REVIEW: Sullivan Theater’s “She Loves Me” invites you to fall in love the old fashioned way

Straight-laced parfumerie clerk Georg Nowack (Ben Dubin) is in love. Too bad things everywhere else in his life are not going nearly as well.

Maraczek, the upscale parfumerie in Europe where he’s been dutifully employed, has a new employee: eager but slightly chaotic Amalia Balash (Kristina Cawthon). Georg and Amalia immediately get off on the wrong foot because she causes him to lose a bet in the process of getting hired. They become fast workplace rivals, and Georg’s boss, Mr. Maraczek, is suddenly unsatisfied with his work performance.

Luckily, Georg has a life outside of his job. He posted a lonely hearts ad in the paper and has started corresponding with someone he knows only as “Dear Friend,” and he thinks she’s the one. They have so much in common. He anxiously awaits her letters.

Little does he know his new dream girl is none other than Amalia.

“She Loves Me” is a 1963 Broadway musical that inspired the movie “You’ve Got Mail,” and they have essentially the same basic plot except “She Loves Me” is set in a perfume store where both love interests work.

The Sullivan Theater’s production is clever. The sets, designed by Dave Freneaux, masterfully make use of the limited space with a store exterior set that folds out to reveal the store’s beautiful interior. Director, Landon Corbin, has staged a joyful and visually progressive show. The visual gags hit, and the sound effects are timed and executed well.

Since the book is a product of the ’60s, inspired by a play written in the ’30s, it’s only natural that some elements of the script, which is set in the ’30s, don’t age well. For example, in the middle of the play, another parfumerie employee, Ilona (Kamryn Hecker), is tired of playing games with Steven Kodaly (Thomas Jackson) and decides to take love into her own hands. She declares that she plans to find a man at the library (what a win for book lovers everywhere).

It works, and she starts dating an optometrist but then she sings that “a trip to the library has made a new girl of me” because she finally sees the magic in books and marvels at how an “illiterate girl” like her attracted him (not a win for feminism).

But Corbin also makes some subtle choices in this production which bring it into the modern era. For example, the cafe known for romantic rendezvous is shown with one straight couple and one lesbian couple.

While it took the cast a few scenes to really find their footing on the stage, once they did, they shined. Actor Calla Harper’s excitement is infectious as delivery boy Arpad Laszlo. Cawthon and Dubin make a convincing couple you can’t help but root for even when they’re bickering like an old married couple before they get together.

The musical harkens back to a time before internet dating, when potential connections were not determined by a split-second swiping decision on dating apps.

Could you love someone if you didn’t even know what they looked like? It’s almost impossible to know nowadays when social media and Google make years worth of peoples’ life history accessible within a few keystrokes. Barring a show like “Love is Blind” which makes a gimmick of not letting you see your potential partner, people looking for love these days are inundated with images, choices and a whole lot of speculation.

“She Loves Me” might be set in the ’30s, but it’ll make you want to believe some version of it could happen today. Love might be closer than you think, it seems to say, you might just need a little push.

“She Loves Me” is running through Sunday, Oct. 27. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.sullivantheater.com.