STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

“The Marvelous Wonderettes” is like light summer reading meant for the beach.

The jukebox musical is a feel-good blast from the past featuring such girl song hits of the 1950s and ‘60s as "Mr. Sandman," "Lollipop," "Dream Lover," "You Don't Own Me," "It's My Party" and "Leader of the Pack" in the sweetest of four part-harmonies.

Wood River Rep (formerly The Liberty Theatre Company) presents the L.A. Ovation Award-winning play by Roger Bean starting tonight and running through July 12 at The Liberty Theater in Hailey.

The Marvelous Wonderettes are played by Hannah Staudinger, Rianny Vasquez, Hannah Nye and Hannah Heil.

Hannah Nye, who has starred in such Wood River Rep plays as “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Chicago,” and “Boeing Boeing,” plays Missy, a high-strung overachiever.

Hannah Heil, a New York-based actor, plays Suzy, a bubbly, happy-go-lucky romantic. Hannah Staudinger, a L.A.-based actor singer and dancer, plays Cindy Lou, a headstrong cheerleader. And Rianny Vasquez, an L.A.-based actor, plays Betty Jean, a mischievous athlete with a secret crush.

They have been asked to provide the live entertainment for their 1958 Prom. And, after intermission, they return to sing at their 1968 tenth-year reunion, their songs chronicling  their triumphs and setbacks as their bobby sox have given way to miniskirts and their bubblegum has lost its sweetness.

"It's a feel-good piece but it also has moments that are extremely bittersweet," said Director Wendy Rosoff. "There's real loss in their lives. And this musical depicts how women rally together around each other and buoy each other when the going gets tough."

Wood River High School Choir Director John Mauldin found himself in the middle of the girls.

Rosoff came to Sun Valley area a few days early and fell hard for the Wood River Valley.

"I felt like, ‘Oh my goodness I've struck Hallmark (movie) gold here," she said. "The feeling of the community, the closeness of everybody — I went to Shorty's and everybody knew everybody."

She loved it so much she asked Wood River Rep’s executive director Emily Meister if she could set the fictional town of Springfield in the Wood River Valley. When audiences walk into the Liberty Theater, they will be greeted by vintage Wood River High School items. The girls on stage will reference the school by name. They’ll even do a cheer performed by the real Wood River High School cheerleaders.

Heil grew up in Steamboat Springs.

Rianny Vasquez plays a very emotional, strong teen.

"When I was 11, our local regional theater did 'The Marvelous Wonderettes,' " she said. "I was an usher and watched the show every night.”

When she saw the audition call years later, she jumped: "I love singing in harmony," she said. "My training was very music-based in college."

Heil describes her character Suzy as the bubble-gum-chewing best friend who is down for everything. Nothing gets her down. She is always giggly, always smiley, always game.

"I definitely relate," Heil said. "I love to be sort of the positive best friend to the rest of my friends, so it feels natural to me."

The Wonderettes, played by Hannah Heil, Hannah Nye and Rianny Vasquez, encounter a few surprises at their ten-year reunion.

She singled out the music as the show's greatest asset. "It's so catchy. There are so many wonderful popular songs you just never get tired of. The music really sticks with you, and it's been so fun to learn, so fun to sing with the girls. All the voices are so beautiful. I never get tired of hearing them sing."

Rianny Vasquez, who lives in Thousand Oaks, Calif., plays Betty Jean, the spunky, feisty prankster of the group.

"Betty Jean is very loyal and emotional," Vasquez said. "She's a prankster and a goofball, very mischievous throughout the show. But you get to see a really cool journey from the '50s, when she's the class clown, to ten years later when she's dealt with a lot of hardships in her marriage. It's a really great emotional arc."

Like Heil, she says the music is the star: "These are earworms from the 1950s and '60s that audiences know and love. I think it will have people coming back to see it. It's so fun and lively and very nostalgic."

Rosoff came up doing Broadway in such productions as "42nd Street," "White Christmas" and "My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies of Broadway" at Carnegie Hall before moving to Los Angeles to pursue film and TV. Her credits include "Fresh Off the Boat," "Criminal Minds," "Veep" and "The Good Place.”

In addition to directing “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” she choreographed it, drawing inspiration from such early variety shows as “Dick Clark,” “American Bandstand” and “Ed Sullivan.”

The movements of the Marvelous Wonderettes are tight and in sync, the way girl groups performed on those pioneering programs. But they’re deliberately imperfect.

"These women are not professional dancers," Rosoff said of the characters. "It shouldn't feel like perfection. The music should feel like a female barbershop — tight, beautiful harmonies that we all know and love."

Rosoff spoke with something close to wistfulness about the world the show evokes.

"These songs came from a time when everybody had commonality, listening and watching the same thing. Even in the 1980s we were all falling in love with the same performers, like Madonna and Prince and David Bowie. That's not a thing anymore. We're losing the ability to sit around the fire and have the same experience."

Rosoff noted that today, we're moving in a time where everything moves so fast with digitizing and AI at our fingertips: "I feel such a sense of wistfulness for a time gone by, when folks were really present. Listening to music on the radio. Watching the birth of these TV shows that made people superstars. There's something very special to be gleaned from slowing down and taking note of how present people were."

IF YOU GO:

"The Marvelous Wonderettes" runs July 1 through 12 at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. The show starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturdays (with the exception of July Fourth) and 2 p.m. on Sundays. For tickets, visit https://woodriverrep.org/