Feuding co-workers who’ve no idea they’re secretly in love with each other make for romantic musical comedy magic in the 1963 Broadway classic She Loves Me, Morgan-Wixson Theatre’s delightful 2018-2019 season opener.

 Joe Masteroff’s Tony-nominated book introduces audiences to Georg Novak (Aric Martin), longtime Budapest parfumerie employee circa 1934, and his newly hired shopmate Amalia Balash (Emily Rose Lezin), whose instant dislike for each other is the first clue that romantic sparks will eventually flare.

Georg and Amalia have, it turns out, been corresponding anonymously with each other thanks to the 1930s equivalent of match.com and falling more and more infatuated as each new “Dear Friend” letter arrives. (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan did the same in 1940’s The Shop Around The Corner, based on Miklós László’s 1937 play Parfumerie, and so did Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in 1998 in You’ve Got Mail, if you haven’t already made the connection.)

 Adding to the She Loves Me magic are shop owner Mr. Maraczek (Michael Heimos), convinced that Georg is carrying on a secret affair with Mrs. Marackez; lothario Steven Kodaly (Jordan Segal), who’s been canoodling with his ditzy blonde co-worker Ilona Ritter (Kirsten Daniels); Ladislav Sipos (Terry Delegeane), who’s discovered that the best way to keep his job year after year is to never make waves; and Arpad Laszlo (Logan Rice), teenage delivery boy with dreams of someday joining Georg and Amalia on the sales floor.

 Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick gems include “Good Morning, Good Day,” which introduces the audience to the aforementioned cast of characters; “No More Candy,” out of work salesgirl Amalia’s attempt to snag a job at Maraczek’s by persuading customers that a musical cigarette box is in actuality a musical candy box which will help them keep the pounds off; “Tonight At Eight” and “Will He Like Me” which Georg and Amalia (respectively) sing in anticipation of their first face-to-face date with their “Dear Friend,” “A Romantic Atmosphere,” warbled by the harried head waiter of the intimate restaurant where Georg and Amalia plan to meet, and “Dear Friend,” sung by Amalia when no happy ending seems in sight.

Few in the audience will harbor any such doubts, since with a story as unabashedly romantic as this one, a happy ending is a given, and despite the certainty of its outcome, getting there is tuneful, occasionally tearful fun.

 Director Branda Lock and choreographer Michael Marchak join forces at the Morgan-Wixson, adding imaginative touches every step of the way.

Both “Overture” and “Entr’acte” are accompanied by scene-and-character-setting ballets, and even curtain calls do their own bit of story-telling between bows.

 Lock sprinkles in bits of physical comedy throughout, and though not all work (there’s a bit too much couples schtick in the “romantic atmosphere” scene and another brief sequence veers too far into slapstick), it’s clear this isn’t going to be any sort of by-the-numbers staging. (Introducing a smidgen of same-sex attraction in the restaurant scene and a suggestion that one of the characters may be a Nazi in clerk’s clothing are two more examples, as is having Arpad’s mother literally push her son to ask Mr. Maraczek to “Try Me.”)

 Performances sparkle, beginning with Martin’s charismatic, silver-throated Georg, whose romantic-lead chops were only hinted at by Little Women’s Professor Bhaer, the Morgan-Wixson favorite revealing terrific chemistry with Lezin’s Amalia, whose glorious, operatically trained soprano makes “Will He Like Me” and “Vanilla Ice Cream” simply delish.

 Delegeane is amusingly sycophantic as Sipos, Segal’s Kodaly is as oily as he is suave, and almost-15-year-old Rice is everything a squeaky-clean delivery boy Arpad should be.

 Best of all is recent UCI grad Daniels, who makes the flighty, fickle Ilona fabulously her own, whether declaring her independence from Kodaly in “I Resolve” or discovering the joys that “A Trip To The Library” can bring,

Musical director Daniel Koh has an amusing bit as the most harried and hysterical head waiter in Budapest, Jenna Stocks shows off balletic leaps as a gender-bending Busboy, and Joel D. Castro has a neat bit as private eye Mr. Keller.

Marchak’s choreography impresses throughout, blending waltzes, tangos, and Broadway pizzazz executed by multi-tasking ensemble members Mirai Booth-Ong, Castro, Devin Dimitri Dominguez, Esteban Hurtado, Koh, Taylor McClain, Danielle Morris, Audrey Pennington, and dance captain Stocks, supporting players whose vocal harmonies are as good as it gets.

 Tristan Griffin’s angular, modular set (appointed with Becca Gardner’s multiple period props), MarLee Candell’s splendid 1930s costumes, and Bruce Starrett’s vibrant (if too often curiously yellow-hued) lighting make She Loves Me one of the Morgan-Wixson’s best-looking musicals, and sound designer Doug Mattingly and assistant musical director/sound mixer Carson Schutze (and the theater’s terrific acoustics) ensure a perfect blend of un-amped vocals and stereophonic prerecorded tracks.

She Loves Me is produced by Bouket Fingerhut. Kelly Frisch is stage manager.

At 55 years of age, She Loves Me may be old enough for senior discounts (and its 1937 source material a year past its 80th birthday), but you’d never know it at the Morgan-Wixson. Not even the slightest bit dated, this early ‘60s Broadway gem continues to charm and delight.

Morgan-Wixson Theatre, 2627 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica.
www.morgan-wixson.org

–Steven Stanley
September 22, 2018
Photos: JDCPhotography and Brian Norris

Tags: Jerry Bock, Los Angeles Theater Review, Morgan-Wixson Theatre, Sheldon Harnick