First Published: 2022 February 21
Yesterday I had the fantastic opportunity to watch the musical “She Loves Me” performed by the Madison Opera Company.1 It’s a fun 1960’s story about love and perfume and miscommunication. Since it’s not as much in the cultural zeitgeist as a lot of the shows I’ve reviewed before2 I’m not really sure how much detail I can give without spoiling major elements.
There were some really shocking pacing choices. Most notably, almost immediately after the darkest moment of the play, the scene hard cuts to a romantic restaurant where they perform a klezmer number. I liked it, but it was certainly a bit of a tonal whiplash.
I also had the opportunity to attend a pre-show talk about the show. It was written by the two creators of “Fiddler on the Roof”, which certainly helped the klezmer scene seem more reasonable. It was also based on a movie which is based on a play. I just thought that was amusing. The Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie “You’ve Got Mail” is also based on “She Loves Me”, which is pretty nifty.
All in all, it was a lovely show, made lovelier by my company.