With her broad and brassy comic personality, star presence and underlying tenderness, Midler is ideal to inherit the sacred mantle of Dolly Gallagher Levi from actress Carol Channing, who starred in the original 1964 production and played the role for decades...The production (directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Warren Carlyle) lovingly recreates the look and feel of Gower Champion's iconic 1964 production, bursting at the seams with old-fashioned showmanship, hyperkinetic energy and stylized movement.