The Silver Belles

The origins of The Silver Belles are a series of strange interwoven stories that intersected, against all odds, bringing a group of people together that never would have been in the same room.

Arlington Magazine published a very comprehensive piece, written by Cathy Alter, who, along with Sandra Johnson, came up with the original business concept, “Senior Moments” - a temp agency for Seniors, that eventually became the musical “The Silver Belles”. With a book by Allyson Currin, Music and Lyrics by Matt Conner & Stephen Gregory Smith, the musical premiered at Signature Theatre in December 2016. It went on to be purchased by Broadway Licensing for its catalog, and is now available to be licensed wherever musicals are performed. 

If you’ve read the Arlington Magazine piece that I referenced above, it will become a good framing device for our perspective of the story of the creation of The Silver Belles. Matt and I were both at that initial 2007 “Business Meeting Brunch” with Sandra and Cathy. Looking back on it, I remember Sandra’s “hand-outs”, (some business proposal language and a vague timeline), I remember Matt suggesting that it be a musical, and I remember him coming home and working on it that very day. 

Our musicals haven’t historically had long gestation periods, as we usually work very quickly together, and deadlines are like an aphrodisiac to us both, creatively. So in the near decade between that initial meeting with mimosas and “hand-outs”, the show took on many different plot points, settings, and songs. 

We even tried out a few songs at Matt’s 2013 Holiday Cabaret at Signature, “A Matt Conner Christmas”, and boy, didn’t we think the song, “Christmas Balls” was going to be a big hit! 

Ally Currin started working with Matthew along the way, and really brought the Southern Charm with her. We also had met Warren Freeman, our constant Music Supervisor since 2014, at Shenandoah during our Sleepy Hollow redux. He joined the project in the last year before it came to workshop or stage. The four of us became a dream team of creativity.

I remember during the workshop of the show, we started to have trouble with the song, “Christmas Balls”. As funny as it had been in our heads, and at the cabaret, it was too far fetched to work in even the zany world of Silver Belles. We were asked to revisit the lyrics during our one hour lunch break. It was indeed a “Make it Work” Project Runway-style situation. I remember Warren, Matt, and myself pacing around the Shen Rehearsal room of Signature Theatre on a lunch-less lunch. 

We knew the situation involved. There was to be a seduction, holiday style. The “Christmas Balls” way in to the scene was a woman getting so ecstatically turned on by decorating a Christmas tree that she started removing jewelry, her shirt, etc to adorn the tree. It still makes me laugh in my head. To have an almost sexual/religious ecstasy over decorating. On a stage - it just wasn’t translating. 

The song rested on its title syllables. “Christmas Balls” - 1-2-3 syllables. So how to not throw the baby out with the bath water? The melody that Matt wrote was great, and I didn’t want to change it if possible. 

We quickly landed on the perfect three syllable holiday seduction device…Mistletoe. As soon as we found that, the lyrics flew like moonshine from a still. We had the song by the end of lunch. 

There were other inspirations as well. Moonshine became quite the secondary character in the story, with our Leading Lady being struck dead by lightning in the beginning of our story, at the culmination of her song, “Strike Me Lord”, where she was sipping on moonshine and trying to find inspiration for this year’s Silver Belles Christmas Pageant, and standing a little too close to the still during a thunderstorm. I will never forget the riotous laughter that this, and many other moments produced. 

As much laughter as the book produced, I was equally glad that the lyrics seemed to be generating an equal amount of laughs as well. But above all else, what I loved about the show the most was that as much as you laughed, you then cried. The show has a HUGE heart. 

I actually had the Author’s Nightmare scenario happen to me during the run of this show. I was performing in Titanic in the larger theatre at Signature, The Max, when the actress who played the part of Bo Jack, a non-binary person who is Earl’s best friend and host of the local radio station, fell ill. For reasons that I still don’t quite understand, there were no understudies. I was approached to go on as the part. I ended up having to go on for two performances. While I barely remember due to merciful adrenaline, as we always say, the show must go on. 

The Silver Belles had a limited run at Signature Theatre in 2016, which was entirely sold out. I’m not sure why they never brought it back after it did so well. The next theatre (especially in the DMV area) that will produce this show will no doubt have a big box office hit on their hands, as I still get told by people that they couldn’t get a ticket to The Silver Belles and can’t believe they missed it. 

To hear a few of the demo tracks, you can check out The Silver Belles on Broadway Licensing. Here’s hoping that Oralene and The Silver Belles will be making more laughter peel out in the near future.