Raleigh Little Theatre Preview
By Robert McDowell
May 30, 2008

Set In Cedar Ridge, Arkansas, In The 1920s, “Radio Gals” Is
A Lively Musical By Mike Craver And Mark Hardwick

Raleigh Little Theatre will stage Radio Gals which The New York Times called “a lively, cheery, nostalgia-dipped musical by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick,” on May 30-June 1 and June 5-8, 12-15, and 19-22 in its Cantey V. Sutton Theatre. After having its world premiere in March l993 at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock, Radio Gals made its Off-Broadway debut, staged by director/choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge, on Oct. 1, 1996 at the John Houseman Theatre, where it played 40 performances before closing on Nov. 3, 1996.

“I’ve actually never seen Radio Gals,” admits long-time Raleigh Little Theatre director Haskell Fitz-Simons, “but I’m a big fan of the work of Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick and that whole Chapel Hill school of musicians’ theater. They started back in the 1970s with Diamond Studs, which went to New York and played for a respectable run, and Pump Boys And Dinettes. Mike Craver didn’t have a part in [Pump Boys And Dinettes], but that’s where Mark Hardwick became a part of the mix with that whole Red Clay Ramblers bunch [http://www.redclayramblers.com].”

In reviewing the original Off-Broadway production of Radio Gals, New York Times critic Lawrence Van Gelder wrote, “Some folks may find it hard to believe, but there was a time when radio was a kind of newfangled miracle, and trailblazers like Hazel C. Hunt of Cedar Ridge, Ark., operated little 500-watt stations like WGAL right out of their front parlor.... Now, WGAL didn’t have an engineer, and sometimes when its signal faded, Miss Hazel would simply twist a knob on its transmitter and WGAL would come in loud and clear, even if it was impinging on some other signal, like NBC’s. Radio Gals ... keeps the old-fashioned musical numbers, country humor, conflict with government and romance between Gladys and [government bureaucrat] O. B. [Abbott] coming fast enough to charm the ear and occupy the eye right to the happy ending.”

RLT director Haskell Fitz-Simons admits, “Until the last 10 years or so, I’ve been a little timid to try [musicals such as Radio Gals], because you need triple-threat performers. You need actors who can not only sing but also play instruments. This is actually the third one of this genre that we’ve done. We did Smoke on the Mountain in 2001. We did Pump Boys And Dinettes three years ago, and now we’re doing Radio Gals. They’re all delightful. It’s a unique art form. It’s not a cabaret and not a revue. They’re scripted, but the actors just sit around and play instruments as part of the storytelling process.

“Being a fan,” adds Fitz-Simons, “I’ve been aware of [Radio Gals] for some years. I purchased a CD of it when it first came out. I knew it pretty well, and was delighted when our play-reading committee and board got interested in doing it. [But I have never] seen a production [of Radio Gals]. So, I start with a clean slate -- it’s not all that clean, because I know the recording very well.”

Fitz-Simons says, “One of the things that Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick possess between them is not only wonderful musicianship but a really remarkable elfin sense of humor. They have so much fun recreating the musical style of the 1920s in [Radio Gals], and paying tribute and having fun in this [show] with any number of popular musical styles of the Twenties: foxtrots and Charlestons, light musical ballads, operettas, and the sort of parlor music songs of the day. They even poke fun at the new art music of the 1920s. There’s even a quasi-12-tone Stravinsky-like song called ‘The Tender Boxwood.’ So, it’s a huge range of musical styles that they manage to crank out with minimal instrumentation.”

“The plot [of Radio Gals] is kind of a frothy little confection about Hazel Hunt (Jo Brown), a much-beloved music teacher in Cedar Ridge, Arkansas,” notes Haskell Fitz-Simons. “When she retires from teaching, she is given a radio transmitter; and since her retirement, she has produced a musical program in her parlor that she broadcasts far and wide with the help of a couple of her students (Katherine Hennenlotter and Rose Martin as America and Rennabelle Hatch), a local celebrity avocational opera singer type/mystic (Susan Burcham as Miss Gladys Fritts), and a couple of mysterious elderly maiden ladies (Greg Dixon and Brent Wilson -- in drag -- as Miss Mabel and Miss Azilee, the Swindell sisters).

“Because Hazel really has no training in broadcasting,” Fitz-Simons says, “she has the habit of flipping willy-nilly around the transmission dial -- ‘jumping frequencies’ is what they used to call it. [Radio evangelist] Aimee Semple McPherson was accused of doing this; it’s called ‘channel jumping,’ and it used to happen more before the FCC [was established to regulate broadcasting].”

Fitz-Simons adds, “The conflict in the script happens when a petty bureaucrat (Don Smith as O.B. Abbott) comes to investigate rumors of channel jumping. He actually has the power to close them down, but it turns out that he’s a performer himself and he gets pulled into the magic of live broadcasting. It doesn’t hurt that he has a beautiful Irish tenor voice and can play the accordion. So, all that nonsense just gives us ample opportunity to perform over 19 songs in all those different styles.”

In addition to director Haskell Fitz-Simons, the show’s creative team includes choreographer Nancy Rich, musical director Greg Dixon, technical director and set designer Jim Zervas, lighting designer Andy Parks, costume designer Jenny Butler, properties master Pat Berry, sound designer Rick LaBach, and stage manager Deanna Eckert.

Haskell Fitz-Simons says his main directorial challenge in staging Radio Gals was “finding actors who can play the instruments.” He adds, “We were extremely fortunate. Our little orchestra has piano, an upright bass, a full drum kit, a violin and a saxophone, an accordion, and a whole raft of ukuleles.

“We also had to recreate some of the antique [radio broadcasting] technology,” Fitz-Simons explains. “Our wonderful [RLT volunteer extraordinaire] Al Wolfheimer spent goodness knows how many hours and days recreating microphones that are absolutely right for the time. Al is one of our treasures, but I think he’s more than that -- he’s a national treasure. I think whenever a movie theater projecting system or sound system goes down, the first person they call is all -- over the whole Southeast.”

RLT director Haskell Fitz-Simons notes, “The set is the parlor/living room of Hazel Hunt’s house in Cedar Ridge, Arkansas. The costumes are appropriate fashions for middle-class Southerners of the period. The lighting sort of vacillates between realistic living room light; and every now and then, we punch up the light for specific songs. This is not a follow-spot musical.”

Raleigh Little Theatre presents Radio Gals Friday-Saturday, May 30-31, at 8 p.m.; Sunday, June 1, at 3 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, June 5-7, 12-14, and 19-21, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, June 8, 15, and 22, at 3 p.m. in the Cantey V. Sutton Theatre, 301 Pogue St., Raleigh, North Carolina 27607. $18 ($15 students up to college age and seniors 62+), except all seats $10 on June 1st. 919/821-3111 or etix.com. NOTE 1: All shows are wheelchair accessible, and assistive listening devices are available for all shows. NOTE 2: Arts Access, Inc. of Raleigh, NC (http://www.artsaccessinc.org/) will audio-describe the 3 p.m. June 1st performance. RALEIGH LITTLE THEATRE: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/performances/07-08/radiogals.html. Radio Gals: http://www.mikecraver.com/radgals.html (Mike Craver’s web site) and http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&title=Radio%20Gals (Lortel Archives -- The Internet Off-Broadway Database).

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