She Loves Me

The Cotswold Players

She Loves Me                     Cotswold. Playhouse, Stroud          January 24th 2019

Director: Simon Moss                                               MD: Suzanne Barnes

Choreographer: Peter Hudson

This is a little know show on the Amateur stage but has an amazing pedigree; wonderful songs by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, who created ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, and book by Joe Masteroff who wrote ‘Cabaret’.  The story is based on a 1937 Hungarian Play, and has been used many times over the years, most recently in the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks film ‘You’ve Got Mail’.  This version takes place in a ‘European City’ in the 1950’s, the plot is fairly complex, with twists and turns for all the characters but the main story centres on Amalia and George, who work together in a perfumery but dislike each other intensely. They both have a pen friend with whom they are falling in love, not realising it is each other.

The set had been well designed and constructed with Mr Maraczek’s high-class perfume store a high light, it really was an expensively fitted out shop, with counters and display cabinets.  The set was extremely well dressed with good attention to detail.  The lighting had been well designed for each scene, be it the brightly lit shop, the more dimly lit restaurant, the cross fading of hospital to bedroom or the raindrops on the gauze.  The costumes had been well sourced and well fitted taking the audience back to the fifties, with an array of elegantly dressed customers.  The microphones were well balanced and operated.  The choreography suited the show very well and was confidently executed.

It was not a show I had previously come across and I discovered the only song from the show I knew was the title song ‘She Loves Me’, but was delighted to find many lovely songs throughout, which helped to tell the story.  Musical Director Suzanne Barnes had good control of singers and musicians, with songs having been well taught, and mostly the musicians and voices blended well, although a couple of times the keyboard was too loud. 

The show had a well-chosen cast with some lovely performances and everyone working well together.  The cameo roles of the customers were all well done, each one creating a completely different character, what fun the ‘Twelve Days to Christmas’ was.  The solo violinist busking in the street outside the perfumery at the beginning of the show played well.

This show had been well directed by Simon Moss, it was well paced with clear diction, the humour and the sadness well portrayed.  He had worked well with all departments to provide the audience with a well-rounded enjoyable evenings entertainment.  As it says in the programme ‘romantic but never slushy  -  funny but never corny’.  It is a gem of a show.

 

 

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