The Hello Girls – REVIEW
Image: THE HELLO GIRLS at The Hayes Theatre. Photo by Philip Erbacher
Written as a commission to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War I, The Hello Girls tells the story of a group of unsung war heroes, the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit, nick-named the “hello girls”.
This was a small unit of crack switchboard operators who, in the last year of the war, facilitated vital communications for the allied forces in France.
The story and characters are based on real people and events, though it’s a fictionalised — and musical — retelling. Writers, Peter Mills (music, lyrics and book) and Cara Reichel (book) have stayed faithful to the facts but have used clever songs to primp what might have been a very dry narrative.
At the beginning of the First World War, telephone technology was still developing and the United States was at its vanguard. War hastened advances and by 1917, multi-line switchboards allowed the connection of calls from various locations across long distances. However, these switchboards required manual operation and it soon became apparent that women were the fastest, most efficient, and least flappable at handling this task.
It also happened that women, for the first time, had been permitted to enlist in the US army and many of them were assigned to the Signal Corps. When telephone operators were required on the front line in France, five women, fluent in French, volunteered and were sent.
The Hayes Theatre/ Heartstrings Theatre co production of The Hello Girls is pared-down, minimalist, which suits the setting of a WWI army unit. It’s left to the songs and personalities to add colour, and they do.
Rhianna McCourt is particularly strong in the lead role of Grace Banker, who headed the Women Telephone Operators Unit. She has arguably one of the best songs in the show, where she lists twenty reasons why a women is better than a man as a telephonist. Kira Leiva as feisty Suzanne Prevot, Kaori Maeda-Judge as pragmatci Bertha Hunt, Nikola Gucciardo as naive Helen Hill and Kaitlin Nihill as rebellious Louise Lebreton complete the Hello Girls quintet.
Joel Hutchings is the disgruntled Capt Joseph Riser, who resents having women in his charge, though he eventually comes to appreciate their value. David Hooley plays Gen. John Pershing and several other roles along with Matthew Hearne, Zachary Aleksander, Lincoln Elliott.
The music is a mixed bag. Some songs reference the period, with early radio choir harmonies, while others have the recitative quality of Sondheim style musical. There’s some modernism in the costumes and playing of live instruments on stage.
The Hello Girls is undoubtedly a World War I story, yet elements of it still resonate, especially with the current socio-political climate we’re in.
A very interesting piece of history.
