The Hallelujah Girls At The New Theatre
I ventured into deepest, darkest Overland Park, Kansas, to sample the fare at the New Theatre & Restaurant, a dinner theatre currently serving up The Hallelujah Girls starring Richard Karn, best known as second banana to Tim Allen in the 90s hit sitcom Home Improvement.
The Hallelujah Girls is an enjoyable bit of fluff, one of many tossed off by Jones Hope Wooten, a collective pseudonym for Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten, who amongst them have an impressive list of credits, most of them on television.
The trio use the tag line “Making The World A Happier Place.” Judging from the blurbs on their website, they aim their copious output at the amateur and dinner theatre markets, which are more concerned with having a good time on stage than they are with the finer points of dramaturgy or the latest skirmishes in the culture wars. Perhaps I should have put that in the past tense, since only Wooten is still living.
The Hallelujah Girls chronicles the adventures of a tight-knit group of women in their sixties who meet at Weight Watchers in Eden Falls, Georgia, to schmooze, bitch, and moan.
Preeminent among them is Sugar Lee (Tudi Roche), who has just taken over a moribund church which she plans to turn into a day spa called Spa-De-Dah.
Along for the ride are Mavis (Peggy Friesen), whose marriage is so ghastly she fantasizes about killing herself; the thrice-married, thrice widowed Carlene (Cathy Newman), known about town as “The Black Widow;” and Nita (Terry Adams), the town clerk.
Along for the ride is Crystal (Ashley Pankow), Carlene’s younger sister, who enjoys dressing up to mark every holiday at Spa-De-Dah and composing appropriate ditties, all of them set to the tune of popular Christmas carols.
Spa-De-Dah seems to be making a go of it, until Eden Falls’ richest bitch, Bunny (Jan Rogge), decides she wants to have the old building in which Spa-De-Dah operates condemned so she can tear it down and build a beautiful museum.
Somewhat late in the proceedings a contractor shows up to install a sauna. Who should it be but Bobby Dwayne (the aforementioned Mr. Karn), who was Sugar Lee’s high school sweetheart. But they broke up under scandalous circumstances so the atmosphere is understandably fraught.
The plot is improbable and the devices cooked up to ensure a happy ending even more so. The real fun in The Hallelujah Girls comes from their banter, some of which is quite funny. The indignities of ageing and the foibles of the men in their lives are the major topics of conversation and many of the zingers hit their mark.
In my admittedly limited experience with dinner theatre, the “star” of the show, typically a headliner of yesteryear, has the meatiest role. Bobby Dwayne is really what is called a featured role; Sugar Lee is The Hallelujah Girls’ real star. But since Sugar Lee is played by Karn’s real-life wife (of 41 years!), it’s easy to see what made this gig attractive to both of them.
For her part, Roche turns in a solid star performance and her hubby, looking trimmer than in his Home Improvement days, offers great support. (In what is obviously an interpolated line cribbed from Mae West, Mavis asks Bobby Dwayne, “Is that a pocket hose in your pocket or are you just glad to see us?” a reference to Karn’s ubiquitous TV commercials for the product.)
Director Dennis D. Hennessy has assembled a capable supporting cast from the Kansas City area’s rich roster of professional talent. Friesen is the best of the lot, although in defense of her fellow cast members I should note that the playwrights have given Mavis the show’s funniest lines.
Pankow seems to be having a lot of fun as Crystal, singing those silly songs while accompanying herself on piano, but the costume changes must be grueling.
The revolving set by Scott Heineman is impressive and I especially liked his design for the neon Spa-De-Dah sign. Costume designer Georgianna Londré had a field day with Crystal’s outrageous holiday getups. And a tip of the hat to sound designer Roger Stoddard for the unobtrusive mic’ing.
The Hallelujah Girls continues at the New Theatre & Restaurant through November 15, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the New Theatre website.
Footnote: The New Theatre & Restaurant was named the best dinner theatre in the country by USA Today. It’s easy to see why. The exterior is unassuming (at first I thought I was entering a retrofitted warehouse) but the interior is spectacular. The sleekly modern and capacious auditorium, which holds over 600 people, looks like something out of Vegas. The food is first-rate and the service attentive. On top of that the ticket prices are surprisingly moderate for what you get. If your travels take you to the Kansas City area and you’re in the mood for some light entertainment and good food, check it out.
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