Irvington Town Hall Theater Presents “The Hello Girls”

By Abigail Spies

The musical “The Hello Girls” is making its regional premiere at the Irvington Town Hall Theater with Broadway Training Center, a performing arts school in Hastings. It is a musical about the first women to serve in the army. It follows five of the women: Grace Banker, Suzanne Prevot, Helen Hill, Louise LeBreton, and Bertha Hunt. They were real telephone operators in WWI.

There will be three performances, on March 28, 29, and 30. The show has amazing music, beautiful harmonies, and intricate choreography. The cast of sixteen ranges from freshmen to seniors. The lead, Grace Banker, is played by Anabelle Shotton. 

During the process of preparing for the show the cast got a visit from Skyler Volpe, who played Suzanne Prevot in the original off-broadway cast. The cast performed three of their finished numbers and was able to ask Volpe questions about her time in the show. 

One notable thing that she said was that while the cast was still learning the first act, the second was still being written. This is a very unusual thing, and it caused much of the show to constantly be fluctuating up until the day of the first performance.

Additionally, a noticeable difference between the original version and BTC’s is that the original featured only ten actors who, while singing, were also playing the instrumentals. Volpe played guitar, although she is primarily a bassist, and this made it all the more difficult for her to deal with the constant changes in the show.

An interesting fact about BTC’s show is that many of the props and costumes being used in the performance are vintage. From the actual discontinued army uniforms to the authentic medal of distinguished service award, they have truly gone the extra mile to make sure that the show is as realistic as possible.

However, this is not all that useful for performers when it comes to the vintage telephone operator headsets: “They are extremely uncomfortable and it is hard to hear yourself when you are singing with them on,” said Neko Curtis, the Dobbs Ferry Freshman who plays Private Dempsey. “Most people have bent and adjusted theirs a lot to make sure that they aren’t falling off their head. Plus, some of them are just like flat pieces of metal pressed against your ear.”