She Loves Me (Lyric Theatre) is a light, happy musical about love in a perfumery it a mid-European capital and two lonely lovers writing 'Dear Friend' letters. It provides an amusing evening's entertainment but only that. The music is rather weak, the lyrics lack imaginatiln, and the acting occasionally falls flat. Even with its obvious faults, however, the show manages to come off as a bright, romantic caper.
Amber for Anna (Vaudeville) is an upper-bracket mystery--upper-bracket in its social setting rather than its quality as a play. It reaches no great dramatic heights but it does provide some laughable lines and a magnificent scene with a drunk (David Hutcheson). A pleasant, light evening's entertainment.
The Canker and the Rose (Mermaid) is an anthology of life in Elizabethan days presented as part of the theatre's Shakespeare season. If life was really as dull then as this evening would have us believe, my reading of history has been sadly wrong. Not a very worthy 400th birthday present.