Lewis J. Stadlen News

I had never seen a professional production of HELLO, DOLLY! until now. I recall the 1969 film with Walter Matthau and Barbra Streisand. I did see the play it is based on, THE MATCHMAKER by Thornton Wilder at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and really did not enjoy it.

Throughout theatrical history many great ladies of the theatre have tackled the role of Thornton Wilder's famous matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi in the musical Hello, Dolly! In 2017 a brand new revival of the show hit Broadway starring Bette Midler (with Donna Murphy alternating in) and later on in its run Bernadette Peters. That production is now touring the country with Tony Award winning actress Betty Buckley in the starring role and veteran actor Lewis J. Stadlen as the well-known half a millionaire Horace Vandergelder.

Based on Thornton Wilder's 1954 play titled The Matchmaker, Hello, Dolly! follows famed New York City matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi as receives her toughest challenge yet. She must travel to Yonkers to find a suitable match for the miserly 'well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire' Horace Vandergelder. She successfully matches many others in the city, including Horace's niece and his two young clerks, but everything seems to go wrong when it comes to matching Horace.

Yonkers and Harmonia Gardens swept into town on Tuesday evening to a packed Whitney Hall. This exuberant and big-hearted production of Hello Dolly! leans into its mid-20th origins, with nods to the period staging of the 1880s, while also exploding into the present with contemporary color palettes.

Coming to the Durham Performing Arts Center from May 21st-26th is the national tour of Broadway's classic musical comedy, HELLO, DOLLY! starring the legendary Tony Award winner Betty Buckley. I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing actor Lewis J. Stadlen, who stars opposite Betty as the wealthy half-a-millionaire Horace Vandergelder.

Hello, Dolly! is a true american classic, and is treated by some as the perfect musical comedy. Like many associate Ethel Merman with Gypsy or Anything Goes, the hand prints of the late great Carol Channing are forever integrated into Hello, Dolly's legacy. In 2017 it was announced that the show would return to Broadway starring none other than Bette Midler, a worthy successor to Carol Channing. In the Broadway run of this Tony Award winning revival audiences were treated to performances from such greats as Bernadette Peters and Donna Murphy. The trend of star power associated with this revival continues ten-fold with the one and only Broadway legend Betty Buckley taking her turn in the iconic red feathers.

'It only takes a moment' for America to fall in love with 'Hello, Dolly!' as the national tour is entertaining audiences across the U.S. with this classic tale. Check out what the critics are saying in the reviews from various tour stops below!

Betty Buckley is as refined as it gets, starring in the refreshingly classic production of HELLO, DOLLY! at the Ohio Theatre. From the moment she saunters onto the stage, there is no doubt that we are among a true legend. She is humble and charming as she effortlessly embraces this iconic role with pure genius.

Marylouise Burke (True West) and Andre De Shields (Hdestown) are the recipients of the annual Richard Seff Award presented by the Actors' Equity Foundation to veteran female and male character actors for the best performance in a supporting role in a Broadway or Off-Broadway production.  The announcement was made by Judy Rice, president of the Foundation, which administers the award.

It only takes a moment to realize that composer/lyricist Jerry Herman, aided and abetted by book writer Michael Stewart (with an able assist from Thornton Wilder), knew exactly what he was doing when he created the classic Broadway musical Hello, Dolly!: put together a star vehicle for a quintessential theater diva, surround her with characters both irascible and lovable, then give them all a score that's delightfully hummable and danceable and a script that's appealingly daft, maybe even a little goofy.

For Analisa Leaming, playing Irene Molloy in the national touring company of Hello, Dolly! - which heads to Nashville next week for an eight-performance run at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall - there are more reasons than usual to be exhilarated and excited for an impending opening night in a new city and venue.

Hello, Dolly!, the Tony Award winning Best Musical Revival, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces casting for the Washington, D.C. run of the national tour starring Tony Award winning Broadway legend Betty Buckley.

It's clear the instant she takes the stage, we're in the presence of a legend. With a humble salutation, Betty Buckley inhabits the role of Dolly Levi in a way you might expect from the actress whose multifaceted career spans decades.

The SF Chronicle reports that at Saturday night's performance of HELLO, DOLLY! in San Francisco, Betty Buckley called out an audience member who's phone went off during one of her extended monologues.

On this day in 2015, Fish In the Dark, a new comedy by Seinfeld creator Larry David, celebrated its opening night on Broadway. 

Here she comes, world! The first national tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival of Hello, Dolly!, starring Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, launched earlier this year from the Stanley Theatre in Utica, New York. The show just opened in San Francisco!

As the house lights went down and the familiar strains of 'Before the Parade Passes By' wafted through San Francisco's Golden Gate theatre, a buzz of excitement and a ripple of clapping could be heard from the front of the house on up to the balcony seats. The sound of times gone by, captured by the tuneful Jerry Herman score, ushered the audience into the opulent gift of gilded age perfection, the revival of Michael Stewart's 1964 musical, Hello, Dolly.

Here she comes, world! The first national tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival of Hello, Dolly!, starring Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, launched last year from the Stanley Theatre in Utica, New York. Get a first look at new footage of the production!

Here she comes, world! The first national tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival of Hello, Dolly!, starring Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, launched earlier this year from the Stanley Theatre in Utica, New York. The show just opened at LA's Hollywood Pantages Theatre. See all the red carpet action from opening night in LA below!

Holy cabooses! Garett Hawe, who plays Ambrose Kemper on the national tour of Hello, Dolly!, is taking over the BroadwayWorld Instagram Story tomorrow! Get a peek behind the scenes on a two-show day at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. Be sure to tune in before the parade passes by!