At a time when we need to look back on easier times of courting and old-fashioned values, She Loves Me comes to romance all of us at the Bucks County Playhouse, now playing through September 14.
With an A-list cast of Broadway, touring, and playhouse veterans, She Loves Me is a lovely old-fashioned musical with tons of heart from Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, who are best known for writing the lyrics and music for Fiddler on the Roof.
Harnick’s collaboration with composer Bock produced such Broadway classics as “Fiorello” in 1959, for which they won the Pulitzer Prize. His many other Broadway shows include “She Loves Me,” “Tenderloin,” “The Apple Tree,” and “The Rothschilds.”
When asked in 2015 how he would characterize himself, he replied, “I think romantic is a fine word for me.” Which makes sense, since She Loves Me takes us back to a quieter, charming, and more romantic time.
Harnick went on to write lyrics for several movies, as well as for the opera. All told, he won a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, three gold records, and a platinum record. Without ever retiring or slowing down, Harnick died in 2023, leaving an extraordinary theater legacy.
The story of She Loves Me is set in 1934 Budapest at a perfumery owned by Mr. Maraczek (Philip Hoffman), which is more like a family than a business, with its share of dysfunction and antics. At the center of the action is shop clerk Amalia Balash (Elena Shaddow) and her demanding boss, Georg Nowack (Andrew Leeds), who clash at first sight when she applies for a job after a rival shop closes. With elegant and stylish period costumes, an adorable and inviting set of the perfume shop (where we all want to stop by to purchase some lipstick and hand cream), and superb performances from an extremely talented cast, She Loves Me is sure to delight its audience. It is also a bit ironic how important customer service was at that time, something that is nearly extinct in modern-day shopping escapades.
Shaddow, who has appeared on Broadway in The Visit (written by John Kander and Fred Ebb), starring Chita Rivera. On Broadway, she starred as Anne Dindon in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of La Cage Aux Folles at the Longacre Theater.
Her past Broadway productions include The Woman in White (Trevor Nunn director), Fiddler on the Roof and Nine (both directed by David Leveaux), Sweet Smell of Success (Nicholas Hytner dir.), and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Francesca Johnson to critical acclaim in the pre-Broadway production of The Bridges of Madison County at Williamstown Theater Festival, directed by Bartlett Sher and written by Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman.
In London, Elena had the honor of playing Magnolia Hawkes in Show Boat at the Royal Albert Hall, the first musical of its size to be staged in that venue, opposite John Owen-Jones. Elena also originated the role of Clara Johnson in the First National Tour of The Light in the Piazza (2007 Helen Hayes Best Actress Nomination) opposite Christine Andreas to critical acclaim.
On television, she was prominently featured as Sister Sophia in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood. She has also appeared on CBS’s Conviction & Person of Interest, ABC’s Time After Time, and Warner Bros. Films’ The Intern, starring Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway.
The following is an interview with Elena Shaddow for She Loves Me:
I had the pleasure of having lunch with legendary lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and we talked about all of his shows, including Fiddler and She Loves Me. While one is much better known, he had great affection for all of his work.
Elena Shaddow: I am not a writer, but I would assume they are all your favorites, like if you have more than one child.
Why does She Loves Me resonate with you?
I love that it’s extremely earnest. There’s something about the piece and the characters because you can take them at face value. There’s not a lot of artifice in the writing. It’s extremely earnest in its hopefulness and its romanticism, and it is actually kind of refreshing. It is the perfect time with so much going on in the world at the moment; we need something like this.
We’ve all grown so cynical that it’s nice to be transported back to a world where people say what they mean. I find this show very sweet, so that’s what is resonating with me at the moment. It is sort of refreshing to be in this headspace.
Please tell me about your character, Amalia Balash.
I play this young woman who is a clerk at a perfumery in Budapest, where the original play, written by Miklos Laszlo, was set. She knows the perfumery business inside and out, and works alongside this guy named Georg, who is not nice to her, and they end up not liking one another.
But they are also writing letters back and forth through The Lonely-Hearts Club, which was advertised in the local newspaper. The letters have a romance bent to them. There is a lot of hijinks that ensue, and something magical happens when they meet. It’s very cute and a well-told story.
What is the origin story for the show?
The story was first adapted into the 1940 movie called The Shop Around the Corner, and later adapted into the 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail, written and directed by Nora Ephron (starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks). In between, Sheldon and his team wrote the musical She Loves Me, which came after The Shop Around the Corner.
How much did you know about The Shop Around the Corner or You’ve Got Mail?
I went to college for musical theater at New York University, and part of our responsibility as actors is to know our craft and to know material like She Loves Me, which has been around for so long. I knew it was based on the first movie, but I never watched it. As a soprano in musical theater, I have been given a very specific repertoire to be able to perform and to get paid to perform. So, I was very aware of the music and the storyline, and I have known about this show for a long time. But I had never been in it until now.
But you have worked at the Bucks County Playhouse before?
Yes, I was in a production of Guys and Dolls in 2017. I played Sister Sarah.
What is it like to be back?
It’s great. I love New Hope. I am thrilled to be back again in the summer. We have all of the dining options on the river, and walking around the corner for coffee shops, and all kinds of stuff to do. I am really happy to be back. I love working with this cast and crew and our producers. It’s wonderful.
What is it like working with Andrew Leeds?
Andrew Leeds is amazing. He is kind and sensitive, and we are having a blast.
Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Cleveland Heights in Ohio, but I moved to New York when I was 18 to pursue musical theater. I went to NYU for classical singing, and I also studied musical theater. I’ve been on the East Coast since I was 18. I live in Northern New Jersey now with my husband and our two children.
Tell about your Broadway role in The Visit.
I’ve been in eight Broadway shows and a bunch of national tours. I also perform in regional theater a fair amount. The Visit was the most recent Broadway show I did. It is a musical based on an old play from Europe by Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt, which is very different from this show. It is a dark, dystopian show that was a commentary on people selling each other out for money during World War 2.
It felt like an important piece of theater, and when I got there, rehearsing with the great John Kander was phenomenal. It was my second Broadway show with Chita Rivera, my second Broadway show with Mary Beth Peel, and my first Broadway show with Roger Rees before he died. It was a very special experience. Although we opened and closed pretty quickly, I had an extremely special experience.
What is it like working with Chita Rivera and John Kander, whom we all greatly admire?
It gives you a sense that you are where you are supposed to be. That all of the training, conversations with agents, managers, mentors, teachers, family, and spouse – all of the people who helped me to get there – was the right thing to do. You look around the room, and you are with the greatest people; so, it’s humbling.
I’m tearing up talking about it. It’s also reassuring that I chose the right path. It’s about all of those conversations and all of the training and all of the years of blood, sweat, and tears that went into it. I looked around the room and said to myself, ‘Wow, I belong here. And it was all worth it.’
What is it like to perform on a Broadway stage?
I don’t think there is anything that compares to it. It is a special place. Arenas you can sell out, and sing to 50,000 people. There is a legacy and exclusivity of the Broadway tradition that makes you feel you are doing something magical that very few people get to do. It feels amazing!
You feel like you are where you belong. You are there because your hard work and training paid off. Some celebrities come, and they are humbled by how difficult it is. We understand the physical labor and maintenance of eight shows a week, four weeks a month, 52 weeks a year, and it can be lonely working when everyone is having dinner or hanging out. But there is nothing like life on stage; it’s magical. And it’s addicting.
Why should my readers come to see She Loves Me?
People don’t often hear a high B sung in the tradition of Barbara Cook, but I get to do that. If you love theater, if you love classic musical theater, beautiful music, dancing, jokes, period costumes, and gorgeous lighting.
What should theatergoers expect from She Loves Me?
Just expect to enjoy yourself walking along the river, going to the bar at the theater, or a local restaurant. So come to historic New Hope. It’s like a little jewel box of a show. You care about the leading characters in the show and you want to root for them to be together.
The book and the character development are really great. See them, understand them, see how they make mistakes. The audience is a step ahead, seeing the folly in the characters. It hasn’t aged. It still seems fresh. I hope everyone will come and enjoy it! Expect to have a whole lot of fun!
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“She Loves Me” is the fourth production of Bucks County Playhouse’s 2025 Season, which is sponsored by Bank of America. Nurture Spa serves as the “She Loves Me” production sponsor.
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“She Loves Me” runs through September 14 and will play the following schedule: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. with matinees on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Future productions at the playhouse this year include The Rocky Horror Show and Elf.
Tickets for all of the productions may be purchased via the Bucks County Playhouse box office by calling (215) 862-2121, or online at BucksCountyPlayhouse.org.