REVIEW: Step back in time with ‘The Marvelous Wonderettes’

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Marietta Theatre Company’s production of “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” at Lyric Studio On the Square in Marietta.

While intimate, the minute you walk into the venue and take your seat it feels much larger. But it did not lose its charm and allowed for a close experience of the show.

“The Marvelous Wonderettes” centers around four women, Suzy, Missy, Cindy Lou and Betty Jean who are friends and students in the late 1950s who are, to their delight, asked to perform at their school’s prom. And thus begins the journey of these four ladies harmonizing and singing songs that you’re sure to remember and even sing along with. No seriously, sing along — it’s completely allowed and even encouraged.

But not everything is poodle skirts and milkshakes, pretty soon in the first half we begin to see some tension within the group and the lives of the characters — each struggling through their own journey. After a 15-minute intermission, we return 10 years later at a highschool reunion and continue catching up with our protagonists. We see how their lives has turned out, the good, the bad and the ugly. But nevertheless, the music plays on and never skips a beat!

This show is interactive. You don’t just sit back and watch. You clap. You sing along. You very well may even be part of the show. It’s an entertaining experience and the actresses do an amazing job of evoking the feel of the time period with their personalities, costumes and melodies.

And even though I was born well after these songs were popular, over the years I’ve heard a few and was able to sing along to many of them. And even if I didn’t know the words, they were so catchy that I was practically caught up by the second verse!

Don’t hesitate, you still have a few more days to catch this show and engage in some wonderful melodic tunes from yesteryear.