With the Feb. 9 debut of its original show Hallmark’ed and the unveiling of the new Beehive Stage, Hale Center Theatre has transformed most evenings into a theatrical trifecta: three productions on three stages, entertaining up to 1,600 people at once. It’s less a theater complex now and more a well-oiled Broadway-style buffet.
With audiences hungry for fresh material and plenty of stages to serve it, HCT has the perfect proving ground for in-house creations like Hallmark’ed, conceived by co-founder and artistic director Sally Dietlein and resident director Dave Tinney, with a story by chief operating officer and playwright Michael D. Fox. This is family theater in the most literal sense: the Dietlein dynasty also extends to the score, written by Quinn, Dawn and Cameron Dietlein.
The contemporary farce sets its sights squarely on the syrupy, formula-driven romances we secretly (or not so secretly) binge every December: Hallmark movies. Some favorite HCT faces take up the mantle, including Bo Chester (recently seen in Newsies) and Darick Pead (last year’s Beast and more recently as Kristoff in Frozen), who lend their polished pipes to the fledgling production. A handful of charming set pieces—(much better than the LED cartoon-style backdrops)—transport us to the aggressively wholesome town of Idyllic, Vermont.
Unfortunately, while the town is delightful, the musical itself wanders like a lost caroler.
Out of 13 songs, only a few sparkle with real promise. The opening ensemble number, “You and I,” is lively and clever, setting expectations high. But many of the remaining tunes land with lyrics so earnest they border on Hallmark-card filler: “I do want to give you a chance here, but I’m pretty guarded” and “I wish the girl afraid to fall would want and need me after all…” Even Chester and Pead’s beautiful voices can’t fully rescue lines that feel pulled from a bad refrigerator magnet.
The plot centers on Julie (Chester), who erupts in protest while watching the grand finale of a Hallmark movie with her mother and sister—just as she receives a phone call offering her a job producing a Bake-Off-style reality show in Vermont. She immediately recognizes the danger: she is stepping straight into a Hallmark plot. Everyone around her points this out, loudly and repeatedly. Julie vows she will not fall victim to small-town charm or handsome men in flannel.
Spoiler alert: she does.
Upon arrival, she meets Monty (Pead), a single dad who looks like he was assembled by a committee of knit sweaters and kindness. Their encounter happens—naturally—at the hardware store. Monty remains a caricature throughout, as does nearly everyone else: the oafish screenager, the narcissistic boss, the flamboyant gay man, the “Karen,” and Monty himself, the Brawny-Paper-Towel Man with a tender soul.
The joke is that Julie knows she’s in a cliché and tries desperately not to become one. The problem is that this joke is told… and told… and told again. What begins as satire slowly turns into a two-hour exercise in repetition. Every Hallmark ingredient is piled on for effect: gazebos, autumn leaves, unsolicited compliments, emotional speeches and Julie’s relentless snark in response.
And here lies the show’s biggest stumbling block. A parody still needs characters we want to follow. Julie dodges one stereotype only to land in another—someone who assumes every man is hitting on her (ughh) and responds to kindness as if it were an act of war. Her resistance to romance doesn’t make her witty or empowered—it makes her exhausting. The irony is sharp: in trying not to be a Hallmark heroine, she becomes something worse—a “pick-me” anti-heroine no one can reasonably root for.
There’s plenty to admire here: ambition, heart and a community theater stretching its creative muscles. But Hallmark’ed proves that skewering clichés takes more than stacking them high—it takes fresh insight and characters with enough dimension to rise above the joke.
Still, in a building where three shows can bloom at once, experimentation is part of the charm. And if nothing else, Hallmark’ed reminds us why we love those corny movies in the first place: because deep down, even their clichés have better chemistry than this musical’s plot.
- What: HCT’s Hallmark’ed
- When: Through June 9, 2026
- Where: The Hale Center Theatre Company’s Beehive Stage, Sandy
- Tickets and info: hct.org
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