Last week, Stevens Dramatic Society (SDS) came back with their second production this school year, She Loves Me. This was SDS’s first in-person musical since the pandemic and took place from March 31 to April 2 in the DeBaun Auditorium. Tickets were free for students with Stevens IDs, $7 for General Admission, and $3 for Students and Seniors.
When asked about what the production and overall experience of this show were like, She Loves Me’s Producer, Charles Beall noted that “This show felt like a whirlwind in a lot of ways – we had a more condensed timeline after the first two weeks of the semester shifted online, and it was our first in-person musical since pre-Covid, so there were a lot of relatively new and challenging aspects of putting on a show like this. We had lots of new people involved along with an ‘older’ group of people who were involved in the fall and previous semesters, but I think everyone did an amazing job rising to the occasion and taking on the challenges presented to us which was wonderful to see and be a part of.”
With the book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, this musical tells the story of Georg Nowack, played by Sofia Lopez, and Amalia Balash, played by Isabella Cruz, two clerks at Mr. Maraczek’s perfumery in the 1930s, who consistently pester each other at work. However, unbeknown to them, they have been writing each other anonymous love letters back and forth. Even though the atmosphere in this old-world Europe town seems perfect for romance to bloom, love feels strained and difficult to obtain in many moments during the show. The characters remain hopeful throughout the show that their love will develop and grow. This show keeps the audience on edge with both laughter and anticipation for what is to come.
The story of She Loves Me also coincides with the lives of the other shop clerks, Ilona Ritter – played by Rachel Germain, Steven Kodaly – played by Kyle Castillo, Ladislav Sipos – played by Cameron Clifford, and Arpad Laszlo – played by Carly Teitelbaum. Mr. Maraczek, the perfumery owner, is played by Derek Petti, the Waiter is played by Luke Magette, and the ensemble consists of Adriana Aguirre, Hannah Goldschmidt, Nicholas Hite, Garrett Horwath, Kiera Kennedy, Trinity Lundemo, Alexander Markoulis, and Christopher Ocker.
With almost 50 Crew members, this show took a lot of time, planning, and effort to run smoothly. Beall stated, “What kept us going even in the most challenging and stressful moments was the community and camaraderie that we’ve developed as a Society since being back in person, and so a huge shoutout to everyone in the Society involved in these shows for playing a part in rebuilding and adding so much more to the theatrical community at Stevens. I feel so grateful and happy to be a part of it and I hope that others feel that way too.”
With encaptivating performances such as “Will he Like Me?” and “I Resolve”, show-stopping numbers such as “Twelve Days to Christmas” and “She Loves Me,” and hilarious spectacles such as “Romantic Atmosphere” and “Grand Knowing You”, the music and cast performance sets this show apart. The talented pit with two keyboards, bass, trumpet, drums, two violins, two reeds, and a viola, added true Stevens flare to the score, as all but one musician were students.
When asked about the hardest obstacle that SDS had to overcome with putting this show on, Beall reported that “It’s hard to pick one, as a musical especially has so many moving parts and many obstacles are bound to arise. Definitely dealing with a condensed timeline made things tricky from the outset.” He then goes on to explain specific departments and aspects of the show when saying, “We also wanted to have a grand set to give off the grandeur of old-world Europe, and this took lots of many long nights of building and painting in the theater which led to the amazing set you saw on stage. We had a big orchestra as well which we were able to incorporate into the set and balance the pit and cast from a sound perspective – this took lots of planning, adjusting, and replanning as well. And on the cast side, vocally this show was very challenging at times, and we had to transpose a lot of the songs after some of the traditionally male roles were cast as women – this took a lot of transposition work behind the scenes.”
Beall would like to credit the specific people who put in a lot of work in these specific departments: Set design – Gab Poska, Building – Poska along with Master Carpenters Patrick Roscio and Alex Charpin, Painting – Renee Grunwald, Isabelle Hunt, and Dani Tuiran, Sound – Andrew Cheney and Kate Tramm, and Transposition Team – Alex Markoulis and Kiera Kennedy. He also remarked, “These are just a few examples, but I want to stress again that every department in the show had its own set of obstacles and challenges which is natural in doing something like this, but I was so impressed at how well everyone was able to adapt to and overcome these challenges and put on a truly remarkable show.”
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