Above and Featured image: Rhianna Mc Court played the role of switchboard supervisor Grace Banker in this musical. Photo credit : Jane Duong.
This excellent musical contains slick storytelling, a plethora of connected style genres and the need for precise manipulation of momentum. This production answers that call. The talented cast of phone operators, dough boys and leaders segues its way smoothly through musical styles, across the globe towards danger, from private employment to the Bell Battalion Telephonic Ladies Switchboard Unit Number One. As female employees shown both in and out of the army the handful of featured operators boldly and bravely depict and battle misogyny and attitudes in society and more fiercely in the armed forces.
Such a pioneering fight endured by the quintet of signal corps members is brought to life via enjoyable ensemble textures. Musical Director Natalya Aynsley has done a formidable job of bringing Mills’ score to life. The mix of musical theatre gesturing from classic patterning to more modern shapes includes several moments of intricate counterpoint to be managed in the group and band musical comment.
Whether the male and bilingual female cast are tackling such active musical textures, are united in bold anthems with close harmony or chants of revealing, entertaining characterisation, the audience are treated to thought-provoking comment, painful flashback and touching humanity. The lyrics are often rhyming, always snappy and to clearly describe sentiments and scenes they are securely connected, plugged in so well. On this stage the delivery of the demanding music and spoken word melange is precise, punchy and lines passionately play out in parallel.
Heart Strings Theatre Co’s version of the originally Off-Broadway show features effective splits of the male and female cast members across various sections and lines of the stage. The blocking and layers of movement as guided by Director Jason Langley and choreographer Amy Orman unite and unravel the story’s themes and division between the genders working on the same cause well.
This rewarding musical for many of us to discover anew explodes off the intimate Hayes Theatre stage, making the experience énorme. An effective divide of stage sections between male and female employees presents the overlapping attitudes and skills in the primitive blended work environment. The chorus-like movement of soldiers behind the operators in separated lines and lighting chillingly map out the story’s plight and progress.
Hailey Hunt’s set design includes a boundary framework of lines crossed and strung in strong swoops across the back of the stage. This imagery is exciting and relevant, supporting the job-specific lyrics and the complexity of the story’s emotions, effort as war employees with a fierce gender gap and recognition. The complexity of The Hello Girls’ vital job in wartime signals and communication- a job not coped with by the male soldiers is also reflected keenly by this aspect of the design.
Above : The Bell Battalion soldiers. Photo Credit : Jane Duong.
Costuming contrasts the female and male characters in training, Paris and the ‘Big Show’ of the front line. The ongoing challenges of communication, working together and dealing with global conflict through history until now are nicely reminded with the use of contemporary clothing rather than period uniforms to open and close the vignette.
All cast members playing Bell Battalion operators embrace their individual, contrasted vocal sound, their background as well as their role in the group bravery and dynamic. Their leader’s pitch to get her girls driving front line comms, ‘Twenty’ is a vocal, acting and movement triumph in the show and in this production. Rhianna McCourt as Grace Banker uses the stage brilliantly. It also emphasises her onstage command-challenging chemistry with Riser, played with great nuance and last-century gender role conflict by Joel Hutchings. His didactic explanation of the army in ‘Marching Orders’ and ‘Riser’s Reprimand’ to the women is deft, self-satirising and well-voiced.
The four operators, played by Kira Levia (Suzanne), Kaori Maeda-Judge (Bertha), Nikola Gucciardo (Helen) Kaitlin Hill (Louise Lebreton) take the mobile switchboards, the status quo, our hearts and the score for a super spin so often about the Hayes stage space. The parallel lines of both the US Army’s debut attempt to help in world conflict far from them as well as the first time girls are allowed in the forces are well manipulated by this quartet. Songs such as ‘Hello Girls’, ‘See You on the Other Side’, ‘Je M’en Fiche’, ‘Quinze Minutes’ ‘Lives on the Line’ show these variegated voices and courage switch back and forth with the rest of the ensemble, intersperse French and blend so well in the space.
Above: An ensemble scene The Hello Girls. Photo Credit: Jane Duong.
Other moments such as ‘Cryptich Triptych’ and the poignant recruitment number ‘We Aren’t in The Army’ are full of swagger. In this milieu both salute the underestimated suitability and eagerness of these pioneering females from 1918 for completing complex tasks under pressure. The musical and dramatic surge of the united humans on the front line is well packaged and stunningly performed here in the hectic, layered piece, ‘The Duration’.
The final number, ‘Making History’ mixes history, humanity in a goose-bump-induced summary. This includes the fact that the Bell Battalion women weren’t recognised as being in the US Army until much fighting led finally to such recogmition, on the year Elvis’ unopposed, clearly defined career came to an end.
This is a tour de force of an initial offensive for Hayes and Heart Strings Theatre Companies in 2024. It answers many calls much needed at this time. And entertains absolument. See it! Get connected.
The Hello Girls plays at Hayes Theatre Co, 19 Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point until February 4.
