Playhouse 22 offers this somewhat forgotten musical, with a plot similar to a Meg Ryan movie.
By: Stuart Duncan
The 1962-63 Broadway season was a dim one for musicals. Only three ran more than 500 performances (traditionally the point at which a "flop" turns into a "hit") and all three were British.
Among the year’s failures were ventures such as Tovarich with Vivien Leigh, Little Me with Sid Caesar, Mr. President with Nanette Fabray, Robert Ryan and a good score by Irving Berlin, and She Loves Me with Barbara Cook, Daniel Massey and Jack Cassidy. The last named was a gentle, almost-European musical based on the denizens of a Budapest parfumerie. The Drama Critics Circle gave no award for "Best Musical" that season, but did give a special citation to one of those British imports Beyond The Fringe.
She Loves Me revolves around a shy young couple who have met at a lonely-hearts club. Met is perhaps not the proper word, since their entire relationship has been conducted by mail and each has no idea what the other looks like. They have fallen in love by "Dear Friend" letters. With a book by Joe Masteroff and a score by Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), it is packed with almost three-dozen tunes. Not particularly memorable, the show sank without much fanfare.
Through the years there have been a few revivals locally but none can touch the latest at Playhouse 22, home of the East Brunswick Community Players. Director Mary Lynn Dobson not only has cut the dull spots from a languid script but found a company of zanies, clearly willing to "go out and have fun and entertain like mad." As a result, the desultory scenes have been ruthlessly chopped, the pace is whirlwind and tiny smiles turned into roaring belly laughs. The evening has a completely different look and feel.
Some solid performers have been exhorted to grab scenes from each other no mayhem and no blood, just burglary, but great fun. Among those who look super as a result: Wayne Harris, one of the hardest workers in shows today, as the shy, nice-guy young man; Marissa Liguori as the shy, nice-girl heroine; Michelle Russell as the shop girl with a soft spot for anything in pants; Frank Andrews, funny in pants or not, and a huge cad.
Also, Bob Dumpert almost steals the show with a wonderful grin of practiced mediocrity; Howard M. Whitmore as an unctuous, oily maitre d’; and especially Richard Sibello, who completely takes a restaurant scene apart with a combination of a mobile face, extraordinary body control and fumbling fingers.
The show also has the best program cover that I have seen at a community theater in many years done by a superb cartoonist by the name of Tom Chesek.
If you are a Meg Ryan fan, you may remember a recent film You’ve Got Mail and will recognize the plot. That won’t help you prepare for what Ms. Dobson has ready for you. Skip the video. Go right to Playhouse 22.
She Loves Me continues at Playhouse 22, 210 Dunhams Corner Road, East Brunswick, through May 3. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $20. For information, call (732) 254-3939. On the Web: www.playhouse22.org

