CANYON, Texas — West Texas A&M University Theatre’s next production offers a candy-coated Valentine treat for audiences.
The classic musical “She Loves Me” by Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8 to 10 and Feb. 15 to 17 and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 11 and 18 in the Happy State Bank Studio Theatre in the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex on WT’s Canyon campus.
Tickets are $16 for adults, $12 for seniors and students, and free for WT students, faculty and staff with a Buff Gold card.
“It’s so much like modern romantic comedies that we love, just put into musical form,” said Bradley Behrmann, director and assistant professor of musical theatre in WT’s Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities.
In fact, “She Loves Me” is based on the 1940 film “The Shop Around the Corner,” very much a prototypical romcom with clerks Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan feuding their way into love.
“Shop” itself was based on the 1937 Hungarian play “Parfumerie” by Miklós László, and it also inspired two additional film remakes: The 1949 musical film “In the Good Old Summertime” with Judy Garland and Van Johnson, and the 1998 romcom “You’ve Got Mail” with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.
“She Loves Me,” though, is “the quintessence of the Golden Age musical,” Behrmann said.
“It’s just so satisfying to see this love story unfold and see every character be transformed by the end,” he said.
Set in Hungary in 1937, just as in László’s play, “She Loves Me” takes place in the perfume shop of Mr. Maraczek (Alexander Hernandez, a senior theatre major from Amarillo).
Georg Nowack (Oscar Hample, a senior musical theatre major from Wasilla, Alaska) is the shy assistant manager who has been courting a stranger via anonymous letters.
Enter Amalia Balash (Clara Moos, a junior musical theatre major from Plano), a wily young woman who impresses Mr. Maraczek but initially repels Georg.
“Amalia is a savvy character, very different from what you usually find in Golden Age musicals,” Moos said. “She is a sweet ingenue, but she also has a fiery, almost sassy side to her. She knows what she wants and goes for it.”
Anyone who’s ever watched a Hallmark movie knows what happens next: Amalia is, naturally, Georg’s secret pen pal, whom he knows only as “Dear Friend.”
“Georg is very desperate to find love (but) when he finds out that Amalia is ‘Dear Friend,’ he’s a jerk,” Hample said.
And no, the road to true love is not smooth.
“They’ve put forth a perfect ideal of themselves in their letters,” Moos said, “but they eventually start to fall in love with their imperfect, very human selves.”
“She Loves Me” also stars Logan Lawhon, a freshman musical theatre major from Midland, as Arpad Laszlow; Ty Thompson, a junior theatre major from Fort Worth, as Ladislav Sipos; Abigail Martin, a senior musical theatre major from Amarillo, as Ilona Ritter; and Caleb Martinez, a senior musical theatre major from Seagraves, as Steven Kodaly.
Ensemble members are Jackie Arellano, a junior musical theatre major from El Paso; Morgan Baily, a sophomore musical theatre major from El Paso; Mario Banos, a senior theatre major from Perryton; Ray Barber, a junior musical theatre major from Conroe; Peyton Jewett, a junior musical theatre major from Monahans; Angelica Pantoja, a senior theatre major from Lubbock; Victoria Reyes, a junior musical theatre major from Inez; Jewel Schonhoff, a senior musical theatre major from Little Elm; Leighson Selman, a senior musical theatre major from Amarillo; and Zarek Womack, a sophomore musical theatre major from Christoval.
For tickets, visit the Box Office in the Fine Arts Complex, email [email protected] or call 806-651-2810.
Fostering an appreciation of the arts is a key component of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised more than $150 million.
Photo: Clara Moos and Oscar Hample star as star-crossed lovers in “She Loves Me,” opening Feb. 8 at West Texas A&M University.
