By Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan
VERMILLION, S.D. – “A smile is a crooked line that makes things straight.” That’s the motto of the hip, perky, blast-from-the-past musical, “The Taffetas.”

There were plenty of crooked lines in Vermillion this month as the Taffetas, played by Jesse Atkinson (Donna), Anna Auchampach (Peggy), Elizabeth Wright (Cheryl) and Darla Earnest (Kaye), came to the Wayne S. Knutson Theatre on the University of South Dakota campus. Earnest teaches in USD’s Department of Theatre; the other three “sisters” are USD students.

The characters, four fictitious sisters from Muncie, IN, make up a musical quartet modeled after the McGuire Sisters, the Fontane Sisters and the Chordettes, famous pop singers of the 1950s.

Donna, Peggy, Cheryl and Kaye opened the Vermillion show with “Sh-Boom,” followed by other ’50s hits such as “Mockin’ Bird Hill,” “Achoo Cha-Cha,” and “Johnny Angel.”

Throughout the show, the sisters not only sang and danced, but made the audience part of the show too, asking one observer to take a photo of them, taking questions about their personal lives and offering their own advertisements during “commercial breaks.”

At one point, Donna and Peggy rolled onto the stage, modeling perfect size six white roller skates with bubblegum pink wheels — exceptional items the audience members, too, could own by entering a drawing.

It was, as billed, “A Musical Journey Through the Fabulous Fifties,” but the trip didn’t stop with songs. It stayed true to the era in fashion too.

Peggy and Kaye had matching pink dresses and Donna and Cheryl had matching violet dresses, styled in ’50s elegance.

The dresses, classic A-line, had black tulle netting peeking from under the skirts and the sisters accessorized with white broaches, white gloves and white scarves. Their hairstyles were the popular soft and curly look of the ’50s.

“I liked it,” said Mercy Hobbs, a spectator. “It captured the spirit of the time and had that hint of sexiness, too.”

Gregory M. Huckabee, associate professor of business law at the University of South Dakota, said Atkinson, Auchampach and Wright are all good students and he could tell they were having fun on stage. That is what the faculty wants to see, he said.

“I absolutely loved it,” Huckabee said.

“The Taffetas” will appear in Sioux Falls at the Orpheum Theatre, June 20-22 and Sioux City at the Lamb Theatre, June 27-29.