Much of the action in She Loves Me–the effortlessly romantic musical from Joe Masteroff (book), Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics)–takes place within Maraczek’s, a perfume shop in 1930s Budapest. Amalia and Georg’s co-workers have to endure the bickering
The owner of the perfume shop, Mr. Maraczek, will be played by Ross Lehman. Ross has been seen before at Writers’ Theatre in our productions of As You Like It, The Uneasy Chair and Bach at Leipzig. He has also appeared on Broadway in The Tempest, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, in addition to working around Chicago at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Apple Tree Theatre.
Kevin Gudahl will be featured as Ladislav Sipos, a clerk in the shop and good friend to Georg. Kevin was last seen at
Writers’ playing Rev. James Morrell in the world premiere musical, A Minister’s Wife, but also played our Glencoe stages in Othello and The Doctor’s Dilemma. He spent five seasons at the illustrious Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada and appeared in the films While You Were Sleeping, Home Alone III and the TV show Early Edition. Kevin has acted at many Chicago theatres, including Chicago Shakespeare, Court Theatre, Goodman, Northlight Theatre, Marriott, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater and Apple Tree.
Ilona Ritter, the shop’s cashier who is luckless at love and always picks the wrong men, will be played by Heidi Kettenring. This will be Heidi’s Writers’ theatre debut, after helping us with the original musical A Minister’s Wife at a developmental workshop. She has appeared in Broadway in Chicago’s Wicked, in addition to work with Marriott, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Court, Chicago Shakespeare, Nortlight, Theatre at the Center and American Theatre Company. She has also sung concerts at Ravinia Festival and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Steven Kodaly, a clerk at Maraczek’s whom Ilona has taken up with against her better judgment, will be played by 
James Rank. James understudied the role of Rev. Morell in 2009’s A Minister’s Wife and took over the role for the last two weeks of performances. He has worked at Next Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare, Drury Lane, Light Opera Works, Peninsula Players, Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera. He has also sung concerts at Ravinia and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Bernard Balbot will make his Writers’ Theatre debut as Arpad, the shop’s delivery boy with higher aspirations. Bernard has appeared in Yeast Nation and It’s A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play at American Theatre Company, and A Christmas Carol at Drury Lane Oakbrook, in addition to appearing regionally at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and Hangar theatre. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and and also studied with the Moscow Art Theater School.
She Loves Me will be directed by Writers’ Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam. Performances begin September 14 at 325 Tudor Court in Glencoe.
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