Molly Elash and George Novack are two characters who fall on the lines between bickering and love, while working in a perfumery located in Budapest, Germany in 1939.These secret pen pals, played by Point Park University’s very own senior musical theater majors, Breanna Pursell (Molly Elash) and Justin Fortunato (George Novack), take the leads of “She Loves Me,” an older version of 1998 movie, “You’ve Got Mail.”Fortunato and Pursell also worked together in the previous production of “Seussical” at the Pittsburgh Playhouse’s Children’s Theater.The chemistry between Molly and George and the spirit of the holidays combine for the creation of a wonderful musical that debuts at Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse this evening for an 8:00 p.m. show.”It’s intelligent and smart, witty … it’s unabashedly romantic. Nobody is embarrassed about it,” Director Jack Allison said. “It makes you laugh, it makes you cry. It’s based on many lives, and it’s hard to do.”Allison has been the head of the musical theater department at Point Park for eight years and “She Loves Me” is the thirteenth production that he has directed at the university.”[I love] seeing young actors learn to appreciate the intelligence, musicality and wit of the period and style of it,” Allison said. “It’s something that came easily to me because I came up in a different generation than musical theater. People are not exposed to the theatrical sensibility … the biggest joy is from seeing them ‘get it.'””She Loves Me,” Allison’s favorite musical, is also remade after the famous movie, “The Little Shop Around the Corner,” starring Jimmy Stewart, and the play, “In the Good Ol’ Summertime in the Fifties.””I think the style of the piece is very different,” Pursell said. “This show, I’m working with Jack Allison and it’s interesting to see the different points of view and how knowledgeable he is. He is so patient with all of us.”Pursell also admitted that this production was her favorite musical of all time and is excited to see what it “brings to the table.”Maggie Carr, the assistant director of the show, describes the production as “a classic love story,” and although she is still a student at Point Park, she is working side by side with Jack Allison to bring this show to life.”It’s about two people who, because they don’t think they’re worth it, of capable of being loved, find out that they are, that’s the appeal of it,” Carr said. “We always look and hope that there will be somebody who will make a difference in our life, this is a play where it happens with lucky people.”The storyline takes place around the winter holidays and when the secret pen pals discover their mysterious love for each other on Christmas Eve, the magical ways of the season proves that “love does win.””I love the sentimentality of it, the wit of it, its charm. From an outside observer, it may seem to be cheesy,” Fortunato said. “The actors are playing with truth that comes across as heartwarming and charming when average people in an average job find this extraordinary thing of love.”‘She loves me’ will run from Friday, Dec. 9 through Sunday, Dec.19 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.”This is a wonderful, romantic, holiday Christmas show that is truthful and lavish and will definitely put you in the holiday spirit,” Fortunato said.
‘She Loves Me’ shares ‘unabashedly romantic’ secrets
Written By Ashley Goodsell
June 29, 2016
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