Leads Set for She Loves Me at Paper Mill
by Broadway Staff • Sep 13, 2004
Nancy Anderson will leave Wonderful Town to step into the role of Ilona Ritter in the Paper Mill Playhouse mounting of She Loves Me. The cast will also feature Michele Ragusa as Amalia Balash, George Dvorsky as Georg Nowack, Bradford Anderson as Arpad Laszlo, David Hess as Steven Kodaly, Bill Bateman as Ladislav Sipos, George S. Irving as Mr. Maraczek and Ed Dixon as Headwaiter.
"She Loves Me is my all time favorite show," Anderson told Broadway.com. "I just think it's a perfect musical. I have been dying to do it my whole career. I'd really love to play Amalia, but I auditioned and they were like: 'No, she is an Ilona.' Which of course I am!"
Anderson, who plays Helen in Wonderful Town, but she is going on as Eileen Sherwood for the next two weeks, will play her final Wonderful Town performance on October 21. She is known for her Drama Desk Award-nominated performance in Jolson & Company, a role in A Class Act both on and off-Broadway and appearances in Kiss Me, Kate in the national tour and in London. Ragusa took over for Anderson as Mona in A Class Act on Broadway. She has also appeared on the Great White Way in Cyrano-The Musical, Titanic, Ragtime and Urinetown. Dvorsky, who starred as Pete in off-Broadway's Pete 'n' Keely and last appeared on the Paper Mill stage in Anything Goes opposite Chita Rivera, has appeared on Broadway in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Marilyn, Passion, Gentleman Prefer Blondes and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Anderson notably played the lead role of Valentine LaMar in the Goodspeed Musicals 2002 mounting of a revised Babes in Arms. Hess appeared on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun. Bateman has been featured on the Great White Way in Peter Pan, Bring Back Birdie and Hello, Dolly!. Irving won a 1973 Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony Award for his performance in Irene and was again nominated for the award in 1987 for Me and My Girl. Dixon's Broadway credits include No, No, Nanette, The Three Musketeers, Les Miserables, Cyrano-The Musical, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Iceman Cometh and Gore Vidal's The Best Man.
"She Loves Me is my all time favorite show," Anderson told Broadway.com. "I just think it's a perfect musical. I have been dying to do it my whole career. I'd really love to play Amalia, but I auditioned and they were like: 'No, she is an Ilona.' Which of course I am!"
Anderson, who plays Helen in Wonderful Town, but she is going on as Eileen Sherwood for the next two weeks, will play her final Wonderful Town performance on October 21. She is known for her Drama Desk Award-nominated performance in Jolson & Company, a role in A Class Act both on and off-Broadway and appearances in Kiss Me, Kate in the national tour and in London. Ragusa took over for Anderson as Mona in A Class Act on Broadway. She has also appeared on the Great White Way in Cyrano-The Musical, Titanic, Ragtime and Urinetown. Dvorsky, who starred as Pete in off-Broadway's Pete 'n' Keely and last appeared on the Paper Mill stage in Anything Goes opposite Chita Rivera, has appeared on Broadway in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Marilyn, Passion, Gentleman Prefer Blondes and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Anderson notably played the lead role of Valentine LaMar in the Goodspeed Musicals 2002 mounting of a revised Babes in Arms. Hess appeared on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun. Bateman has been featured on the Great White Way in Peter Pan, Bring Back Birdie and Hello, Dolly!. Irving won a 1973 Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony Award for his performance in Irene and was again nominated for the award in 1987 for Me and My Girl. Dixon's Broadway credits include No, No, Nanette, The Three Musketeers, Les Miserables, Cyrano-The Musical, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Iceman Cometh and Gore Vidal's The Best Man.
She Loves Me features a book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. Set in Budapest in the 1930s, the musical centers on two intensely competitive perfume shop clerks, Amalia Balash and Georg Nowack, who find romance with the most unlikely people--each other.
The Paper Mill mounting of tuner, directed by James Brennan, is scheduled to run from October 27 though December 5.
--Cara Joy David, Broadway.com