She Loves Me: The New Broadway Cast Recording (1993 Revival)

She Loves Me: The New Broadway Cast Recording (1993 Revival) Review

Anyone who doubts the influence and enduring appeal of cast recordings should take note of She Loves Me, an intimate, romantic, and totally charming show by the team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof) that had a short Broadway run in 1963. The show was kept alive by a legendary and unprecedented two-LP original cast album that spurred numerous regional productions and, 30 years after the original run, this Broadway revival at the Roundabout Theatre. The sweet story (based on the same Hungarian play that inspired the films The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime and You've Got Mail) focuses on two perfume shop coworkers (played by Boyd Gaines, who won a Tony for the role, and Diane Fratantoni) who can't stand each other, unaware they are romantic pen pals. Heading the supporting cast is the always wonderful Sally Mayes, who received a Tony nomination for the role of Ilona, even if she can't match the ditzy defenselessness of Barbara Baxley in the 1963 cast. In fact, it's almost an impossible task for any cast to match the original, but give this revival credit for giving She Loves Me new life where it belongs--on the stage. --David Horiuchi