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Radio Gals
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Wolford-Beall, Nettles, Fields
Photo by Ken Jacques
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By Rob Stevens
*Critic's Choice*
Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick are best know for their "Pump Boys and Dinettes," but for sheer joy in the theater, you can’t beat their "Radio Gals", currently making its San Diego Premiere at the Avo Playhouse in Vista. If you are looking for a show with social relevance, you’ll have to look elsewhere, unless the tidbit that Herbert Hoover was Secretary of Commerce before being elected President is news to you. Or that in its infancy in the 1920s, anyone with the funds could buy a 500-watt radio transmitter and start their own broadcasts. RADIO GALS is just plain old silly fun, performed to perfection by a multi-talented cast and directed with verve and charm by Don & Bonnie Ward. With songs like "There are Fairies in My Mother’s Flower Garden," "Edna Jones, the Elephant Girl," and "Buster He’s A Hot Dog Now," what else can you expect. The excellence of this production demands a longer run and a larger audience.
Craver and Hardwick fashioned their old-time country-western-flavored musical comedy from an incident involving Hoover and Los Angeles evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson. Seems the preacher was guilty of "wavejumping"-changing frequencies to get a clearer spot on the dial. They set their action in the Arkansas Ozarks where Hazel Hunt (Dagmar Fields), a retired music teacher and still active moonshiner, runs a radio station out of her living room. Her Hazelnuts are former students who seem to play every conceivable musical instrument. The Swindle Sisters are an odd couple with something to hide, but they can sure tickle those ivories and slap that bass. Miss Azilee (Don LeMaster) sticks mainly to the piano, while Miss Mabel (Daniel Doerfler) plays percussion and bass. Violet (Cheryl Swem) plays the violin, while Rennabelle (Marci Ann Wuebben) and America (Bettina "Pixie" Warren), a self-professed yodeler who also exhibits a strong belt, lead with the vocals and relieve the others on most instruments. Miss Gladys Fritts (Gail Wolford-Beall) is the town flirt and star attraction of the radio station, with her soprano voice and mystical swami ways. Like MacPherson, Hazel also does some "wavejumping," bringing a motorcycle-riding commerce agent to her door in the person of O.B. Abbott (John Nettles). The ladies con O.B. into strapping on an accordion and joining their broadcast, leading the city slicker from Indianapolis to lower his guard and give in to his suppressed musical talents.
The technical aspects are all top notch, from Mike Buckley’s homey living room to Roslyn Lehman and Carlotta Malone’s period fashions. Mitchell Simkovsky’s lighting, Justin Hall’s sound design, and LeMaster’s musical direction add to this first class production. See Radio Gals and relive simpler, sillier times.
Radio Gals, produced by the City of Vista at the Avo Playhouse, 303 Main St. in Vista. 760-724-2110. $20-22. Thurs-Sat, 8; Sat-Sun, 2. Jan. 27-Feb. 20.
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