In 1937, just before he fled Hungary and
ultimately became a naturalised American, Miklós László wrote one of
the best-beloved romcoms that nobody’s heard of. Known in English as
Parfumerie, the play subsequently
became three movies – Ernst Lubitsch’s
The Shop Around The Corner, the
Judy Garland vehicle
In The Good Old
Summertime and Nora Ephron’s
You’ve
Got Mail – as well as this Broadway musical. You know the story:
it’s the one about the two work colleagues who can’t stand each other
but are also in love through anonymous correspondence.
Jerry Bock’s score and Sheldon Harnick’s lyrics in this 1963 version
are bouncy and innocent in the manner of golden-age musicals, and
Matthew White’s production is very much in those twin keys. Mark Umbers
and Scarlett Strallen as the central couple, Georg and Amalia, are not
always perfectly engaging; Strallen’s singing voice in particular,
though strong and sweet, has an oddly cut-glass accent slightly at odds
with her spoken character, until the second-act number where she
realises Georg likes her because he has bought her “Vanilla Ice Cream”.
If Umbers is less than utterly sympathetic as Georg, he’s often
endearing in his uffishness, as when, whilst having a row with Amalia
in a swish café, he casually pours a brimming glass of wine and downs
it in one.
White’s production is full of such delightful notes, and is blessed
moreover with a magnificent supporting cast. Les Dennis is too seldom
appreciated as an actor, and as Mr Maraczek (the owner of the perfume
shop where Georg and Amalia work) he diligently gives the firmest
foundation for others, including Callum Howells as an over-eager
delivery boy and Katherine Kingsley as the more worldly assistant who,
in speech and song alike, utters all her most meaningful phrases in a
filthy baritone. White has his cast use English accents (well, Howells
is Welsh), which leads at one point to the cheeky rhyme of “work” with
the RP pronunciation “cl
Ark”.
Rebecca Howell’s choreography is perky rather than flashy, which is as
it should be. All in all, the show comes up smelling of roses.
Written for the Financial
Times.