The Hello Dolly Appreciation Thread

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 7:39pm

Holy Cabooses!!!
Too few newer theatre goers are as well versed in the classics as they should be.
Please contribute anything you can to The Hello Dolly Appreciation Thread here. Original production, the many famous Dolly replacements, the movie, the 1996 revival or any of the numerous regional or school productions of this classic piece of musical theatre or, of course: Carol Channing
Updated On: 1/21/05 at 07:39 PM

[Overthemoon6]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 7:47pm

I was in Hello Dolly at my school last year. I got called back to play Mrs. Malloy and Minnie, but, alas, I got Minnie (which was actually very fun)!

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 7:49pm

Woohoo!!!
I'm currently Dolly at my high school production so I more or less have Dolly on the brain

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 7:54pm

Its all about Babs!!! She is absolutley Incredible in the role.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 7:55pm

I saw the original production of "Hello, Dolly!", the Pearl Bailey production; Carol in the round (with Pat Quinn as Corneilius); the film and Carol, again at the Kennedy Center. I even saw Anne Hathaway's mother play Dolly in her high school production! It's one of my favorite shows and scores.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 7:55pm

Calling Dollypop! He saw all of the Dolly's. Everyone one.

[BudFrump23]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 8:39pm

Carol Channing IS Dolly Gallager Levi! No question about it! (I love Cornelius)

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 8:52pm

I LOVVVVVVED this movie so much as an elementary-middle school kid! Sorry, pop, I loved Streisand and am kinda a young'n to have seen Channing. Though the clip of her from Lost Treasures is amazing - I'm sure she really was definitive. It's SUCH a PRESENCE role, but also takes a great voice. I really wanted my school to do this, but alas, we didn't. As a character actress, I WILL play Ernestina Money some day!

[idinarocksmysocks!510]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 9:03pm

I was actually just cased as Dolly Levi in my school's production of "Hello Dolly". It's a great show and people need to understand that. It certainly is fun rehersing and I know it will be just as fun performing!

[Allie]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 9:05pm

I played Irene last year, and I had an incredible time! It was so much fun!

We've got elegance, if you ain't got elegance, you can never, ever carry it off...

[UsherMJD]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:04pm

First of all. . . Babs STOLE that role from Channing. Ok, its not a personal thing or anything, but the studio went with the hollywood name and not the theater one and its just a shame.

I saw carol in the oppening night performance of the revival's tour in Providence. I believe it might have been before it went to broadway that time. . . I'm not sure. I was about 7 years old. . . (it was my first main-stream musical I ever saw aside from the non-equity JCStour w/ ted neeley and carl anderson)

I hope to some day play Cornelius. . . THAT is my dream role acctually. Its a great show. . . and may we start a convo about the broadway revival that should be oppening in the comming years. They are planning to revive Jerry Herman's three big shows which started w/ La Cage, and will end w/ Dolly. Who do you think will star in it??

Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:27pm

The middle school near where I live just put it on. Like I just got home from it. For a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds, it was really amazing!

[alterego]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:36pm

The original Australian production (1965) starred American Carol Cooke heading a local cast. The last major tour here starred Jill Perryman (1996), who was Australia's original Funny Girl (and was to have taken over from Streisand in the West End, but that's another story), she also created the role of Peters mother in The Boy From Oz.

[mirandajrs]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:44pm

This is absolutely my favorite musical ever. I love everything about it. It's so optimistic. I adore Carol Channing who will always be Dolly to me.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:44pm

I played the judge at a young age in a community theatre. The principals including Dolly were very talented. It was a racialy mixed show. It was a good production and I appreciate the memories many years later.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 1:45pm

I was in the audience on the Opening Night of TWHM (Jan 16,1964) I was also at its closing performance. Since then I have been to every opening and closing of the show in New York. All totalled, I saw the original version 47 times and have seen the various revivals and tours about the same.

The great ladies I saw play Dolly Gallagher Levi are: Carol Channing, Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey, Bibi Osterwald (she went on for Pearl), Phyllis Diller. Ethel Merman. On tour I've seen Mary Martin, Dorothy Lamour and
Eve Arden. I've also seen Jaye P. Morgan and Dorothy Collins do summer stock versions of the show. There is hardly a day that goes by that I don't listen to one of the many recording I have of the score as I drive to work. When I told Jerry Herman this, he openly began to weep.

Yes, it's true, I have a shrine to the show in my home and regard January 16th as a National Holiday. This year friends and I met for a matinee of LA CAGE and dinner.

The newer members of this site may enjoy the interview I did with Carol Channing in honor of the 40th anniversary of the show. It's archived in the "interviews" section and is called "Broadway's Living Doll". Writing it was an act of love for me.

Updated On: 1/22/05 at 01:45 PM

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 2:33pm

If you've only seen the film (and I do love the movie) and never saw Carol, you haven't seen Dolly. Carol's delivery is sublime. Perfect. She gets a laugh where no one else can.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 4:05pm

They made a film of the show?

[BwayLover]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 4:54pm

Her name is NOT Babs, for f**k's sake. It's BARBRA. And she did not STEAL the part, it was offered to her. Get over it.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 5:06pm

Please read Carol Channing's book: JUST LUCKY I GUESS: A MEMIOR OF SORTS.

In that very entertaining tome, TGC (The Goddess Carol) details the backstabbing and subterfuge that That Streisand Woman sank to in order to get cast as Dolly Levi. The end results almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox.

[Blair]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 5:14pm

I love Hello, Dolly! I did a community theatre production back in November, and had loads of fun. It didn't hurt that we had an absolutely fabulous cast.

I had "Elegance" stuck in my head for 3 months. It's so darn catchy! haha

[Marquise]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 5:22pm

i guess it's too bad some of us just weren't around (or old enough at the time) to have seen Carol Channing in the original production and it's many revivals since then. it sounds like we really missed out on something.

i have seen the movie and even if it's not one of my favorites I still think the score is great.

"Put On Your Sunday Clothes" is one of my favorites from the score.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 6:08pm

I think the film has a lot going for it. It has the greatest production values of any musical film ever made, IMO; and tremendous choreography! But other than Barnaby Tucker, the film is miscast. Still, it remains one of my favorite film versions of a Broadway show. I'm the last person on the face of the earth who would defend Barbra Streisand (I despise her Fanny Brice), but it was Ernest Lehman who selected her and rejected Channing, just like it was Jack Warner who selected Hepburn and rejected Andrews. Whatever Streisand did to win the role, she didn't steal it from Channing. Lehman saw her in 'Millie' and hated her.

[Jon]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 7:01pm

I recently saw a stage production of THE MATCHMAKER and it was so frustrating - I kept on hearing the song cues. Dolly says, "I put mhy hand in here, I put my hand in there..." Horace does the whole monologue that leads into "It Takes a Woman". Cornelius tells Barnaby, "Put on your Sunday clothes - we're going to New York City, and we're not coming back until we've each kissed a girl!" Irene declres, "We'll be wearing ribbons down our backs this summer!" The monologues that lead into "Before the Paradwe Passes By" and "It Only Takes a Moment" are there, almost word for word.

By the way, the movie version of THE MATCHMAKER is rather fun. Shirley Booth as Dolly, Paul Ford as Horace, Anthony Perkins as Cornelius, Shirley McLaine as Irene, and Robert Morse as Barnaby. It is a bit odd when they talk directly into the camera, but over all it is quite enjoyable, even without the songs.

[cturtle]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 9:11pm

i saw DOLLY with BETTY GRABLE (you know, the movie star who had such great legs they were insured for a million dollars) and EVERY CHANCE SHE GOT she lifted her skirt to flash those gams. it got to be annoying as hell.