SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

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SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 5:29pm

My favorite Bock and Harnick score, SHE LOVES ME, has been on Broadway twice. Both times a critical success. Both times a financial failure. I STILL can't understand why! The score is sumptious! I can listen to the Original Cast Recording all day! The story is very sweet. I'm just curious why the general public has never taken to this beautiful show.

Praying Decca Broadway will put "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" on CD!

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 5:57pm

In today's day an age it's almost considered an 'old style romantic comedy'. You just don't see a million teeny boppers outh there seeing it more than once.

I love the score, love the story, love the characters. Maybe they cast it wrong. In my oppinion it's an amazing musical. But I'm old fashioned. I think the music is catchy, but I just don't see teens going nuts and making the show a finacial hit.

"You gotta be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?" -Bernadette Peters SUPPORT ALL SHOOK UP!!!

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:01pm

I think this will only be a show that will be successful in regional markets. It just doesn't have the commercial appeal for Broadway, I don't think.

Eeeeeeyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaannnnnddddd aaaaaaaiiiiiiiiyyyyyyaaaaaammmmmmmm teeeeeeeelllllliiiiiinnngg yyyyooooooouuuuuuuwwwaaaahh...

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:05pm

It is one of my faves as well...maybe it is just too old fashioned for some...

Also, not a financial hit in London either...

My mother always used to say, "The older you get, the better you get, unless you're a banana." - Rose Nyland

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:07pm

Thats cus no body is lifted on a friggin cherry picker in it

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:09pm

Sadly, if they marketed it as 'You Got Mail, the Musical', the show would have a better chance of having a full house.

"The cynicism you refer to, I acquired the day I discovered I was different from little boys!~All About Eve

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:09pm

I loved this show since I watched a PBS version of it when I was 12...Great Score - Great show -

"Dear Friend" is beyond heartbreaking..

Yes, this is voiceanth writing this,,,,

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:13pm

It was hardly a hideous failure either time; it just lost a little money. It was hardly CARRIE or LEGS DIAMOND.

I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:16pm

Maybe it could succeed off-Broadway. It doesn't require a huge cast or sets. If it had gone that route in the first place, it might have been a larger hit. (FANTASTICKS and LITTLE SHOP stayed small and off-Broadway and reaped huge rewards.) I rather feel the same way about BABY, a hugely charming (if slightly dated) show that can be done on a very small scale, but was buried when it tried to make it on Broadway.

I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."

#10

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:18pm

It was done recently at the Papermill and was successful, so it probably does well in regional markets.

"Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one." -Stella Adler

#11

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:38pm

I don't buy that that show is soooo special that audience can't appreciate that it is "caviar of musicial theatre."

I believe audiences shudder when, after a long day of renting themselves out to some boss, or corporation- also called working - they go to a musical and see a group of lovely people having to humiliate themselves to keep their jobs and keep an irrational shop owner happy. Hits too close to home.

That's my theory..and I'm stiking to it.

Follow the Fellow who Follows a Dream...

#12

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 6:53pm

Ya know, yipper, I like the way you think!

Praying Decca Broadway will put "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" on CD!

#13

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 7:34pm

yipper - never thought of it that way. I LOVE the score, even the working songs like "Perspective." There are SO many great songs in that score, the title song, "Tonight at Eight," "Vanilla Ice Cream," "Dear Friend," "Will He Like Me"...the list goes on and on. Although my favorite lyric, one of my all time favorites actually, is in "Ilona":
"How I envy you each evening when work is through
For I have only me to be with
While you have you."

That's just brilliant!

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#14

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/6/05 at 10:24pm

I LOVE the score too, jasonf. I love the entire show. It is not romanticized to death like other shows dealing with people looking for some happiness in relationships. In fact it spoofs high romantic expectations.. as in the ROMANTIC ATMOSPHERE number.

Follow the Fellow who Follows a Dream...

#15

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 11:54am

Add me to the "I love this show" pile. Although, after hearing a Japanese girl with a thick accent sing "Vanilla Ice Cream" as "Banilla Ice Cream" rather off key, I don't know that I could ever hear that song again without hearing her in my head and laughing hysterically.

"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds." ~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns

#16

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 11:56am

It's a great show - and the final moment is everything a romance should be! On or off stage!

#17

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 11:57am

Oh WOnderboy, I love ya!

I am a huge fan of this show. It makes my cold cold evil heart full of warmth.

Barbara Cook singing "Vanilla Ice Cream" is sometimes better than having sex and eating ice cream.

Updated On: 9/7/05 at 11:57 AM

#18

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 12:14pm

Better than just having sex or eating ice cream OR eating ice cream while having sex?

#19

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 12:18pm

Yes.

#20

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 12:28pm

A dear friend of mine once commented that he believes She Loves Me to be the most perfectly created piece of musical theatre, and as the years have gone by, the more I listen to it - the more I agree. Great book, Great Score, and in the revival on Broadway, great performances and direction. It is simply a lovely show.

"I don't really get the ending,all i can go with is when after several months,Judith saw Pat sang,and later she kissed him on the toilet,after that the story back to where Pat went down from the stage after he'd sung,and he went to the italian lady.I just don't get it,what Judith exatcly meant when he kissed Pat that she had seen,and did Pat end up together with The Italian Lady?Please help me,thank u very much!" Quote from someone on IMDB in reference to a movie he/she didn't understand. Such grammar!

#21

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 12:31pm

If a music box were a show, it would be SHe Loves Me. Simply beautiful.

I wish Judy Kuhn had recorded her performance in the revival rather than the rather bland
Diane Whateverherlastnamewasatthetime.

#22

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 12:43pm

Mad love for she loves me. it is one of the best scores ever written for a show. So charming and tuneful. I love everything about it. it is unfortunate that it can't find a broadway audience, even with the name Hal Prince attached to it. but I agree with the thoughts that it could have a long and successful run off broadway if cast just the right way.

any casting ideas?

Amalia- Christianne Noll
Georg- raul esparza
Kodaly-brian stokes mitchell
illona-mary testa or julia murney
Maraczek- john lithgow
Arpad- gavin creel
Ladislav Sipos- joel grey

granted- these people are too big to do these roles off broadway, but it sure would be fun!!

"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."

#23

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 1:00pm

Yes, the story and some of the songs are good... But the show is BORING! I recently saw a production of it. The leads were great, the ensemble was great and I was still BORED OUT OF MY MIND! And I LOVE the old school musical theater stuff!

#24

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 1:03pm

Songsstresss ...you must have seen a very poorly directed production - She Loves Me is anything but boring.

#25

re: SHE LOVES ME: Will this show EVER be a hit?!

Posted: 9/7/05 at 3:51pm

Congratulations, Songsstresss. You are first person I've EVER heard call this show boring. Ever! And I've been talking to theatre people about this show for almost ten years!

Praying Decca Broadway will put "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" on CD!

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