High school can be full of drama, but for “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” it’s their time to shine.
Taking place in both 1958 and 1968, the play follows the lives of four girls that are asked at the last minute to be entertainers for the prom. After performing, the play shifts to their ten-year high school reunion to show how much a person can change over ten years.
“It’s about the journey,” said Stacy Alley, director of the play. “Really, the show is about love and relationships and about how much you can grow as a person over ten years and how the things that are important to you in high school aren’t that important anymore. Life gets in the way, and it’s really about how you deal with that life that defines who you are.”
Alley said that the songs within the play are tied to the story, changing in tone to reflect the change of the girls throughout the ten years. Songs in the first act in 1958, such as The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” are “spunky,” while the jump to 1968 brings with it “more complicated” songs to help tell the story, such as Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.”
Anna Lee Hawkins, a sophomore majoring in musical theatre, plays Suzy, a happy-go-lucky character that’s focused on “having the best night of her life.” Hawkins said that as the play progresses, her character takes on a different role after the shift in time, both personality-wise and physically.
“Between Act One and Act Two, [Suzy] does change a lot for me,” Hawkins said. “They all change a lot because it is 10 years later and they’re real people. They’ve grown as human beings.”
Catherine Bradwell, a sophomore majoring in musical theatre, plays Betty Jean, a more tomboyish character. Bradwell performed in “The Marvelous Wondrettes” over the summer, which gave her a new outlook on how she’s performing now.
“I’ve had a little more experience having to do that time shift, but we’ve studied the songs and watched videos from each time period so we’ve kinda got a feel about where they are at that time and how they’ve changed,” Bradwell said.
Performing has been an enjoyable experience for Carli Hardon, a junior majoring in musical theatre. She plays Missy in the play – a character that Hardon said was a “quirky” member of the Wonderettes.
“It actually hasn’t been [hard],” Hardon said. “I know the songs because I’ve heard them in movie soundtracks or my parents would play them or my grandparents would play them, but I didn’t know them as deeply as I know the music now.”
An actor since she was just 9 years old, Ally Bryant, a freshman majoring in musical theatre, said the experience has been “incredible.” Bryant plays Cindy Lou in the play, “the queen bee of the group.”
“It’s actually been a lot of fun to kind of go back to this high school feeling but in such a different sense than when I would have experienced it,” Bryant said.
The play will run from Sept. 30 through Oct. 9 at the Bean-Brown Theatre at Shelton State Community College. Tickets can be purchased online at theatretusc.com or at the box office.
