Radio Gals

Book, Music and Lyrics by Mike Craver (Red Clay Ramblers) and Mark Hardwick (Pump Boys and Dinettes).

Cantey V. Sutton Theatre (Reserved Seating)
May 30-June 22, 2008

Set in the late l920s, and concerning an enterprising woman, Hazel Hunt, of Cedar Ridge, Arkansas. Upon her retirement as the town music teacher, she receives a Western Electric 500 watt radio transmitter and begins broadcasting as radio station "WGAL". What comes out over the local airwaves is a small town diary, calendar, and stream of consciousness -- sort of a Molly Bloom crossed with the Farmers' Almanac -- with generous dollops of singing and playing by Hazel's "all-girl" orchestra, "the Hazelnuts", and that lovesick flapper Gladys Fritts.

However, due to Hazel's habit of "channel wandering", her broadcasts are not always so local. And listeners as far away as Montreal and Manhattan can testify. Enter O. B. Abbott, Federal Radio Inspector, intent on rescuing the airwaves from gypsies like Hazel Hunt. However, Mr. Abbott soon falls prey to the blandishments of the Hazelnuts, and the Shangri-La that is Cedar Ridge.

Inspector Abbott, it turns out, also has a fine tenor voice, plays a mean accordion, and in the course of things falls for the flapper...

Director: Haskell Fitz-Simons

Download the show poster (PDF)

 

Ticket information

Tickets on sale now from etix.com or from the RLT Box Office at 919-821-3111.

Ticket prices:

Adults: $18
Seniors/Students: $15
First Sunday (all) $10

Note: Students are up to and including college. Seniors are age 62 and up.

Dates and Times:

May 30, 31, June 5-7, 12-14, 19-21 at 8:00pm
June 1, 8, 15, 22 at 3:00pm

May-June 2008
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					30: 8:00pm	31: 8:00pm
1: 3:00pm	2	3	4	5: 8:00pm	6: 8:00pm	7: 8:00pm
8: 3:00pm	9	10	11	12: 8:00pm	13: 8:00pm	14: 8:00pm
15: 3:00pm	16	17	18	19: 8:00pm	20: 8:00pm	21: 8:00pm
22: 3:00pm	23	24	25	26	27	28

For more information, please contact the RLT Box Office on 919-821-3111.

 All performances are wheelchair accessible.

Assistive listening devices are available for all performances.

Audio description for those with visual disabilities at the Sunday, June 1, 3pm matinee

 

What the media has said about Radio Gals

"Radio Gals is a throwback to summer theatre the way it used to be. It is dizzy, daffy, and silly, demanding enough for the performers to have fun exerting themselves, undemanding enough for the audience to relax and have a good time... Radio Gals salutes the core American value of individual initiative. And while it has fun with the absurd side of earlier styles of popular entertainment, it also cherishes their enduring value, and that is not an exercise in nostalgia."
-- Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe

"Radio Gals is a lively, cheery, nostalgia-dipped musical, keeping the old fashioned musical numbers, country humor and romance coming fast enough to charm the ear."
-- Lawrence Van Gelder, The New York Times

"A loving valentine to a bygone America."
-- Laurie Winer, The Los Angeles Times

"The magic of Radio Gals is in its loving re-creation of America's innocent musical past. Hardwick and Craver have brilliantly recaptured the spirit of small-town America in the '20s with a remarkable sense of authenticity. This is a fun, moving tribute to the pure, light hearted innocence that was once America, and may still be lurking somewhere deep in our hearts."
-- Hoyt Hilsman, Variety.

"Exuberant, ebullient, often hilarious, always delightful".
-- William Stevenson, Backstage

  

Cast

The cast of RLT's production of Radio Gals is:

Hazel: Jo Brown
Gladys: Susan Burcham
America: Katherine Hennenlotter
Rennabelle: Rose Martin
Miss Mabel: Greg Dixon
Miss Azilee: Brent Wilson
O.B. Abbott: Don Smith

 

Songs in the show

The songs you'll hear in Radio Gals are:

• Dear Mister Gershwin
• Buster He's a Hot Dog Now
• Edna Jones the Elephant Girl
• A Fireside a Pipe and a Pet
• A Gal's Got To Do What A Gal's Got To Do
• Kittens in the Snow
• Queenie Take Me Home With You
• An Aviatrix Love Song
• Why Did You Make Me Love You?
• There Are Fairies in My Mother's Flower Garden
• Whispering Pines
• That Wicky Wacky Hula Hula Honka Wonka Honolulu Hawaiian Honey of Mine

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