Customer Reviews

She Loves Me (1994 London Revival Cast)

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

SHE LOVES ME is one of the most delightful musicals ever written. This cast album is from the acclaimed 1994 West End revival which starred the delightful Ruthie Henshall.

The beloved Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick score is perfectly performed. The strong cast includes John Gordon Sinclair as Georg Nowack, Tracie Bennett as Ilona Ritter, Barry James as Ladislav Sipos and Gerard Casey as Steven Kodaly.

Ruthie Henshall takes on the dream-role of Amalia Balash. Though the role is still virtually defined and owned by Barbara Cook, Henshall brings a lovely sweetness and weight to the character. She also reveals her rarely-utilised lyric soprano voice, which is breathtaking in show pieces like "Vanilla Ice Cream", "Will He Like Me?", "No More Candy" and the frenzied, utterly-delightful "Where's My Shoe?".

I have said it many times; I truly belive that the Sheldon-Bock score is the best written by the pair, even easily surpassing their biggest hit, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

SHE LOVES ME is a real treat for any musical theater fan. The score is superbly delicious, just like vanilla ice cream...

If you love Ruthie Henshall then you HAVE to own her Olivier winning performance of Amalia Balash in the romantic, musical comdey SHE LOVES ME. Even if you don't love Ruthie, or don't know who she is you will truly appreciate the wonderful and witty score.

Ruthie Henshall of such Musicals as LES MISERABLES (Fantine 10th Anniverasry Concert on CD), Crazy For You (Polly, OLC on CD), and CHICAGO (The definitive Roxie, OLC on CD) shines brightly in this musical comedy written in the 60's. It originally starred Broadway Diva Barbara Cook (of MUSICA MAN fame). Also starring John Gordon Sinclair of "Gregory's Girl" fame. (Ruthie and John became engaged during the run of the show, but years later it was broken.) The story closely resembles the movie "YOU'VE GOT MAIL" where the two email each other and are in love on line, only thing is that they hate each other in real life. But they don't know it's them online! Same story only they're penpals. It's back to the essence of Musical Comedy, complete with sidekick friend, Ilona, played by Tracie Bennett, who does well with her songs.

Notable Songs in this simple, yet catchy score include "Three Letters" sung by Sinclair and Henshall when they're romance is starting to grow through letters. "I Don't Know His Name" the hilarious duet between Henshall and Bennett about the history of lovers they've had. "Will He Like Me?" Henshall's moving solo on the distressing question when they finally meet, will he like her? "Dear Friend" has Henshall once again questioning the soon to be relationship of the two penpals. As the story progress Amalia (Henshall) becomes frantic and explodes in a tantrome in the fall-down-funny "Where's My Shoe?" This song alone is worth the purchase of this CD. It only runs about 2 minutes, but let me tell you the vocal acrobatics that Miss Henshall brings forth! She certainly makes it her own, just like "Roxie" in CHICAGO! (For those of you who haven't heard the London Cast with Ruthie as Roxie, you are missing out!!) "Vanilla Ice Cream" probably the most famous song from the show is sung to perfection by, yet again Miss Henshall. She's singing about the man she hates, Georg (her penpal), who finally seems nice and worth while because he brought her ice cream while she was sick. "She Loves Me" has Sinclair singing his heart out over the realization that she's his penpal! Bennet gets to ham it up with her sexy solo "A Trip To The Library." "Twelve Days Of Christmas" shows the slow progression of the romance between the two, even though she still doesn't know he's her penpal. Of course the finale has the "happily ever after syndrome, but what do expect from Musical Theatre??

This CD is such a gem, it should be in every Musical Theatre Lover's collection! Don't be caught without it! Especially when Ruthie skyrockets to stardome and you're left to search for a copy...and they're out of print!! :)

Please pay no heed to the comment above. Diane is on the Broadway revival recording, this is the London revival. Ruthie Henshall and John Gordon-Sinclair are absolutely amazing! Ruthie won her Best Actress in a Musical award for this show and the show itself won four others. This is a simply amazing recording. A must have. Besides, with Ruthie Henshall how could you go wrong???

This is not only one of my favorite musicals of all time, I love this recording. I suppose I am partial because I fell in love with this particular production when I was studying in England in 1995. I was watching the Sir Lawrence Oliver Awards (British version of the Tony's) and I was delighted by Ruthie Henshall singing "Vanilla Ice Cream." I vowed to see the show before I left London, but was soon drawn into the more glitzy shows (i.e., Sunset Blvd., Cats, Miss Saigon) that were on the west end at the time. However, right before I left, a friend and her mother wanted to see a show. We stood in the rush ticket booth line at Picadilly Circus (we got there about an hour before it opened) and waited for 2 hours. Originally we wanted to see Sunset Blvd., but the only musical that had available tickets for that night was "She Loves Me." Not only were they rush tickets and very cheap (about $15 each), but they were in the front row of the very cozy Savoy Theatre. It was the finest production I have ever seen live (and I have seen over 100 professional shows in my life).

Admittedly, John Gordon-SInclair (such a British name!) was not the best singer, but he was absolutely endearing as Georg. He reminded me of Tim Robbins. Tracy Bennett, whom I had been watching on some British soap that I can't recall the name of was passable in her singing of Ilona, but was a great actress. The songs for this production (I have the score for both shows) WAS lowered but not just for Bennett. Ruthie Hensall's songs like " Dear Friend" and "Vanilla Ice Cream" were lowered a key. Regardless, this was a fine show and the recording does justice better than any other show that I have seen.

Just a note, this story does not resemble "You've Got Mail." That movie resembles this musical. The musical came first. It is based on a play by Miklos Laszlo that was turned into the movie "Shop Atround the Corner," starring James Stewart. It was later adapted to a movie musical called "In the Good Old Summertime" which starred Judy Garland. Then came "She Loves Me" in 1963 and then "You've Got Mail." Don't get me wrong. I like "You've Got Mail," but I like for people to also know that this musical was not based on that movie.

No matter what, this is the best version of the musical. I love Barbara Cook's voice. I even had a chance to see her sing recently and she can still hit the high C at the end of Vanilla Ice Cream. Nonetheless, Ruthie has a much richer and expressive voice in my opinion and overall that singing is much better.

I bought this CD simply because of the name Ruthie Henshall, and sure enough I loved it! Her vocal range is incredible, from her witty dialogue ("No More Candy"), growling belts ("Where's My Shoe", to her mezzo-soprano golden voice ("Will He Like Me?", "Vanilla Ice Cream") that grabs you and won't let go. Not only is Ruthie splendid in this recording but she has a fine and strong supporting cast as well. The songs are very catchy and sweet ranging from "Three Letters", "Dear Friend", "No More Candy", to the heartfelt "Will He Like Me?" to the hilarious "Where's My Shoe?" and "Vanilla Ice Cream". The strong score and cast make this CD is a must buy, especially for the sentimental comedy lovers. Ruthie is divine!

My very favorite of all the shows written by this team, including "Fiddler on the Roof." And this is the second of three albums of this musical, including the original with Cook, Massey, & Cassidy, plus the more recent revival on Broadway with Boyd Gaines. Ruthie Henshalll shines, as always. Does her own version, rather than copy Cook. A must have album, along with the two others.

Disc came quickly and easily. I was pleased with the price from one of Amazon's affiliated sellers. Ruthie Henshall, in "the Barbara Cook part" is a revelation. She may not top Cook's Carnegie Hall renditions of her numbos, but she gives them a run for the money. Personally, I love new versions of old musicals. This version has excellent sound and a characterful cast. Got me to write a review, didn't it?

I don't understand the previous reviews - I found this recording positively dreadful, with Ruthie Henshall being the only one worth listening to. John Sinclair is abominable as George - he sounds like he's doing a (bad) imitation of Michael Crawford in "Hello, Dolly." He does strange things to his words - I guess he's trying not to sound British, but why is he singing "Summ-ar weath-ar" instead of "summer weather"? The Ilona is a bass - almost literally. "I Resolve" has been lowered for her, and yet she still cannot master the range of the song. To accomodate her, the second part of "I Don't Know His Name" has a truly odd key change. Were she remotely talented I could understand key changes to facilitate her singing, but she's not worth it. The orchestrations are odd, too, with strange sleigh bell sounds appearing frequently. The rest of the singers range from fair (Kodaly - a pretty voice but not much expression) to bad (Mr. Maraczek drags down EVERY SINGLE NOTE of "Days Gone By." Luckily this is his only song.) The Broadway revival, to my ear, still has the best voices, except, of course, that Barbara Cook (the original) outshines Diane Fratantoni, who is merely good (but who was a vast improvement over the Roundabout's original Amalia, the annoying Judy Kuhn.) Get the original or revival recordings instead - this London version I would recommend only to die-hard SHE LOVES ME fans, or masochists. I'd rather sit through another terrible viewing of "You've Got Mail" than listen to this again!

Here's a tip: a friend of mine performed in a concert with Diane Fratantoni, who here sings Amalia, and he said her voice is so soft & weak, she MUST be miked to the hilt or you cannot hear her. This cd does have very good orchestrations and a better singer as Illona than Barbara Baxley back in 1964, but I veer towards the 1963 recording with Barbara Cook & Jack Cassidy.