CECIL DESTINATION Loves Me’ opens 2023 Season at Milburn Stone Theater

By Barbara Norton

NORTH EAST - Curtain up.

Light the lights. Live theatre is back, and the Milburn Stone Theatre at Cecil College production of She Loves Me is a great reminder of all we’ve been missing.

The Tony-award winning musical opened on Broadway in 1963 and has been revived many times since.

Georg (played by Steven Soltow) and Amalia (played by Krysta Stefanosky) fall into the trap many people do …they are so busy looking for love in all the wrong places that they can’t see it standing right in front of them. Both have answered a newspaper lonely hearts ad and have no idea their “Dear Friend” letters are being exchanged with the perfume shop co-worker they don’t particularly get along with. If the plot sounds familiar, you probably saw Tom

Hanks and Meg Ryan in the movie You’ve Got Mail. This play and the movie are both based on Parfumerie, a play by Miklos Laszlo.

Under the direction of Andrew Mitchell, the company demonstrates what’s best about community theatre. Lead actors Soltow and Stefanosky radiate star quality and light up the stage in every scene. Their singing voices are strong and their acting is first rate. Right be- hind them are the supporting cast who play the staff of the parfumerie. Each of them has developed an believable character. Suzanne Stein as spunky Miss Ritter and Bobby Hamilton as the humorously villainous Mr. Kodaly bring energy and personality to their performances. Mark Dixon has some very touching moments as shop-owner Mr. Maraczek. The Ensemble of shoppers and everyone else in the cast seem dedicated to the task of entertaining the audience. continued on pg2

Mitchell keeps the pace moving briskly, ensuring that as a character leaves from stage left another is entering from stage right. The scenery is minimal – mostly stand-alone doors and windows, or a couple of tables and chairs. The exception was the perfume shop with its wall of perfume bottles.

‘She Loves Me’

Some of this may be attributable to the low budget many community theatres must cope with, but the quick set changes worked here. Kudos to the technical staffs, props people, costume and stage crews no one ever sees.

Stephanie Millward’s choreography is sweet, uncomplicated and nicely done. As for the music, many of the songs are enjoyable because they advance the story of that character. For instance, when Kodaly cancels his date with Miss Ritter she sings that in future “I resolve not to be so stupid because I always end up with a rat!” However, the weakness is that there are too many of these “patter” songs with no melody. The show contains only one toe-topping, let-me-hum-this-as-I-leavethe-theatre tune and that is She Loves Me. And it comes nearly at the end. That being said, Steven Soltow’s terrific rendition of the title song brought the house down. Get your tickets now for 8:00 pm performanc- es on April 28th and 29th and a 2:00 pm matinee on April 30. Box Office hours are Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, Wednesday and Friday from 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm, and 3 hours prior to show time. Go to boxoffice@cecil.edu or call 410-287-1037.

She Loves Me

Book by Joe Masteroff Music by Jerry Bock

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Based on a Play by Miklos Laszlo

Presented by special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI)

The Milburn Stone Theatre at Cecil College is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Program funded in part with a grant from the Cecil County Arts Council, Inc., as provided by the state of Maryland State Arts Council.

Arpad Laszlo

CAST

(in order of appearance)

Ladislav Sipos

Ilona Ritter

Steven Kodaly

Georg Nowack

Mr. Maraczek

Amalia Balash

Mr. Keller

Jonah Olsen

Dale Fleetwood

Suzanne Stein

Bobby Hamilton

Steven Soltow

Mark Dixon

Krysta Stefanosky

Bill Campbell

Ensemble: Arianna Costantini, Kristy Echols, Becky Edwards, Jeremy Edwards, Maggie Engstrom, Brian Fields, Maria Glockner, Jenna Horblinski, Mindy Olsen, Liz Zimmerman

PRODUCTION STAFF Director Andrew Mitchell

Music Director Trey Pope

Choreographer Stephanie Persons Millward

Set Designer Baz Wenger

Props Master & Costume Coordinator Dann Combs

Lighting Designer Matt J. Coyle

Audio Engineer Jen Scorziello

Master Electrician & Seamster Wyatt D. Thompson

Stage Manager Cayla Kerr

Run Crew

Hannah Cullip

Larry Murphy

Stephanie Persons Millward