She Loves Me is charming, energizing, and just plain fun! This hilarious romantic comedy was first produced on broadway in 1963 and the following year on the West End. Two revivals each on both Broadway and the West End and audiences are still loving it. In this adaptation, the plot revolves around Budapest shop employees Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash who, despite being consistently at odds with each other at work, are unaware that each is the other’s secret pen pal met through a lonely-hearts ad. The musical is based on the 1937 play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklós László and has been adapted and reproduced many times. Our guests this evening may remember one of the widely popular adaptations including The Shop Around the Corner (1940) starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, In the Good Ole Summertime (1949) a musical version starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson, or even the 1998 film You’ve Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. However you might know this show, we hope that you will add this production to your favorites list.
Our students have worked very hard in producing this production for you this evening. Hundreds of volunteer hours on the students' part have gone into building the sets and designing the entire show from the ground up. For us, the most rewarding part of a production is seeing our students take ownership and make it their own. The range of students you will see performing today is astounding as well. We have students who have been in every production at Lemon Bay from before they were students here until their senior year, and also students who have never been on stage before today. On stage today is also a very reluctant student technician who had no choice but to jump, some would even say out of a tree, in front of the spotlight and perform for the first time. What every single one of them brings to the production is their heart. Without a love and passion for entertaining, theatre would not exist, and I think that we can all agree that the world needs some heartfelt and good-natured comedy right now.
As two extremely proud directors, we would like to invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy the fourth of five Main Stage productions our students will produce this school year. Welcome to, She Loves Me!
Shawn Watkins-Yates
Sarah Ballard-Richardson
