Back where they belong. Bette Midler. Hello, Dolly!
Michael Stewart's (book) and Jerry Herman's (music and lyrics) masterpiece, Hello, Dolly!, returns to Broadway starring none other than Bette Midler. Directed by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, Hello, Dolly! is playing Broadway's legendary Shubert Theatre.
This production, the first new production of Hello, Dolly! to appear on Broadway since it opened more than fifty years ago, will pay tribute to the original work of legendary director/choreographer Gower Champion, which has been hailed both then and now as one of the greatest stagings in musical theater history.
Midler, taking on the role originated by Carol Channing, is marvelous, and so is the supporting cast which includes David Hyde Pierce as the gruff, befuddled, and ice-to-be-melted Yonkers storeowner Horace Vandergelder; and his initially-intended, Kate Baldwin's dress shop-owner Irene Molloy, who instead will find unlikely love with Cornelius Hackl, one of Vandergelder's shop-boys played by the all-leaping, dancing, and very funny Gavin Creel. Despite all the diva-ishness and scene-hogging required of her, Midler is also a generous performer. Hyde Pierce is given ample space to huff and puff, and steal his own scenes. The only characters ill-served by Hello, Dolly! are young lovers Ambrose the artist and Ermengarde, Horace's niece, who don't get much to do, but appear resolute (him) and weep loudly (her) in their quest to be together.
Among her fans, which sums up an orchestra section that behaved all night like the Shuberts had pulled out the seats and installed spring-loaded standing mechanisms in their stead, Midler has more rollover minutes than Sprint could ever conceive. Even if Midler had skipped 'Before the Parade Passes By' entirely - rather than merely ad-libbing 'live theater!' and gulping 'Here it comes! Wish me luck!' before vanquishing the frog and belting out the Jerry Herman anthem like nothing had happened - it is inconceivable that anyone would have hit the lobby for a transportation voucher out of there.
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