Theater Review: “Hallelujah Girls” at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse
Over coffee, the Hallelujah Girls work through friendships and relationships.
by Kathyrn Cross
“Hallelujah Girls,” at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse through Sunday, tells the story of five close-knit women who battle through their treacherous love lives as they struggle to keep their most relaxing and loving place, a spa open for business. This wonderful play kept the audience in awe throughout their opening weekend with their subtle, professional performances.
“Hallelujah Girls” begins with the five middle-aged women in an abandoned church. Their costumes, designed by Tina Zarro, radiate a modern-day ambience with the slightly formal knee-length dresses, alluring pearls, and other swanky accessories.
The set, designed by designed by Frank Prater and Lisa Leonard, is initially a dirty-looking place with holy structures everywhere since it’s an abandoned church. It is quite interesting to see how the sets change throughout the performance and it is even more enjoyable to listen to the catchy music that is played during set changes. Throughout the majority of the play however, the set is a spa that exudes happy colors, beginning with baby blue walls and the hot pink “Spa-Dee-Dah!” sign to even the festive pumpkin and fall-colored leaves.
The characters themselves emanate a colorful aura as well. Lois Bourgon, who plays Crystal, is so iridescent with both her personality and her costumes that she makes every member of the audience laugh nearly every time she speaks. With each holiday, Crystal sings a festive jingle as Bourgon springs with happiness and unequivocal thespian expertise. The most entertaining aspects of her character, however, are Crystal’s costumes. As each holiday approaches, she dresses up as that holiday’s mascot. These costumes range from a Geisha for the Chinese New Year to Uncle Sam for the Fourth of July, full white beard included.
Gerry Fuentes, who portrays Mavis, is quite vibrant, too. She must be commended for her performance as a heavily hung-over Mavis. Her hilariously slow-paced, sensitive, and inebriated condition ironically harmonized with her gaudy fur coat, designer sunglasses, and matching scarf. Collectively, alongside the wonderfully optimistic Nita (Paula Kelly) and the whimsically sassy Carlene (Susie McCarthy), Fuentes and Bourgon undoubtedly make “Hallelujah Girls” shine brightly.
Although the play shines through its humor, nothing is more striking than the emotional intensity in the relationship between Sugar Lee (Caryn Richman) and Bobby Dwayne (Lorin McCraley). Throughout the play, Richman plays Sugar Lee as a selfless buccaneer, except towards Bobby Dwayne, her ex-fiancée. As their paths cross, when Bobby Dwayne comes to build her spa’s sauna, the emotional intensity between them builds and the play takes an unexpected turn while the two actors carefully enact their roles, leaving the audience in dead silence.
Although the show is quite emotionally tantalizing, there are a few cheesy situations and jokes. The play develops into a “chick flick” and many of these subtle jokes just satirize older women in all of their failures throughout love and marriage. However, because it is a “chick flick,” it proves to be quite a delightful play, and by the end love is dancing through the air and warm feelings fill everyone.
Hallelujah Girls, presented by Surf City Theatre, is onstage in the Second Story Theatre (down the hall from the Hermosa Playhouse), 710 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach. Performances, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. as well as Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets, $20. Call (424) 241-8040 or go to surfcitytheatre.com. ER