Broadway Review: She Loves Me

For a few months before leaving my last job, I was on an adjusted schedule. I worked half-days on Wednesdays and Fridays. Long story short, I was feeling overwhelmed, and and thought it would help to have a little time to myself during the week to work it all out.

When I found out that my new schedule had been approved, I made all kinds of plans. One of those included using online lotteries to see some Wednesday matinees. Mainly, I ended up going home and taking a lot of naps…

But once I found out I would be changing jobs and the Wednesday half-day would be a thing of the past? I decided I better squeeze in at least one matinee while I could.

Roundabout Theatre Company has a great program called Hiptix. With the program, theatre-goers 18–35 (yes, getting this in under the wire too) can purchase $25 tickets to all Roundabout shows. Since I knew that She Loves Me was a fun musical with an amazing cast, I decided it would be a great choice.

The day before I was scheduled to go, I got an email, phone call, AND text letting me know that Jane Krakowski would not be appearing in the performance for which I had tickets. I had heard that she was very good in the role, so it was a little disappointing. But I’ve always thought understudies were great. Who else is going to give more to a performance?!

As I walked into Studio 54 and up to my seat, I had at least three ushers let me know about Ms. Krakowski’s absence. I guess a lot of people would have been upset not to know? But, as predicted, Alison Cimmet did a great job! I can see how Jane Krakowski would have been great in the part, but I wasn’t let down in the least.

The original Broadway production of She Loves Me was in 1963, and it’s had a few iterations since. According to Roundabout:

She Loves Me follows Amalia and Georg, 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 pen pals they have both been falling for happen to be each other! Will love continue to blossom once their identities are finally revealed?

…also known as a precursor to “You’ve Got Mail.”

There were a couple of unexpectedly dark scenes (attempted suicide, anyone?), but overall it was some delicious cotton candy.

Laura Benanti is gorgeous, and my love of Zachary Levi grows with everything I see him in. (First Date on Broadway was short-lived, but adorable!) I haven’t waited a stage door since Rent back in 2004 (except on First Date for a friend of mine harboring a serious crush and The Visit to give Roger Rees a good squeeze), but I hear this cast is exceptionally gracious if you’re into that sort of thing.

All in all, I think I made a good choice with this little charmer. Catch it if you can!