Bette officially leaving Dolly on January 14th

[Buffalo Bill]

Every once in awhile a performer "steals the show." Historically it's usually not been the leading player. It's usually some unsung hero who's been slogging away, unnoticed for years, who suddenly has a breakthrough moment on stage, and their careers and lives are forever changed. Tuesday August 1st, however, was different. On that night, Donna Murphy stole "Hello Dolly" away from Carol, Pearl, Barbra, and Bette (among many others) and kept stealing, singing, dancing, meddling, clowning and mugging right at us from the stage with sheer delight. Get a cheap seat now, sit back and relax, Donna's got this one covered. So Long Dearie, Before the Parade passes by, Put on Your Sunday Clothes and Just Leave Everything to Me! Uh, Dolly. Uh, Donna!

[haterobics]

Can't one only steal the show from the other people onstage?!

[DAME]

The show was on fire yesterday.  Entrance applause for everyone.  Bette sounded AMAZING!  One nice new thing for me;  the last bow when she used to step forward and take the bow on her own and then step back and grab David's arm as the curtain falls... Yesterday she stepped forward with David and they both bowed and embraced and then stepped back.  She also took even more time in the passarelle shaking people's hands before that.  There was so much love in that theater.

[Itonlytakesajourney]

^^ aww that sounds really sweet. There was only applause for Donna and I think David as well the night I went. Jennifer got some when she opened her mouth, and during the curtain call Donna let Nathan Madden get the final bow. I love when audiences are interactive, it makes the show more inviting. 

[Itonlytakesajourney]

[Itonlytakesajourney]

* Sorry for the double post 

[DAME]

Something else that was new for me yesterday was the audience singing along during the Dolly portion of the overture.  It was fab.

[Zamedy154]

So Gavin was out again last night?? I'm confused.

And thanks for your post DAME! We just got to NYC. I'm counting the hours until Saturday evening. Glad to see you also say Bette sounded AMAZING. I said the same thing two weeks ago. She sounded even better than she did in previews. She is an EVENT!

 

[DAME]

Not one understudy.

[Flowerlovestage5]

According to a poster on All That Chat, it was reported on pg. 19 of the Daily News today, that Donna will be taking over permanently and reps did not comment. 

There is no link as apparently it was only in print. Did anyone read it? 

[10086sunset]

Flowerlovestage5 said: "According to a poster on All That Chat, it was reported on pg. 19 of the Daily News today, that Donna will be taking over permanently and reps did not comment. 

There is no link as apparently it was only in print. Did anyone read it? "

 

I have trouble believing this when Donna's performances are readily available on TDF.

[TheSassySam]

I hear that they actually have scheduled Dollys for the entire year and they plan on announcing them all at once. 

But that may just be my friend pulling my leg. 

[haterobics]

Flowerlovestage5 said: "There is no link as apparently it was only in print. Did anyone read it?"

Yeah, sites are really fussy about which print stories they put on the web...

[Zamedy154]

Nevermind! 

[poisonivy2]

It hasn't.

www.keepvid.com.

Just sayin'.

[Flowerlovestage5]

Ok, as of this morning, the Daily News printed on pg. 23, a correction to yesterday's blurb -- stating that no replacement has been found. 

Granted, that's most likely not true either, but way to screw that up. 

 

[David10086]

It would be interesting to see how long Murphy could sustain the box-office if she took over for Midler in January - unless it would be a 'limited 8 week engagement' and they brought in a big replacement for the Spring (Midler returns)? 

[Itonlytakesajourney]

Looks like the YouTube link is down. If anybody could hit me up with another resource, that'd be appreciated ...