PRESS RELEASE: Romantic Comedy She Loves Me Opens February 2, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2024
Contact: Kira Catanzaro, Marcom Manager
(707) 523-4185
kira@6thstreetplayhouse.com
Romantic Comedy She Loves Me Will Open February 2 at 6th Street.
What Happens when Anonymous Pen Pals Discover their True Identities?
SANTA ROSA, CA (January 10, 2024) – Just in time for Valentine’s Day, 6th Street Playhouse presents a jewel box of a musical. She Loves Me is an enchanting romantic comedy, considered by connoisseurs to be one of the best constructed musicals ever written, featuring music by Pulitzer Prize-Winning songwriting team Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof) and book by Joe Masteroff (Cabaret). Executive Director of 6th Street Playhouse, Emily Lynn Cornelius, is making her Playhouse directorial debut with Lucas Sherman returning as Music Director and Joseph Favalora as Choreographer. Lorenzo Alviso and Molly Larsen-Shine play lonely hearts pen pals, Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash. Set in a perfume shop in 1930’s Europe, the quarrelsome clerks have no idea they are in love with each other. She Loves Me and the film “You’ve Got Mail” were based on Miklós László’s playParfumerie. She Loves Me opens in the GK Hardt Theater on Friday, February 2, 2024.
“The creators of ’She Loves Me’ have fashioned the perfect intimate musical. (Perfect? Yes, damn it, perfect.)”
– New York Magazine
She Loves Me opens on a sunny summer day, with Maraczeks’s employees dreaming of taking the day off from work for a picnic. This scene sets the tone for the whimsical, yet elegant, funny and romantic story set in a Hungarian parfumerie. Populated with wonderfully human characters with relatable personality traits like shyness, vanity, ambition and neediness, the musical is about relationships.
The primary love story focuses on a shy and romantic sales clerk, Georg Nowack, who is enjoying a relationship with his secret pen pal. Georg is played by Lorenzo Alviso (Something Rotten! and The River Bride). His life changes when Amalia Balash, played by Molly Larsen-Shine (Threepenny Opera and A Year With Frog and Toad) comes into Maraczek’s Parfumerie looking for a job. They dislike each other from the start. Amalia is a bright, beautiful and skilled (if somewhat nervous) saleswoman. She also has a “lonely hearts” pen pal to whom she writes for solace and inspiration after her contentious days at work with Georg.
In the subplot, sexy and romantically wise, Ilona Ritter, played by Julianne Bretan (Something Rotten!) befriends Amalia. She is having an affair with a dashing co-worker, but she longs for something deeper. Drew Bolander (6th Street Debut) plays her womanizing lover, Steven Kodaly.
The third story belongs to Mr. Maraczek, played by Garet Waterhouse (Something Rotten!). The older gentleman’s heart breaks when his marriage unravels, but he finds new meaning for life and love with his friends.
“It is happy from the first line. It is the most joyful of musicals,” said Emily Lynn Cornelius of her reason for wanting to direct She Loves Me. “All the characters are delightful and whimsical, as is the plot.”
The Cast of She Loves Me is as follows:
Arpad Laszlo – Tyler Ono
Ladislav Sipos – Sean O’Brien
Ilona Ritter – Julianne Bretan
Steven Kodaly – Drew Bolander
Georg Nowack – Lorenzo Alviso
Mr. Maraczek – Garet Waterhouse
Amalia Balash – Molly Larsen-Shine
Ensemble/Ilona Understudy – Nicole Stanley
Ensemble/ Amalia Understudy – Kaela Mariano
Ensemble – Christine Naber
Ensemble – Kimberly Kalember
Ensemble/Busboy – Andrew Cedeno
Ensemble/Waiter – Robert Nelson
Kira and Luca Catanzaro, the mother and son team who designed the costumes and sets, respectively, for last season’s hit musical Cabaret, are back for another opportunity to create theatre magic together.
She Loves Me opened on Broadway in 1963. The producer, Lawrence Kasha, initiated the idea for the musical and brought the Pulitzer Prize-winning songwriting team of Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock together with playwright Joe Masteroff. She Loves Me was nominated for five Tony Awards and was the winner of one. Since then, there have been two critically acclaimed Broadway revivals, in 1994 and in 2016.
The Musical, She Loves Me, is the third adaptation of the play, Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright, Miklós László. The first adaptation was the 1940 James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan film, “The Shop Around the Corner,” followed by the 1949 Judy Garland and Van Johnson musical film, “In the Good Old Summertime.” The play was later adapted to film once more as the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks feature, “You’ve Got Mail.”
She Loves Me Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. The production is licensed by Music Theatre International. http://www.mtishows.com.
Dates/Times:
February 2 – 25, 2024
Runs: Thursdays—Sundays (see website for details)
Run Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes plus a 15-minute intermission.
Tickets cost $29 – $51 and are available online at 6thStreetPlayhouse.com or by calling the Box Office at (707) 523-4185.