Charming, romantic — “She Loves Me” is back!

08/26/2025

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A group of four actors stands on a stage, lit with warm yellow light. From left to right, a man in a light brown suit and tie stands at attention. Next to him, a smiling blonde woman in a white dress stands behind a glass counter filled with perfume bottles. Behind her, a bald man in a gray suit smiles at the two women on the right. In the center, a woman with brown hair in a white, short-sleeved top and a long gray patterned skirt holds a small, ornate box and smiles toward the right. On the far right, a blonde woman in a white fur coat and hat smiles with her mouth open, looking at the box. She holds a small purse and wears gloves. In the background, there's a large wooden cabinet with jars and bottles, and a doorway on the right. — Andrew Leeds, Kate Rockwell, Phillip Hoffman, Elena Shaddow and Sissy Bell in “She Loves Me” at Bucks County Playhouse through September 14. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

Andrew Leeds as Georg and Elena Shaddow as Amalia in “She Loves Me” at Bucks County Playhouse through September 14. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

The 1963 musical She Loves Me is a romantic tale designed to transport you back to an earlier time and place — 1934 Budapest, to be exact. It was a world where hopeful young women and young men sought romance by mailing letters in response to “lonely hearts” advertisements in the newspaper. Where workplace entanglements took place not in cold office towers but in a small perfume shop in a big city. And where antagonism can be turned into true love, helped along by small acts of common kindness and a little subterfuge.

This is the world conjured up by book writer Joe Masteroff (Cabaret) and the songwriting team of composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof). She Loves Me is based on Miklós László’s 1937 play Parfumerie, which was adapted for the screen three times: 1940’s The Shop Around the Corner; 1949’s In the Good Old Summertime; and 1998’s You’ve Got Mail.

The musical starts in the early summer, outside Maraczek’s Parfumerie. We are introduced to the staff (in the song “Good Morning, Good Day”): Georg Nowack (Andrew Leeds), the head clerk; sales clerks Ladislav Sipos (Brian Ray Norris), a middle-aged man with a wife and 2 children, Ilona Ritter (Kate Rockwell), a pretty, youngish blonde, and Steven Kodaly (Clyde Voce), a slick operator who thinks he’s God’s gift to women; and ambitious delivery boy Arpad Laszlo (Kennedy Kanagawa). Before they go into the shop they are joined by the owner, Mr. Maraczek (Phillip Hoffman), an older married man. After a larger than usual number of morning shoppers leave, Maraczek shows his latest product acquisition, a musical leather cigarette box, to Georg, who thinks the product won’t sell. An attractive young woman, Amalia Balash (Elena Shaddow), enters, looking for a job. She is turned down by both Georg and Maraczek, but when she sells a box to a woman shopper as a musical candy box, Maraczek hires her. Georg disparages Amalia’s attitude, while she derides him for his jealousy at her selling one of the “unsellable” boxes.

Georg reveals to Sipos that he has gotten a new letter from the woman to whom he’s been writing, but confesses they have neither described nor seen each other. Sipos encourages him to set up a face-to-face meeting. As Georg dictates his letter while he writes it, we hear Amalia singing the same letter as she reads it (“Three Letters”), and by the time the first snow falls, they have set up a dinner date. Kodaly and Ilona, who have been conducting a not-so-secret romance, are having a falling out, barely speaking to each other. Maraczek has received an anonymous letter stating that his wife is having an affair with one of the store’s clerks. Suspecting Georg, who alone among the staff has been invited to his home, Maraczek treats him with growing, barely-restrained hostility.

A full-body, wide shot captures a scene from the musical "She Loves Me" on a stage. On the left, a Caucasian woman with curly brown hair, wearing a navy blue dress with a white collar and cuffs, stands beside a wooden chair. Her left hand is on her hip, and her right hand rests on the back of the chair. She is looking to the right with a surprised expression. On the right, a Caucasian man in a light brown suit stands behind a small, round table covered with a red cloth and gold fringe. He holds a single red rose in his left hand and a book in his right, looking at the woman. The table is set with two red-stemmed wine glasses and a small water carafe. The background is a stage set with dark brown, patterned curtains and a window with a light-colored pane on the far right. — Bucks County Playhouse She Loves Me

One early December evening, Georg and Amalia are finally to meet. Maraczek announces that everyone will have to stay late to decorate the store for Christmas. When Georg conveys Maraczek’s order to Amalia, she blames Georg for trying to sabotage her prior engagement and leaves anyway. Maraczek blames Georg for wanting to leave and letting Amalia leave, but he finally goes too far and Georg quits. Complications pile up, and the remainder of the show is dedicated to untangling them. When and how will Georg and Amalia, who we know love each other in letters, ever get past their initial impressions of each other and discover each other in real life?

A chest-up shot shows a man and a woman on a stage, facing the audience. On the left, a Black man in a dark brown pinstripe suit, white shirt, and patterned tie looks upward and to his left. He has a dark patterned scarf wrapped around his neck, and his hands are clasped in front of him. On the right, a blonde Caucasian woman with a short, wavy hairstyle looks up and to her right with a skeptical expression. She is wearing a reddish-orange textured dress and has her arms crossed. The background is dimly lit with dark wood paneling, and a blurred window is visible on the far right. — Clyde Voce as Kodaly and Kate Rockwell as Ilona in “She Loves Me” at Bucks County Playhouse through September 14. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

Director and choreographer Denis Jones, in his Bucks County Playhouse debut, shows his facility in guiding this gem of a cast not only through their musical numbers but also in delivering their more humorous lines without overplaying them. As choreographer he creates a slapstick tour de force in the tango “A Romantic Atmosphere”, sung by the picky cafe headwaiter (Patrick Richwood) and danced as a parody of eroticism by the dubious Busboy (Nik Hagen) and the patrons (Sissy Bell, Nigel Jamal Hall, Candice Hatakeyama, Liam Johnson, and Lizz Picini). He also takes the full cast through the hilarious “Twelve Days to Christmas” as shoppers and staff move, sing, and act more frantically the closer the shopping deadline gets. The female ensemble members and Georg, Kodaly, and Sipos have their lyrics and movements entwine to full absurd effect in the first act number “Sounds While Selling”.

The fluid sets designed by Anna Louizos capture the play’s locations in Budapest — the parfumerie, Amalia’s apartment, the Cafe Imperial, even the street outside the shop, among others. The whole show is lit with charm and precision by Kirk Bookman, and the large (for Bucks County Playhouse) orchestra provides the perfect musical support for what’s happening on stage.

She Loves Me has long been a favorite show of mine. Its three appearances on Broadway prove that it has been an audience favorite over the years as well. I cannot more strongly urge you to spend a relaxing summer evening (or afternoon) in old Budapest visiting the parfumerie around the corner at She Loves Me!

She Loves Me is presented by the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, PA, through Sept. 14, 2025. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to bcptheater.org.