She Loves Me - Menier Chocolate Factory

Not totally correct George. They have reworked it with the interior set used and the exterior parts performed at the front of the stage.

No need to apologise George. He prob put it on Instagram b4 it was decided how the show would run.

Shame I didn't know u were tonight Lynette or I would have said hi.

O what a shame. I didn't know about the cancellation of course. We were told they spent the afternoon redoing the show so I suppose they had to for future performances. They were tired, they dropped a cup in the last scene and it broke. They just stopped from total giggles and one of them made a joke about drinking out of the bottle. And her character did that anyway.

Revolve problems hopefully fixed this morning and then should all be back to normal.

Great! Glad it'll be all sorted for when I visit!

Is there much audience connection in the show? For Funny Girl, there was loads of audience interaction and it would've worked SO well in the Menier as it's so small.

Never been to the theatre before but I love the idea of being right in front of the performers!

Far more detailed than my response. Thanks.
Also high numbers are within touching distance of the lovely Mark Umbers. So tempting...... .

Also, I think this must transfer?! It would work SO well in a smaller venue like the Playhouse, Duke of York's, Wyndhams etc. Don't want to loose the intimacy though!

I was at yesterday's matinee too so saw the same show as you but, funnily enough, I disagree with most of what you thought!

I LOVED Katherine Kingsley and she stole the show for me. She was hilarious and I loved her accent. Great musical theatre actress all round, in my opinion, and I hope she does more musicals too.

Scarlett Strallen was great for me and I loved her voice, she's funny and Ice Cream was amazing!! Les Dennis played his character well, imo, and I didn't think he had no warmth. Mark Umbers has got a good voice. 

Agree whole ensemble are good, wish there was more Dancing numbers like in the cafe. 12 days to Xmas was brilliant! 

Only person I didnt like was the actor understudying Dominic Tighe - who I'm upset wasn't on. I agree I probably wouldn't see it again but I still loved it!

Just back from this. Lovely, sweet and I left with a smile on my face. It's a good score, and there are some lovely performances here although Les Dennis will never escape the memory of his Mavis impersonations!

My thoughts on this:

A delightful revival of the Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock musical is running on London’s fringe right now, and I heartily recommend it.

You might have come across this story before, in the films ‘The Shop Around The Corner’, ‘In The Good Old Summertime’ or ‘You’ve Got Mail’. You might have seen the versions shown on television in 1978 and on digital live-streaming last year.

Georg Nowack (played at the performance I saw by understudy Peter Dukes, who was rather good, if a little plain) is an awkward bachelor who serves as one of the sales clerks in the perfumery of Mr Maraczek (Les Dennis, whose decision to use a truly awful accent colours his role) in 1930s Budapest. He’s been corresponding with an unknown lady after placing an ad in the lonely hearts column, and he’s going to meet her soon for the first time.

Amalia Balash (a perky Scarlett Strallen, who steals the show with her “Vanilla Ice Cream”) comes to the shop for a job and instantly finds herself at odds with Nowack, and she is also corresponding with a ‘Dear Friend’ which we quickly find out, is her nemesis himself. In the meantime, Ilona Ritter, a vision of bad hair dye and thick make-up (played with scene-stealing effervescence by Katherine Kingsley, who has a whole library of comic expressions and barely disguised malice) is dating smarmy cad and fellow shop-worker Steven Kodaly (Kingsley’s real-life spouse, Dominic Tighe, who is perfectly hissable) and watching her life slowly slip away.

The main cast is rounded out by Ladislav Sipos (Alastair Brookshaw, playing the twitchy family man who ‘never disagrees’, with aplomb) and a new discovery, Callum Howells as delivery boy Arpad Lazslow, whose “Try Me” is an Act 2 delight. Norman Pace has joined the cast as Head Waiter, and he’s lots of fun in the restaurant scene, and surprisingly strong-voiced. I also liked the couple who found romance through reading: “Victor!” “Hugo!”

For a fringe production in a small venue, a lot of thought has gone into the revolving sets and production design, and Paul Farnsworth definitely deserves praise for his sparkles, bright colours, and leaf/snow combination indicators of the change of the seasons. Fine choreography too, and a more-than-decent house band give the fifty-something songs life and breadth (although the repetitive ‘Thank you madam’ refrains could easily be chopped after the first couple of times). If only the wigs had looked a little more realistic, it would have been quite perfect; but this is a fun little confection that certainly raises a smile in this winter season.