Tyler Hardwick Joins Elaine Hendrix-Led HELLO, DOLLY! at OFC Creations Theatre
Performances January 29-February 15, 2026 at the OFC Creations Theatre Center.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jun. 18, 2025
Tyler Hardwick has joined the cast of “Hello, Dolly!” as Cornelius Hackl in OFC’s production next season.
Hardwick is best known from the Broadway productions of Once On This Island and Motown The Musical as well as the National Tours of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, Once On This Island, and Motown The Musical. As well as his holiday performance on Good Morning America.
Originally from Rochester, New York, performing in OFC’s production of “Hello, Dolly” will be a homecoming for Hardwick. Tyler Hardwick graduated from Rush Henrietta in 2010.
Hardwick will be starring alongside previously announced Elaine Hendrix as Dolly Levi, who is best known from Disney’s ??? ?????? ???? as Meredith Blake, SNL’s ?????????, and the cult classic ???? & ???????'? ???? ?????? ???????.
Hendrix dazzled as the legendary ‘Alexis Carrington’ in The CW’s Dynasty reboot and is a frequent collaborator of Denis Leary, starring alongside him in FX’s Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll, Universal’s Erase, and FOX’s Super Bowl campaign Dogs Playing Poker.
Hello, Dolly is OFC’s fourth musical in the 2025-2026 Broadway in Brighton Series. Performances January 29-February 15, 2026 at the OFC Creations Theatre Center.
Based on Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker, the show debuted on Broadway in 1964 as a storming success, winning an unprecedented 10 Tonys at that year's ceremony and was adapted for the big screen five years later.
The story is set in 1880's Yonkers, where a rich and cantankerous widower by the name of Horace Vandergelder is on the lookout for a wife. To help him on his quest he engages the services of professional matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi, but little does he know that Dolly has his perfect match in mind from their very first meeting - herself! Now all she has to do is make Horace realize it as well!
Hello, Dolly features the timeless songs "Put On Your Sunday Clothes," "Before the Parade Passes By," "It Only Takes A Moment," and the title song, Hello, Dolly! is an extravagant old-school treat, following the efforts of the titular matchmaker to land a wealthy and cantankerous widow.
The entirety of OFC’s 2025-2026 Broadway in Brighton Series is comprised of six professional musical productions under the direction of OFC’s Executive Director Eric Vaughn Johnson, featuring performers from New York City, Los Angeles, and across the country, continuing OFC’s inclusion of celebrities in featured roles across the season.
This season’s focus is centered around the importance of family, the family you are born into and your chosen family found along life’s journey. The series will include: Finding Neverland, the first Rochester-produced production and one of the first regional theatres in the country to perform; Emmet Otter Jug-Band Christmas: The Musical, another regional premiere where again, OFC is one of the first to produce it in the country, starring Vivian Bayubay McLaughlin as Mrs. Alice "Ma" Otter (From Disney’s Outside the Box, Sesame Street); Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, a first Rochester-produced production, starring Garrett Clayton as The Grinch (From Teen Beach Movie, The Fosters, and Hairspray LIVE!); Hello, Dolly!, starring Elaine Hendrix from The Parent Trap; The Bodyguard: The Musical, the breathtaking romantic thriller starring Aliyah Khaylyn from NBC’s “The Voice;” and Over the Rainbow: The Golden Girls Musical, where our favorite ladies are back in a world premiere! Families come in all shapes and sizes, and OFC strives to reflect this beauty through their shows onstage and off.
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