PicksInSix Review: She Loves Me - Dunes Arts Summer Theatre

At the Dunes, Love Conquers All!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Chicago-based Artistic Director Steve Scott has been creating a unique and highly developed string of productions, youth programs and cabarets in recent years at the Dunes Arts Summer Theatre in Michigan City. Scott, with the able leadership of Managing Director Elise Kermani, has attracted and developed talent during the summer season at the theater in the woods on Shady Oak Drive that now guarantees a level of entertainment unmatched in the region. It is all translating into higher visibility, a growing subscriber base and a long range plan that has been enhancing the nearly 75 year-old venue just in time for next season’s Diamond Anniversary.

The facility has gone through a steady transformation that is immediately apparent when you settle into the comfortable and cool theater that is now featuring the Scott-directed musical “She Loves Me” which is running on select dates through August 10. Based on the 1937 Miklos Laszio play “Parfumerie,” it is a familiar story for those romantics among us, adapted and starring James Stewart in the 1941 film “The Shop Around the Corner” and in 1998 was the basis for the hit film “You’ve Got Mail.”  

And it was in 1963 that the story of star-crossed lovers who meet through the Lonely Hearts Club and end up coworkers in Maraczek's Parfumerie became the Broadway musical “She Loves Me,” with a book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. The show was revived in 2016 and has been widely produced in recent years—a mid-sized musical that fits perfectly in the Dunes on a wonderfully functional set by longtime designer Michael Lasswell, whose investment in the quality of the Dunes stagecraft is one of the theater’s signature elements, along with stunning period costumes by Emily Chidalek and Arturo Pozos lighting design.

At the heart of the story is the budding relationship between Mr. Maraczek’s right hand, Georg Nowack (Tristan Haberland) and a new, strong-willed salesperson, Amalia Balash (Kate Turner), each yearning to meet the mysterious special friend they know only from the letters that they write to each other. We quickly learn that something is troubling Mr. Maraczek (Khyel Roberson) and with no one to turn to except the ambitious delivery boy Arpad Laszio (Jackson Mikkelsen), he looks elsewhere for the answer. Along the way, there is another on again, off again relationship between two other coworkers: the womanizer Steven Kodaly (Tommy O’Brien) and the steamy Illona Ritter (Emmie Reigel). Of course, nothing happens in the shop or gets by Ladislav Sipos (Jake Busse) who has a keen eye for the young lovers especially as the truth about another relationship emerges.

Director Scott has brought together two fine performers in Haberland and Turner. Haberland’s charming demeanor and superb vocal range is perfectly, right-sized for the Dunes stage. He is a terrific singer/actor, light on his feet with a sincerity that effortlessly alarms, then charms, Turner’s Amalia. Turner, who has matured into an amazing vocalist and actor of considerable talent, matches Haberland at every turn, glowing with innocence and displaying a magnetic stage presence. The chemistry between these two is something to see.

Mikkelsen, Reige, Busse and O’Brien each have strong featured numbers. Music Director Katelyn Leonard-White leads the talented ensemble and musicians expertly through the score to the heartwarming Christmas Eve revelation that confirms love conquers all.

PHOTO|Tony Martin

Dunes Arts Foundation
Summer Theatre
She Loves Me
288 Shady Oak Drive
Michigan City, Indiana
through August 10, 2025
(219) 879-7509

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PicksInSix Review: The Bridges of Madison County - Dunes Arts Summer Theatre

“Spinning By In One Split Second”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Francesca (Kristianna Dilworth) and her husband Richard “Bud” Johnson (Gabriel Reitemeier) have overcome multiple challenges to forge a life on a 300 acre farm in Winterset, Iowa with their two teenage children Michael (Jackson Mikkelsen) and Carolyn (Emma Radtke). As “The Bridges of Madison County” opens, she sings hopefully of the life they have built together, one we find out along the way that is not at all what she envisioned as a young girl growing up in Italy during World War II. She would meet Bud after the death of her soldier fiancé, leave Naples as it was being brutally torn apart and arrive in America to start anew, learning the language and all that comes with raising a family.

Now, years later in 1965, Francesca’s feelings of isolation in the Midwest, trapped within the daily routine of her life, are all consuming. So, with little enthusiasm for the Indiana State Fair and more for reading a book and watching the sky go by, she decides to stay behind alone as Bud takes the kids and a two-ton steer to the 4H national competition. The separation feels natural in a way: Bud, Carolyn and Michael are excited about the event and Francesca admits that having no plans at all for the few days by herself will be a liberating experience.

When Robert Kincaid (Max DeTogne), a National Geographic photographer on assignment, arrives at the door of the Johnson home, Francesca offers to ride with him to the location of Roseman, the last bridge he needs to photograph and the first step on a path that leads the two together into a passionate affair that presents both unimaginable opportunities and a potentially devastating outcome.

The Dunes Arts Summer Theatre production, the brilliant and sensitively staged work of Artistic Director Steve Scott, features the equally superb music direction of Andrew Flasch who renders the rich Jason Robert Brown score brimming with melodies and counter melodies with ease. The book by Marsha Norman is based on the bestselling novel by Robert James Waller that also spawned the 1995 film starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.

The Dunes ensemble, whose impressive vocal harmonies add depth and nuance to the piece, are led by the extraordinary performances of Dilworth and DeTogne in lead roles. Dilworth, a St. Louis native who now lives in Arlington, Virginia, is simply stunning in all facets of the deeply layered role of Francesca expressing the complexity of a woman at a turning point in her life, upended by passion, conflicted and longing for a path to what could be.  I have long admired DeTogne’s work in Chicago and this may well be one of his finest performances to date, delivering a strong, yet sensitive man who understands the enormous consequences of his deep, abiding love for Francesca.

Director Scott also successfully navigates two delicate relationships in the piece: the ebb and flow between Francesca and Bud, a finely-paced line that Reitemeier follows impeccably with depth and understanding while displaying his own exceptional vocal skills; and, Marge (Kim Lampl) and Charlie (Jim Lampl), the down home neighbors who recognize what is transpiring and provide the caring support that Francesca will need to sort things out. Framed in a sleek modular set designed by Micheal Lasswell, fine costume work by Emily Chidalek with evocative lights and sound by Arturo Pozos and Jake Tillman, the Dunes production of “The Bridges of Madison County” is a moving and memorable evening of theatre not to be missed.

PHOTO|Andy Neal

Dunes Arts Summer Theatre
presents
The Bridges of Madison County
Michiana Shores, Indiana
through August 11

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