PARFUMERIE Author, E.P. Dowdall To Attend Opening Night Gala At Kelsey Theatre

"Parfumerie" - the original Hungarian play that inspired three movies and a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical - opens an eight-performance run on Black Friday, November 24, 2023 at Mercer County Community College's Kelsey Theatre. Author E.P. Dowdall plans to attend opening night and will be available to audience members at the Opening Night Gala in the lobby immediately following the performance - a tradition at Kelsey of a meet and greet with the actors replete with refreshments that returned this season after a hiatus during the pandemic. "Parfumerie" is produced by The MTM Players - a producing partner at Kelsey Theatre.

Penned in his native Hungarian tongue, Miklós László had his work "Illatszertár" produced after he emigrated to the US in 1938. He and his wife, Florence, sat down in their Astoria, NY apartment and translated it into English with the plan to have it copyrighted. After László's death, nephew Dowdall adapted his aunt's original translated play into a more stage worthy version as many of the original jokes and situations didn't translate well.

The adaptation of the play is a warm, gentle comedy that follows the tangled tale in 1937 Budapest, Hungary of Hammerschmidt's Parfumerie employee George Horvath. Just days before Christmas, George's boss fires him after mistakenly suspecting him to be the lover of his unfaithful wife. Meanwhile, George's own love life goes awry when he discovers that the stranger he has fallen in love with through a secret correspondence is none other than Amalia Balash, a co-worker with whom he constantly feuds. For the employees of the Parfumerie, only the truth can lead to a happy resolution in this old-fashioned, romantic Christmas tale.

If this story seems familiar, the original work was produced by Ernst Lubitsch as The Shop Around the Corner starring Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, and Frank Morgan in 1940. It was subsequently produced for two more movies: In the Good Old Summertime{1949) with Judy Garland, S.z. Sakall and Van Johnson, and You've Got Mail(1998) with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The Broadway musical She Loves Me(1963) was also based on this holiday tale and has won numerous accolades - including several Tony Awards - for its original run and subsequent revivals over the decades.

Sitting down for an interview, Dowdall reminisces about how his aunt and uncle sat down to begin translating the original script, his own adaptation process, and shared some secrets along the way. He recalls that his uncle was a very close friend to S.z. Sakall (the shopkeeper character in In the Good Old Summertime) who attended opening night of She Loves Me in 1963 and sent congratulatory wishes to László. The full interview with Dowdall is available on YouTube on The MTM Players page or at their website https://www.mtmplayers.org.

Dates and show times for the eight live performances of "Parfumerie" are Fridays and Saturdays, November 24th, 25th, December 1st & 2nd, 2023 at 8:00 pm and Saturdays and Sundays, November 25th, 26th, December 2nd & 3rd, 2023 at 2:00 pm.

Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors, veterans, active military & students and may be purchased online or by calling the Kelsey Box Office at 609-570-3333. Kelsey Theatre is wheelchair accessible, with free parking next to the theater. For a complete listing of adult and children's events, visit the Kelsey website http://www.kelseytheatre.org or call the box office for a brochure.

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