"She Loves Me"

Kristin Shoop Jenko and Jim Fitzpatrick

Kim Misci

Arlington Friends of the Drama presented a sparkling production of She Loves Me, a musical based on a play by Miklos Laszlo that also inspired the films The Little Shop Around the Corner and You've Got Mail.

She Loves Me is a hopeful work. Perfume shop employees Georg Nowack (Jim Fitzpatrick) and Amalia Balash (Kristin Shoop Jenko) are constantly fighting at work but unaware that they have responded to each other's lonely-heart ads--they've used aliases--and become secret friends. By the end of the play they discover the truth and love triumphs. Amalia sings:

Ice cream. He brought me ice cream!

Vanilla ice cream! Imagine that!

Ice cream, and for the first time we were together without a spat!

Ilona (Ann McCoy), another shop employee, also finds love, at the library: A trip to the library has made a new girl of me.

Here's to vanilla ice cream--Sheila Rehrig made sure there was plenty at the production party-- libraries, brilliant musical director Brian Rehrig, director J. Mark Baumhardt, the crew and designers, and a cast that sang marvelously.

At the production party I asked whether I could take pictures. "We're actors!" someone answered.

left, Matthew Kossack; David Herder

Sheila Rehrig hosted the production party

left, Ann Mccoy; music director, Brian Rehrig

James Grana

Melissa Fenton

center, director J. Mark Baumhardt