Songs of the season get old fast when they start to play before Thanksgiving, and finding entertainment not focused on Christmas and tired old holiday themes can be difficult in December. Because of this, Columbus’ Center Stage Players, a local theater company specializing in out-of-the box productions, looked for a fitting holiday alternative.

“She Loves Me” is an emotional roller coaster of holiday romance.
 

“The easiest way to explain it is to ask if you’ve seen ‘You’ve Got Mail,'” said Alan Saunders, spokesman for Backstage Investment Group.
 

The play follows two pen pals who agree to meet. One of them realizes the pen pal is a disagreeable fellow co-worker. “She Loves Me” is the story of George (Cody Shope) and Amalia (Cate Fricke) — their letters, fights, and romance, all set at a European parfumerie in the 1930s.
 

“‘She Loves Me’ isn’t done by community theater very often, and so we decided to rock it out,” Saunders said. Center Stage Players started in 2003 and has been producing four to six full-stage musicals for the last seven years. Center Stage Players typically does out-of-the-box shows such as “The Rocky Horror Show,” “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas” and “Zombies From The Beyond,” Saunders said. CSP also likes to tackle classics that other theaters tend not to.
 

CSP productions are all held at Axis Nightclub, but the Backstage Investment Group has several other theater companies in central Ohio­. Drawing Room Theatre is the newest Backstage troupe, located in the Brewery District. Dark Woods Theatre Company is a production group in Delaware, Ohio.
 

The partnership with Axis came when the club closed for renovations, including a stage addition. CSP jumped at the chance to perform in alternative theater space.
 

“[CSP likes] to present musicals that are entertaining. We don’t produce works with strong political commentary, nor are we trying to make anyone think. We just want to have fun and entertain people. We love it when our audience leaves the theater humming the music,” Saunders said.
 

Commitment to fun and entertaining theater is what brings productions like “She Loves Me” to the Axis stage. Past productions include “Little Shop of Horrors,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Reefer Madness” and “Sleepy Hollow the Musical.”
 

“We cater to anyone who isn’t a big theater fan — the kind of person that is turned off by the pretentiousness of stuffy typical theater and that is looking for something more entertaining and different,” Saunders said.
 

Students looking for an alternative holiday production can see “She Loves Me,” performed by members of CSP at Axis Nightclub on Dec. 11-13 and Dec. 18-19. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15 per person and on sale at the Center Stage Players Web site, backstageinvestmentgroup.com/csp.