By Hannah Deane ’20
Staff Reporter
Gordon College brings to life a wonderful world filled with vanilla ice cream, letters, love and heartbreak, in “She Loves Me.” Directed by Jeff Miller, “She Loves Me” is a musical by Joe Masteroff and Jerry Bock, written in 1937.
Set in 1934, the show follows Georg Nowack, portrayed by Lucas Sousa-Ross (‘20), as he works his job as a parfumerie clerk and tries to find love by sending anonymous letters to an equally anonymous pen pal.
Georg Nowack is constantly in conflict with his fellow parfumerie clerk, Amalia Balash, who is portrayed by Hannah Allen (‘18).
Yet, as the plot thickens, Georg struggles to remain stubborn towards her even when he discovers she is his anonymous pen pal.
The musical is astonishing from beginning to ending with moments that made the audience laugh and their hearts clench in sympathy for the characters.
Miller said, “I always love the community of the actors. I love that. It’s also fun to bring a little-known musical to life in ways that people can see it. They haven’t seen it for a long time.”
The community of the Theatre Department seemed to be just as equally as enthusiastic about the show as their director was.
Hannah Allen (‘18) also shared her experience by saying, “I had so much fun. I love that [participation in the show is] just open to people of all departments. You make really great relationships with all kinds of people,” she said
When asked about what she’d like the Gordon Community take away from this experience, Allen said, “I just want them to laugh.”
She continued, “One of my friends, the other night, she’s seen the show four times, and she told me ‘it’s just a really nice break from everything’ and I feel like that’s just really valuable at Gordon. We do so many things all the time. So, I just want people to have a chance to laugh and take something from real life and make it light and meaningful and happy.”
Brynn Grambow (‘18), Cellist for the Orchestra of “She Loves Me,” talked about her experience in the pit.
“It’s been really fun to play with all these people every night and this has been one of my favorite musicals for a really long time; so getting to look at the score in a new way is really fun,” she said.
“She Loves Me” was filled with hilarity from beginning to end. Gordon’s Theatre Department worked extremely hard, returning to campus two weeks before classes started to rehearse.
When asked about the overall commitment to the show Brittany Cardoza (‘21), a dancer in the show, said, “It’s been wonderful getting to do so much in such a short amount of time because everything just pulls together. You’re sitting there thinking ‘This goes up in two weeks. Oh my goodness. What are we going to do?’ And it pulls together so beautifully.”
She continued, “Getting to spend so much time with everyone is so great, because you get to know each other so well and you live with each other in the beginning. I think that makes the show better because when you’re on stage together you know each other’s personalities so well.”
Erica Williams (‘19), a fellow Gordon student who attended the show, said, “I thought it was wonderful. It was very funny. It was really great.”
“She Loves Me” opened Jan. 25, 2018 and ran until Feb. 3, 2018. The show was sold out Feb. 2 and Feb. 3 and the end of each show was met with thunderous applause.
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