The holidays are coming early with PlayMakers' "She Loves Me"

Not even a Halloween celebration as large as Chapel Hill’s annual Franklin Street fiasco is big enough to drown out the earliest signs of the Christmas season.

“She Loves Me,”a romantic musical comedy, will be shown by  PlayMakers Repertory Company  from Nov. 14 through Dec. 2.

It’s a holiday show in the same way that “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Die Hard” are Christmas movies — the plot ends during Christmas time.

Brittany Petruzzi, PlayMakers' marketing and communications associate, explained that until recently, there were no professionally done plays in Chapel Hill around Christmas.

“If you’re a Chapel Hill resident, you have to travel to Durham or to Raleigh to get your holiday fix at the theater, and so for the last couple years we’ve been trying to make sure Chapel Hill residents have somewhere to go right here at home for the holidays," Petruzzi said. 

Though “She Loves Me” isn’t as famous as “The Sound of Music,” Petruzzi called it a forgotten gem of former Broadway shows. Petruzzi said she is especially excited about one of the show’s songs in particular: "Vanilla Ice Cream."

 “It’s one of the most beloved musical theater songs for sopranos,” Petruzzi said.

Jennifer Latimer, who will be playing Amalia, the show’s female lead, will be singing the famous tune come showtime.

“I love playing her because the songs are so beautiful, and it’s written so exquisitely because she has a journey,” Latimer said.

“She Loves Me” is the story of two co-workers who, at first, can’t stand one another. Slowly they fall in love as pen-pals, before discovering each other’s true identities. The plot was later revived in the movie “You’ve Got Mail”.

Latimer said that though the story is centered on the aloof lovers, Georg and Amalia, there are several side plots woven throughout the cast of around 15.

“It’s really a story about perseverance and how each of those characters does,” Latimer said.

Harold Prince originally put the show on Broadway. Kirsten Sanderson, the director of PlayMakers’ upcoming production of “She Loves Me,” happened to be Prince’s director mentee.

Sanderson said many of the characters in “She Loves Me” are tested in the tough, working-class World War II-era world that the play is set in.

“It isn’t all happiness and sunshine," she said. "There are dark elements, there are upsetting things that happen. People are fired, people have their marriages fall apart, people are cheated on. There’s a lot of sort of dark human character in here that’s modified in the singing. The music is the element in the show that lifts our characters out of their mundane, everyday pain."

Sanderson added that the play has a certain timeless quality because it is a celebration of the working class. She hopes people will be able to identify with the struggles that they will see onstage.

“As a director, I want you to come here and see yourself, struggling with your job, in your economy, and see how these people do, and to make it relatable,” Sanderson said.

arts@dailytarheel.com