned musical in the best sense of the word — charming, endearing, romantic. This show is longer than most modern ones; first act runs for an hour and a half, but the company of these characters is so enjoyable, the time flies by.

“She Loves Me” is exactly the kind of musical we need right now — heart-warming, uplifting, but not insubstantial fluff. There’s a reason this show has been adapted and the musical revived numerous times. And Gulfshore Play- house’s production demonstrates just how sweet and potent “She Loves Me” is.

The scenes and songs linger long after the final bows — like an unforgettable perfume. ■

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In the KNOW
‘She Loves Me’
When: through April 21
Where: Gulfshore Playhouse at the Norris Community Center, 701 8th Ave. South, Naples
Cost: $40, $64, $71, $80
Information: 239-261-7529 or www.gulfshoreplayhouse.org