April 23, 2023 By Roy Harris
The curtain rises on Hingham Civic Music Theatre’s production of “The Sweet Delilah Swim Club” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 28 and 29—the first of two weekends for the engaging and poignant comedy at Hingham Town Hall’s Sanborn Auditorium.
The second weekend, “Sweet Delilah” opens at 7:30 on Saturday, May 6, followed by a closing Sunday 2 p.m. matinee May 7.
The five-person South Shore cast plays Southern women who met while on the same college swim team, and have held reunions for a half-century in the same cottage in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Its five actresses have been delighting in developing their characters, who both amuse and amaze each other. And they are sure to bring the same reaction from their audience on the stage of Hingham Town Hall, at 210 Central St.
Hingham’s Sarah Dewey plays Sheree, the cheerful team captain who has continued to prize her leadership role—with the club, and in life. That’s often not easy, with friends who include Jeri Neal, played by Patty Bowes-Phillips, also of Hingham, who brings shocking news to one reunion: Jeri Neal has become a nun, and a nun carrying a very big secret—one that won’t be secret for long!
Other cast members are Carol Cahill and Bonnie Gardner of Rockland—Carol the wisecracking Dinah, and Bonnie as Lexie, a somewhat vain group member who’s maintained that characteristic through numerous marriages. Meanwhile, Kingston’s Stephanie Baker, as Vernadette, has dark secrets of her own, dispensing them in her characteristic sharp-tongued manner.
It all makes for an engaging comedy that covers five lifetimes of twists, and delivers lots of fun to the audience. The show was a collaboration of playwrights Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten.
Tickets are available online at hcmt.org, or can be purchased at Sanborn Auditorium at the time the show. They are $25 each—$20 for seniors and teens—with discounted group sales also available. Opening night has advance tickets available at $15 through a “Facebook Friday” promotion. https://www.facebook.com/HinghamCivicMusicTheatre.
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Roy Harris is a long-time journalist who’s performed in Hingham Civic Music Theatre shows since 2003, when he sold his soul to the devil as Joe Boyd in its production of “Damn Yankees.”