Betty Buckley "DOLLY" opening in Cleveland/ Casting News ?

[Bwayfan292]

Im so glad you had such a fun time dmwnc!!! Enjoy it again tomorrow!!!

[dmwnc1959]

Bwayfan292 said: "Im so glad you had such a fun time dmwnc!!! Enjoy it again tomorrow!!! "

It was wonderful! Another long day tomorrow, but for the drive back to WV after the 1:30pm matinee I’ll have the OBCR to sing and listen to for four hours. And that ain’t bad at all. :)

 

[Rosie Cloo]

Sounds wonderful! Did Betty come out to sign?

[dmwnc1959]

Sorry, I didn’t “stage door” after the show, just went out for some night pictures of the marquees and back to the hotel. It’s been a looong day for me. :)

[Dollypop]

I enjoyed reading your reports. Thanks for posting them.

[kofler22]

If the tour version and Betty have rave reviews, do yiu think the show will have a chance to stop in Manhattan for a short time, like they did with Carol Channing?

[SomethingPeculiar]

I know Mr. Herman wasn't able to see the NYC production and doesn't travel much, but I wonder if he'll get to see the tour when it plays Miami around Thanksgiving?

[Flowerlovestage5]

This just posted 20 minutes ago -- Cleveland Jewish News Review:

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/even-the-overture-gets-an-ovation-in-soon-to-be/article_37de35b6-c977-11e8-832e-df82694b530a.html

 

 

[dmwnc1959]

Well, I got one!!! The souvenir stand didn’t have the normal window cards they sell, but today I manage to procure an actual window card like they put in storefronts. It’s a slightly smaller version, but it looks exactly like the one from NYC with the 4 Winner Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical, has Betty Buckley’s name blazoned across and above “Hello, Dolly!”, and the timeframe it’s playing here during the National Tour Launch at Playhouse Square. And of course it’s that same gorgeous RED! This is a very rare item indeed. I just couldn’t be HAPPIER!!! :)

[BwayLB]

The new stills of the production look amazing.

[ND_2000]

These new production shots have me wiping tears from my face! Everyone looks glorious! Anxiously hoping this comes to Philadelphia so I can see it! 

[dmwnc1959]

Back @ the Connor Palace for ROUND 2!!!! Yippeee! Doors open in about 15 minutes. :)

[dmwnc1959]

Intermission. Act 1 performances have been flawless, even better than yesterday’s show.

The line now for snacks is as long as the line for the bathroom. People buying mustard covered pretzels and all manner of stuff in crinkly wrappers. This is a 1:30pm Saturday matinee, didn’t these people eat lunch? Argh. And at the beginning of the show I had to tell (rather loudly and forcibly) the lady sitting in front of me shut her phone OFF. She was still surfing some sort of social media. She didn’t care for me after that.

The folks on either side of me, having never seen the show, and when asked there opinions at the beginning of intermission, said the show has been wonderful and lovely, and that they loved the costumes and dancing.

[EthelMae]

[JBC3]

Cleveland Plain Dealer raves.

https://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2018/10/hello_dolly_betty_buckley_and.html#incart_river_index

[wolfwriter]

Found this rave on Cleveland.com and now need to figure a way to see this.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2018/10/hello_dolly_betty_buckley_and.html#incart_river_index

[dmwnc1959]

Just back home in WV from Cleveland. Today’s show was even better than last nights. I have to tell you, I absolutely LOVE this show!

There was one flub, during the extensive Waiter’s Gallop, when instead of spearing the turkey like a jausting knight on a horse he knocked it off and it landed on the floor with a thud! The audience gave audible “OH!”. But other than that the entire Act 2 was near perfection.

The end scene with Dolly and Horace had me welling-up with tears in my eyes. I’m guessing because this is the last time I’ll see it until next August, but the show just has that affect on me. It’s pure joy.

When the show was over I asked the couple sitting next to me what they thought, and they just loved it, beaming from ear to ear.

And on the way out departing the theater, while baby-stepping with rest of the crowd towards the exits, I chatted with an elderly couple who had seen the show twice before, once with with Carol Channing and another time with Betty Grable, and their opinion of this show is that it was “fantastic”. Not that they were comparing the stars, just that they had seen “Hello, Dolly!” before and loved this show as well.

I did chat with the manager of the souvenir concessions and he said that the window cards weren’t even on their radar when determining what to sell. I let him know that I had purchased most all of my window cards from the National Tours, paying upwards of $60-100 for one that was cast-signed. He told me tonight that he had put a bug in corporate’s ear and “we’ll see what happens”.

I feel blessed to have been able to see this show twice in a row like this, and it makes me sad that I have to wait until next August to see it again when it comes to Pittsburgh. But until then, I’m glad that so many other people will share in this absolutely delightful, heartwarming, and joyous show.

 

[dmwnc1959]

One other thing I thought of late last night. It was fascinating watching and listening to the audience reactions to the show over the last two days: when and how much they applauded, cheered, laughed, and what they reacted to, differently.

For instance, during the Overture before the show, when the music reaches the “Hello, Dolly!” tune, Friday’s crowd burst into applause whereas Saturday’s audience waited until the piece was finished. The Friday night audience was much more excited and animated. The Saturday crowd seemed more intense and focused. 

The first laughter of the show always seems to come when the “horse” enters the stage carrying its three passengers reading newspapers. Neither audience caught it when, at the Harmonia Gardens dining table, Dolly says “Here, let me cut your wings”. I thought that was a great line. At the end of every song there was applause, sometimes cheers, hooting, and hollering, but the intensity was there more so for the evening performance than the matinee, which the latter seemed to have a much older audience.

But the most touching and notable moment came Saturday, near the very end, when Dolly asked Horace what was going on upstairs, to which he replied that he was having that room redone in blue wallpaper. There was small, quick, but very audible gasp and awww across the theater that brought chills to me. I had never heard that reaction in the three previous viewings of the show. It was emotionally very moving. 

And that’s what I love about live theater. Every moment from show to show can be different in some small way: the cast read their lines maybe a little faster, a different ad lib here or there, a spontaneous laugh or applause from the audience that wasn’t there before. What I saw in Cleveland will be slightly more refined by time it hits Chicago. And then the next city after that. I look forward to those reports when they come. 

I’ve also included some pictures from this weekend....

LINK:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/57377062@N04/albums/72157698865514882

[Zamedy154]

Were there any adlibs by Betty during the dance break in the title song?

Thanks for sharing your observance of the audience reaction to the blue wallpaper line. I remember a similar reaction to that and the ‘manure’ line during the closing performance.

[dmwnc1959]

Zamedy154 said: "Were there any adlibs by Betty during the dance break in the title song?"

 

None that really stick out in my mind. Keeping in mind that this was only the 7th and 8th show of the new tour (including the two Previews), Betty will make the role her own and grow quickly as she learns what ad libs work and don’t in front of a live audience. I could see differences just between those two shows where she was stronger. Like I’ve said before, I thought she did a really fine job, and the show is an absolute joy to watch. I couldn’t be more thrilled with my road trip investment to see this show again and again. I’m already making plans to see it twice in Columbus, OH next May because I can’t wait until August for Pittsburgh. 

[IloveNYC2]

Its really hard to tell its the touring production . It looks beyond amazing 

[Auggie27]

The other daily review is less complimentary. Sounds like Buckley is still finding this character's comedy.

"So what kind of Dolly is Buckley?

Sadly, she is the least interesting thing on stage.

While in great voice and exuding the confidence of a pro, Buckley brings little to the role while stand-out performances by Lewis J. Stadlen as the comic foil Vandergelder, Nic Rouleau and Jess LeProtto as his endearing young clerks, Cornelius and Barnaby, and Analisa Leaming and Kristen Hahn as their adorable love-interests, Irene Molloy and Minnie Fay, are inventive, energetic and always entertaining.

Magnificently orchestrated company numbers orbit around Buckley rather than include her. And while she gets at the heart of the character when asking her late husband to bless her renouncement of widowhood and rejoin the human race in “Before the Parade Passes By,” her comedic moments — elongated in anticipation of the raucous reaction earned by past performers — fall rather flat.

“Hello, Dolly!” remains triumphant, but not because of the star at its center."

[bwayphreak234]

dmwnc1959 said: "I’ve also included some pictures from this weekend....

LINK:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/57377062@N04/albums/72157698865514882 "

 

GREAT photos! Thank you for sharing!

 

[dmwnc1959]

Auggie27 said: "The other daily review is less complimentary. Sounds like Buckley is still finding this character's comedy.”

 

Having seen the show twice on Broadway (Bette and Bernadette), as well as the tour twice, I still say Betty Buckley did a fine job despite that review. Yes, she is still finding her footing in some scenes, but overall she was very good and I truly enjoyed her performances. 

I’m not a theater critic by any stretch of the imagination, and I go to shows to enjoy them and not professionally dissect them. With that said, there was very little I found in Betty Buckley’s performances that she won’t quickly improve on. Gauging by the two different audience’s reactions, and the people I talked to at intermission, around me, and after the show, they all really enjoyed the show - and that includes Betty Buckley’s performance. And from the numerous comments I’ve read on personal Instagram and Twitter accounts, the feelings are all the same regarding Betty Buckley. I’m not saying she was great - Bernadette was great. Betty Buckley did do a very fine job. 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and critics have been known to be wrong too, but to say that she is the least interesting thing on the stage is just wrong. Sure, Lewis J. Stadlen is probably the standout of the show. He’s loud, rough around the edges, gruff, and grumpy, and did I mention loud, and people absolutely loved that. And Jess LeProtto is charming and cute. If I had to pick a favorite standout from Broadway it wouldn’t be the mega-stars, but Charlie Stemp who stole the show. Hell, even then Bette Midler at times was the least interesting thing on the stage, if you want to put it that way. 

There were indeed a couple of scenes where Betty Buckley stood back and let the other cast members take over, because that worked best for that moment in the scene, and not to trample over every single scene - look at ME - but she was out front when and where it mattered. She wasn’t trying to be “Bette playing Bette playing Dolly”,  so much so that it almost drowns everyone else out in every scene, and she wasn’t as comedic as Bernadette, who I thought played Dolly best of the shows I saw on Broadway. I didn’t see Donna Murphy. And now that I’ve seen the movie version with Barbra Streisand, I’d even go as far to say she wasn’t very funny in a lot of lines. Sarcastic, yes. Not funny, and not comedic. 

And during the title number when the waiters are performing Betty also stood back a time or two to enjoy their performance, and it only enhanced that magnificent choreography and harmonizing that you saw and heard. 

But Betty Buckley was, is, and will continue to be a good Dolly Levi, improving with every show, every city, and every critic. 

As I’ve said before, once the show runs its three weeks in Cleveland and hits Chicago, many more reviews from forum members and newspapers will hit the internet.

[Melissa25]

Thank You dmwnc1959...I thoroughly enjoyed your reports and photos!