Currently, The Chapin Theatre Company is presenting “The Hallelujah Girls, a Jones Hope Wooten Comedy. The play is currently showing at the Harbison Theatre at Midlands Technical College.
On Saturday July 28, I attended the show at 8PM. The theater was filled with an eager audience and the show did not disappoint. Meesh Hays portraying the main character Sugar Lee Thompkins along with her crew of best girlfriends, Gayle Stewart as Carlene Travis, Tracy Rice as Nita Mooney and Debi Young as Crystal Hart. The Hallelujah Girls, all over the age of 50 proved to the audience that high school squabbles don’t end in high school and no matter how old you get you can still make changes in you life for the better.
After the death of a close friend, Sugar Lee gathers all the girls to help her open her new business, Spa Dee Dah, a new day spa for the women in Eden Falls, Georgia, USA. These southern women show the audience the importance of friendship and support of other women. It is important to have the moral support of your sisters throughout the whole year both when life is tough and you need a shoulder to cry on and when you want to have someone to share the good times with, especially the holidays.
The play takes place around the holidays of Halloween, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Valentines day and the Fourth of July. Debi Young’s character, Crystal Hart is always ready to spread holiday cheer with festive songs, treats, decorations and the most elaborate costumes. Carlene Stewart, known as the black widow of Eden Falls is afraid to get into another relationship for fear her next husband will meet a strange and untimely fate. She learns, however that fear is nothing but a crutch and she should not live a life sad and alone if she does not want to.
Nita Mooney, the obsessive reader of romantic novels, lives in that world as if she really knows those characters but is afraid to stand up to her own good for nothing son. Nita learns that sometimes our loved ones need a little tough love in order for her to find the peace she needs in her life. Sugar Lee gets a lesson in love herself when she forgives a 20 year grudge between her ex-boyfriend that had promised to marry her out of high school. As mad as we are sometimes we need to take some time to learn all the facts before we cut someone out our lives for good.
As old as we get some people still can’t let go of grudges from high school. The antagonist Bunny Sutherland played by Tiffany Dinsmore is that mean girl from high school that we all hate but dresses gorgeous. Bunny let her jealousy of Sugar Lee be her downfall and ultimatly lands in prison for tax evasion.
The play was overall great. The cast did a wonderful performance and I was left with that feel good feeling after watching a good story. There are many lessons to learn fromThe Hallelujah Girls.