she loves me

Director’s Note

Shop Around the Corner, a classic 1940 film starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, is the inspiration behind many remakes including You’ve Got Mail and the musical She Loves Me. In this story, two feuding store clerks fall in love with pen pals they found in advertisements in the newspaper. As they anticipate their eventual meetings, they are faced with doubts, insecurities and high hopes for what will be, not knowing that they are in fact writing to each other.

My generation is perhaps one of the last generations to have actual “snail-mail” pen pals. Last summer, I came across a large bin of letters, dating from my early childhood through college. The letters were organized in neat, chronological piles according to who had sent them. Since I was a small child I remember the sacredness of receiving mail, and my reluctance to throw any of it away because each letter contained special life stories that someone had taken time to write down and tell me. I thought for sure I would want to read each letter again and again. Letter writing was a ritual with special stationary and pens, and was associated with the long-term comfort of communication so quickly found today by technology.

Likewise, my generation is the first generation to use online dating – the evolution of what newspaper advertisements have become. I met my husband online. When we first connected, I was in another state for the summer and so we communicated primarily by e-mail. One of the things that stood out about my husband was his ability to be eloquent with words and engage me in “pages” of conversation even though we had never met. As we grew closer through words, the anticipation of meeting each other was somewhat wrought with the angst of living up to the words we had written.

This musical resonates the excitement of receiving a letter from someone important, and the anticipation, apprehension and vulnerability tied to meeting someone you have never met, but have such high hopes for. The music in this show is masterfully written to articulate the characters’ most endearing, heart breaking, and vulnerable moments in a way that everyone can relate to. I hope you fall in love with these songs and words as I have over the past few months. I hope they stay with you just like the eloquent words of a hand written letter from a dear friend.\

 -Stephanie Dean