50 Favourite Musicals: 34: SHE LOVES ME (1963) (Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 1963, Eugene O'Neill Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 2016, Menier Chocolate Factory, London

Productions seen: one

Score: Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick
Book: Joe Masteroff

Plot:  In 1930s Budapest, Georg and Amalia work together in a perfumery and dislike each other intensely - what they don't know is they are each other's pen-pal who they are falling in love with through their letters.  As Christmas approaches, they agree to meet...   

Five memorable numbers: VANILLA ICE-CREAM, A TRIP TO THE LIBRARY, DEAR FRIEND, WILL HE LIKE ME?, SHE LOVES ME

It's an untrusted word, heartwarming... one mis-step and it can lead to cloying sentimentality and no one wants to sit through two-and-a-half hours of that.  So it is always a delight to find a show that is genuinely heartwarming without any of it's concomitant pitfalls - step up Bock and Harnick's SHE LOVES ME, for me a much more enjoyable musical than their more famous FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.  Miklós László's original play has been the gift that just keeps giving since 1937: no less than three Hollywood films - THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME and YOU'VE GOT MAIL - have been based on the plotline and can be added to Bock and Harnick's version.  After a nod to the show's Hungarian location with the keening violins that open the overture, their score is packed with choon-ful tunes - and with 25 songs listed in the programme I mean packed!  Joe Masteroff's delightful book also keeps the plot moving with warm, sympathetic characters.  A delightful chocolate-box of a production at the Menier two years ago has stayed with me but it's the original cast recording that made me love the show immortalizing the performances of Barbara Baxley as lovelorn Ilona, Jack Cassidy as womanizing Kodaly, Daniel Massey as Georg and, above all, the glorious Barbara Cook as Amalia, one of the key roles of her Broadway career which provided several songs to add to her repertoire for her second career as a solo artist, namely the soaring VANILLA ICE CREAM. An interesting sidenote: MGM bought the film rights and after a few years of delay were set to make it with Julie Andrews as Amalia, possibly reuniting with Dick Van Dyke as Georg but a change of management led to a restructuring for more contemporary subjects and SHE LOVED ME was dropped.  The show lives on however so if it pops up near you do see it...

Sadly there is no original footage of Barbara Cook singing one of her signature songs but here she is during her second career as a solo singer in concert in Melbourne, acting and singing VANILLA ICE CREAM to perfection; it really gives you a flavour of Bock and Harnick's delightful score