TAFFETAS: It's a 10 from the '50s

The Taffetas is a musical about a 1950s group of singing sisters from a working class city trying to work their way up from local supermarket openings to their ultimate goal – the Ed Sullivan Show. This acclaimed musical is based on the Off-Broadway hit created by Rick Lewis.

The Taffetas, currently being performed in Coeur d’Alene at the Lake City Playhouse and directed by Marina Kalani, is a superb reenactment of 50s music and girl groups like the McGuire Sisters and The Chordettes. This production features Sarah Briggs, Emily Cleveland, Breanna Duffy, and Kylene Peden as the Tafetta sisters.

Their performance is a superb 90 minute set of songs and hilarious humor, from perfect harmonies and authentic costumes, hairdos, and choreography, down to their sexual naiveté (mostly) and stereotypical 1950s values. A standing ovation at the final curtain is automatic.

We recently heard Emily Cleveland and Director Kalani at the Interplayers’ production of Honky Tonk Angels so we knew they were great singers, but Sarah Briggs is also a musical diva, and Breanna Duffy and Kylene Peden – surprisingly both still high school students - have their own impressive singing styles.

My wife accompanied me as my musical expert; she and her four sisters were there in the 50s singing four-part harmony as The Shoop Sisters - and doing the same songs as the Taffetas. She gives this production a perfect 10, and she should know.

FRANK DELANEY

Spokane