If the plot of “She Loves Me,” the musical currently being performed by Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities (CLOSBC) at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, seems familiar, think Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in “You’ve Got Mail.” The CLOSBC play is actually the fifth adaptation of a 1930s play, “Parfumerie,” written by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo. Other incarnations include the 1940 film “The Shop Around the Corner,” and 1949’s “In the Good Old Summertime.”
It’s a simple story: Boy meets girl, boy and girl hate each other, boy and girl fall in love. There’s a bit more drama in Laszlo’s original and the script of “She Loves Me” than in the feel good celluloid offerings, plus there’s music. Much music. Much good music. Much complicated music, albeit all accessible to the ears of the populace. Joe Masteroff wrote the book for the 1963 Broadway opening; music and lyrics by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (“Fiddler on the Roof”).
The show also serves as a social history lesson. Set in Eastern Europe in the 1930s, the story is enabled by a common custom of the time: pen pal letters. For audience members raised in our computer age, this now-antiquated form of communication was like today’s texting or Facebook. Really slow texting and really slow Facebook with no cell phone photographs. One person would handwrite a letter – with things called pen and paper – then put it into an envelope, the front of which displayed a handwritten address. He/she would then lick the glue-covered flap of the envelope, seal it, and attach a stamp, which also required licking. There was a lot of tongue action in this process, but, what the heck, it was all about love.
The sender next walked (another antiquated practice) to a mail box – a big, metal storage bin normally found on corners of neighborhood streets – and deposit the letter so that the postman could collect it and send it on its way to the designated recipient. All this took about a week. Upon receipt, the addressee would read the letter and repeat the above process in response. Such required a vocabulary, the ability to spell and, oftentimes, a dictionary. Dictionaries are big books with big words written in small type. Common phrases were often used in these communications. “Oh, my god” meant OMG. “Lots of laughs” meant LOL. “You are” was the old way of saying “u r.”
Music, Maestro, please
The daunting task of presiding over the CLOSBC production as musical director is Daniel Gary Busby, no stranger to the company (last season’s “Bark” and “Seussical the Musical”). Busby will become even more familiar to South Bay audiences as this year’s season progresses as he was recently named the company’s Principal Conductor. Neither is he inexperienced in mentoring the music of “She Loves Me,” as he performed the same task at the 2010 Oregon Shakespeare Festival. That production was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best 2010 regional theater productions.
“It’s so musical – which I guess sounds like a silly thing to say about a musical. But, a lot of times Broadway shows from this period tend to be really straightforward. This one, on the musical level, is much more the vocabulary of an opera or an operetta,” said Busby. “I don’t mean that it’s heavy, but it has places where the music goes in and out of time; there are a lot of styles. Because it’s set in Hungary, there are several (musical) quotes from Franz Liszt and Chopin and other classical composers. It’s kind of like a musicalized version of a classical pops concert – music you might hear at the Boston Pops.”
He said that he and the cast have worked hard on making the score as musical as possible, learning to phrase together and becoming comfortable with moving tempi up and down (rubato), adding nuances to what Busby calls “a charming, charming score. It’s a jewel box of a musical.”
Among the many vocal challenges of the score is an early number in the first act, “Sounds While Selling,” sung by the sales people on the floor of Mr. Maraczek’s (John Hall) perfumery, the meeting site of the show’s ultimately loving couple, Georg (Jason Webb) and Amalia (Susannah Hall).
“Everyone needs to know everybody else’s vocal part… it’s basically one line divided among seven people. Everyone is sharing a word here, a sentence there, all the while moving about the stage,” said Busby. “When you see it on the stage your eyes have to move quickly back and forth; it’s like a musical ping-pong match.”
He went on to describe the strong vocal harmonies of songs including “Thank You Madam” and “Goodbye Georg” as being “delicious…. It’s like jazz, but it doesn’t feel jazzy [in what it’s doing].”
You gotta have pipes
The part of Amalia, the show’s female love interest, requires a true soprano who is extremely strong in her top range. The part was written with Barbara Cook in mind, who opened as Amalia at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York, where the show ran for 302 performances, said Busby.
“Barbara finally understood (before doing ‘She Loves Me’) that she was capable of singing a ‘G’ at the top of the staff…. She is a treasure,” said Busby. “You can tell that the part is written for a singer of high quality, because you need to have great chops to pull off the role.
“In our production, Susannah (Hall) is gorgeous. She sings beautifully; her voice is warm and radiant with a real shimmer to it.”
The role requires a wide vocal range. “But, if it fits you,” said Busby, “it’s like putting on a beautiful pair of shoes or a nice suit that happens to fit you perfectly. And, this role does just that for Susannah. It would be a killer for someone who it didn’t fit well, but it happens to fit her voice like a hand in a glove.”
Hall is certainly not the only cast member to be vocally challenged in “She Loves Me,” as there are multiple features for multiple roles – another reason why the show generates audience interest. Male lead Jason Webb (Georg) has more than a mouthful of words to be sung in the first act number “Tonight at 8.”
“Isn’t that song great? It goes like lightning. Jason has such great diction; every word is understood,” said Busby.
Near the end of Act 2, the ensemble number “The 12 Days of Christmas” poses similar challenges, this time for the entire cast. “There are so many witty lyrics which we don’t want the audience to miss, so we’ve been hammering that [diction] home in rehearsals,” said Busby.
Up to the challenge
Such musical hurdles are nothing new to Daniel Gary Busby (he goes by Gary). His varied career in music includes work as a pianist, singer, conductor, vocal coach and music critic. Presently, he is also a frequent Master Class instructor at several local universities and works full-time as a faculty member at UC Irvine in a position similar to those he has held at both UCLA and USC.
The show is directed by Stephanie Coltrin; choreography by Heather Castillo; sets by Christopher Beyries; Christa Armendariz does costumes.
‘She Loves Me,’ CLOSBC production at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo. Previews tonight and Friday at 8 p.m. Gala Opening Saturday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. Closes Sunday, March 6 at 7 p.m. Regular Schedule: Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8; Saturday matinees at 2 on Feb. 26 & March 5; Sunday matinees at 2 on Feb. 20-27, and March 6. Tickets: $45-$60. Call 310-372-4477 or visit www.civiclightopera.com. ER
