It’s never too late to become the person you were meant to be! The motto of The Hallelujah Girls who are raising a little hell on their path to glory and beauty! Salem Players has this charming, darling southern gem of a heartfelt comedy on its stage through November 15th and you won’t want to miss it. Sassy, classy, and endearing, The Hallelujah Girls is the perfect pick-me-up to combat the seasonal dip between Halloween and Christmas. Directed by William Hauserman, there’s a whole lot of fun going on over at Spa-Dee-Dah, and you won’t want to miss out!
If you’ve ever seen a show at Salem Players, you know what their space is like. Quaint little stage, curtains and wings, space in the house where an apron would be if it were a lifted proscenium. But they’ve been hiding a secret!!! That quaint little stage!? Extends all the way to the back wall of the building— complete with stained glass windows!! And it has a cavernous space with doors! (It is a church, after all!) And that little secret makes for a big ol’ playing space for The Hallelujah Girls. (It’s creating some unique sound challenges, because of the echoes and overall acoustics but with a weekend of performances under their belts, I’m sure they’ll have adjusted to project and slow down accordingly.) Set and Lighting Designer Paul Timmel has done a great job of really spreading out the furnishings, making it look like its intention— an old church building one breath away from permanent disuse. Working with Properties person Sara Toscano, the pair of them go through the appropriate changes of seasons— 4th of July, Halloween, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day— and the growth of the day-spa that the women of Georgia get going in the play.
Sound Effects Designer Tim VanSant, working with Director William Hauserman, has some really clever musical interludes to cover the scene changes. And the beautiful part about the songs that he’s chosen is that they’re all iconic sing-along numbers, so much so that on opening night— the audience (a good 30 or so people) were singing along to “9 to 5” and “Sweet Caroline” and “Ring of Fire” during the blackout. It was actually pretty hilarious. And while the scenic changeover is a smidge on the lengthy side— there’s a lot of furniture and décor going in and out (Stage Managers Sam David & Anita Spicer Lane, Run Crew Ethan Barone and Nick Mason)— the audience doesn’t seem to notice or mind because they’re too busy bopping and singing along to the catchy tunes. What might have been really fun, and also served as a way to help express these changes along would be to do it in ‘live time’ with the actors helping, ‘dancing the transitions’ to the music, with the lights up. It would look like the characters were just ‘improving the salon’ montage style. I understand that at least one or more of the characters have costume changes to perform in these ‘between-scene’ moments so maybe that’s not entirely feasible, but all in all, it’s a great way to pass the time between the scenery-shuffles.
Ariel Casey and the Cast deserve quite a bit of applause for the show’s sartorial selection. From the opening bid with three of our five gals in their funerary finest to all of the zany holiday gear that ends up on the Crystal character, the audience has plenty to marvel over when it comes to the fashion choices featured in The Hallelujah Girls. Lady Liberty, Uncle Sam, and a hot-pink, light-up wing couture set are just a few of the outrageous outfits that Crystal gets to use to showcase her holiday spirit. And the bubblegum aprons that have the Spa-Dee-Dah logo emblazoned on them are a perfect touch for the show And it would be some sort of fashion crime to not mention the whole getup seen on Nita’s character when she gets an extra job at the mall pretzel stand.
While we’re three more characters deep than your standard five-hander, characters like Porter Padgett (Sean Kolb) and Bobby Dwayne Dillahunt (Tim Toscano) really do bring some humor, a little bit of romance magic, and overall sense of bondedness to the story. Sean Kolb’s character only gets a scene here and there but he’s really entertaining and the meet-cute-insta-chemistry he shares with the Carlene character is spot on. He’s earnest and that grade of awkward-flirt he brings to the exchanges with Carlene is perfect. Then of course there’s Tim Toscano’s Bobby Dwayne. If that man doesn’t know how to own an over-the-top sexy scene, I don’t know who does. Toscano is as earnest as he is humorous and knows how to hold his own in a grudge-temper match against the Sugar Lee character.
If you’re going to have a little bit of shakeup excitement inside a small town, you’ve got to have an antagonist. And there’s no one more antagonizing than the haughty, graces-n-airs community queen Bunny Sutherland (Sue Gdovin.) Snooty, snippy, entitled, and full of herself, the Bunny character is getting star-spa treatment in Gdovin’s hands. She’s got that sweet-to-kill slow drawl in her accent, a sense of superiority for miles and she looks flashy in those ‘better-than-you’ clothes. It’s hilarious watching her get chased out of the sauna late in the production and even more so when the tables tip and the tides turn.
Bless your heart and hold your tongue when it comes to Crystal (Ariel Casey) because that character is the epitome of “lights on, nobody’s home” and is just absolutely hilarious to watch. Between Casey’s zany costumes, her half-step-behind timing (which reads as totally intentional for the simplicity of the character and it’s excellent) and her chipper disposition, it’s a wonder she doesn’t bubble right up off the stage and burst into a downpour of sugar, rainbows, and holiday costumes. Of course she settles into a cheekiness all her own near the very end and it’s divine.
Listening to Nita (Gail Hauserman) gas on at length about her tawdry romance novels becomes a hilarious callback all throughout the production. Hauserman is giving ‘Rose Nylan a la Golden Girls’ vibes with those moments, telling those trashy-beach-read story comparisons the way Betty White’s character would go on about things back in St. Olaf. Hauserman plays Nita with kindness and compassion and it’s really sweet to watch, especially when she’s engaging with the other women in the shop. Same goes for Sara Toscano with her performance as Carlene. Lovelorn but arguably one of the most ‘grounded in basics’ characters in the script, you get some real fun moments with Toscano’s portrayal of this character, particularly during the ‘headache-yees’ in the first scene. And she’s got a cheeky spark that revs itself up in her final phone call scene too.
Julie Kempton is wearing the character of Mavis Flowers like Ouiser Boudreaux got a 2020s upgrade and she’s nailing it. Cantankerous, sassy, mouthy, and not afraid to really rip her way through a scene, Kempton is the epitome of the iconic ‘curmudgeonly elder’ character and she’s having a blast with it, so we’re having a blast watching her with it. That one scene when she stumbles in hungover and decked out to the nines like she might have been God only knows where the night before is just uproarious. And when she has to bite back at Bunny it’s even better.
The pinnacle point of the play spins itself around Sugar Lee Tompkins (Leslie Johnson.) When the play first gets going you get three women in their funerary blacks. And then special-precious-Crystal (who the audience quickly learns that her whacky costumes are just a part of who she is) but when Sugar Lee gets introduced, it’s a breath of brightness, stubbornness, and revitalizing good vibes. Johnson, like all the performers, has a solid grip on her Georgian accent, has great facial expressions— particularly when trying not to react to Nita carrying on with her romance tales— and a good sense of spatial awareness in the performance. (Much of the production ends up getting blocked really close to the front lip of the stage, which is somewhat understandable as they’ve opened up the play space all the way to the back wall and it is somewhat of a cavern, but Johnson makes levels and layers out of her crossing and overall movement.) She’s the beacon in the middle of humorous chaos and does a fine job holding the plot together, particularly when it comes to barking at Bobby Dwayne.
If you need a little refresher in how to live your best life, want a little humor to lighten your load, or just want to see Tim Toscano bragging about his oh-so-sexy-gams for an evening, head on down to Spa-Dee-Dah…located on the stage of The Salem Players with their production of The Hallelujah Girls, you’ll be glad you did, it’s a heartfelt, feel-good show and who doesn’t need a little more of that right now?
Running Time: 2 hours with one intermission
The Hallelujah Girls plays through November 15th 2026 with The Salem Players— Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church at 905 Frederick Road in Catonsville, MD. For tickets call (410) 747-0720 or purchase them online.
