She Loves Me follows Georg and Amalia, two parfumerie clerks who aren't quite the best of friends. Constantly bumping heads while on the job, the sparring coworkers can't seem to find common ground. But little do they know, the anonymous romantic pen pals they have both been falling for happen to be each other! Will love continue to blossom once their identities are finally revealed?
In celebration of Roundabout Theatre Company's 50th anniversary, She Loves Me returns to Broadway for the first time since it triumphantly launched Roundabout's musical theatre initiative over 20 years ago. This heartwarming musical comedy features a book by Tony Award winner Joe Masteroff (Cabaret), music by Tony Award winner Jerry Bock (Fiddler on the Roof) and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner Sheldon Harnick (Fiorello!). Six-time Tony Award nominee Scott Ellis (Roundabout's Harvey, The Mystery of Edwin Drood) directs.
Sometimes vanilla ice cream can taste like sweet deliverance. Such is the discovery made by one Amalia Balash in the 1963 musical 'She Loves Me' -- which has been rapturously revived in a new production by the Roundabout Theater Company -- when she receives a gift of this frozen confection from an unlikely suitor. As Amalia trills her delight in a song that flies toward heaven on ascending high notes, audiences for Scott Ellis's production...are likely to know exactly how she feels. That's partly because 'Vanilla Ice Cream'...is performed by Laura Benanti, an actress whose joyful soprano is a conduit for instant empathy...when embodied by a cast as expertly attuned as this one, which also includes a winning Zachary Levi and a scrumptious Jane Krakowski, it has a lingering and deeply satisfying sweetness usually lacking in brassier shows...The cheerful seamlessness of 'She Loves Me' defies deconstruction.
A musical doesn't have to be perfect to delight. Cutting-edge is overrated, too: Just give us well-crafted material and a starry cast that knows exactly what it's doing...Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi shine brightly as a classic rom-com couple. They bicker amusingly throughout the show, before realizing -- zero spoiler alert! -- that they're in love. The pair have such a natural rapport that it's impossible not to root for their characters...But then the entire cast of this spry production is flawless, with special kudos to comic MVPs Jane Krakowski (as a sultry minx) and Gavin Creel (as her mustachioed Lothario).
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