The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Kay Theatre was packed Saturday night for the opening night of the musical She Loves Me.
Performed and produced by the University of Maryland’s theatre, dance and performance studies school, the musical primarily follows the story of two employees of Maraczek’s Parfümēria, Amalia Balash and Georg Nowack. The coworkers are bickering rivals who have been unknowingly sending love letters to each other through a “Lonely Hearts” column. Antics ensue when Mr. Nowack discovers the identity of his anonymous friend and realizes it is his displeasing coworker.
But Mr. Nowack and Ms. Balash are not always the center of attention — this ensemble musical features a heartwarming cast of characters, each with their own hopes, dreams and solo numbers. Supporting the production was a featured pit orchestra of musicians from this university’s music school, as well as projected closed captions.
“Ever since last year, I was trying to go to more Clarice events in general … This is one of the ones that seemed interesting,” said junior immersive media design and studio art major Anna Marchler.
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The musical began at the detailed storefront of “Maraczek’s Parfümēria,” the Bath and Bodyworks-esque shop that employs our main characters: Mr. Maraczek, Amalia Balash, Steven Kodaly, Arpad Laszlo, Georg Nowack, Ilona Ritter and Ladislav Sipos. As the characters entered their workplace, the front door of Maraczek’s lifted into the rafters to reveal an intricately designed parfumerie complete with stocked shelves of products and even a spiral staircase.
“I got to see how things came in and out when we had to do touch-ups and things, which is a lot of fun,”said sophomore theatre major Mary McHale, who helped paint the musical’s set.
She Loves Me contained both comedic and sincere beats that prompted a wide variety of emotions in the audience.
The eager character of Arpad, played by junior elementary education and theatre major Matthew Dietrich, created many of the show’s humorous moments. When attempting to convince Mr. Maraczek to hire him as a salesperson, Arpad sincerely sang, “Why break someone in / When I’m already broken?”, prompting laughter from the audience.
The musical featured many emotional twists and turns. The audience voiced “ooohs” of surprise when Mr. Maraczek learned that his employee, Mr. Kodaly, was having an affair with his wife. When Maraczek’s subsequent exit from the stage was followed by the ring of a gunshot, the audience gasped in shock, and a hush fell over the theater. Don’t worry — Maraczek reappeared safe in a hospital bed at the beginning of Act 2, resolving the tension from his previous scene.
Throughout the show, the central enemies-to-lovers romance between Amalia and Georg had viewers on the edge of their seats. When the building drama finally resulted in the two lovebirds kissing under falling snow, loud cheering rang out from the crowd.
“I felt like that was the most heartfelt rom-com I’ve seen in a while,” said sophomore theatre major Dean White after the show.
Sophomore finance and theatre major Jordan Richard described the experience on stage as a “lovely adrenaline rush.”
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Richard played a humorous waiter and a customer on opening night, but he also holds roles as Kodaly’s understudy and the show’s dance captain.
“Half of the people in that performance are non-theatre majors,” he said. “It is truly such a lovely melting pot of people that you get to know, and I think that that’s what makes theater great – it’s pulling experiences from your own life and different people you meet.”
