1994 Hello, Dolly! Revival

[WaffleOnWheels]

Posted: 8/17/17 at 8:13pm

I find it fascinating that nearly 30 years after originating the role, Carol Channing returned to the role of Dolly in 1994.

However, I can't seem to find much about it online. 

Did anyone here attend? Any experiences you would share?

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/17/17 at 8:14pm

You can watch it on youtube. 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 12:01am

 I saw it and loved it.  A recreation of Gower Champion's 1964 original Broadway production.  After every performance Carol gave a nice long curtain call speech.  You felt like it was a special moment at your performance until you go another night and she says the same speech verbatim with her little ad-lib of acting like she forgot something and looking over at Florence Lacey.  

[DAME]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 12:25am

You will find a few recordings of this tour on YouTube.  Carols husband also had the show professionally videotaped at one of the tours last stops after it had already concluded its broadway engagement.  By then Lee Roy Reams was playing Cornelius.  The sad thing about this particular recording is that Carol was in pure robot mode.  

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 6:42am

I saw this revival three times (Wolf Trap, Pittsburgh, and Broadway). At the Broadway performance, Carol went up on a line during the eating scene at the Harmonia Gardens. She turned to the audience and said, "Well, that's what you get with me." They ate it up.

A friend said of the show at the time: "It was like visiting with an old friend."

I agree with Dame that the video captures a very robotic performance, which I had not felt in the theatre. NOTE: I first saw Channing as Dolly in 1967, and the original B'way run with a variety of Dollys quite a few times.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 8:33am

I was completely underwhelmed by the 1994 revival.  None of it resonated with me, whereas the current production has had the exact opposite reaction from me, and I can't get enough of it!

[green waver]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 8:42am

Saw it with my mom(who, like Carol, is also in her nineties now!). We laughed a lot. Carol was definitely a bit wobbly and rickety, but endearing as hell. Major suspension of disbelief required to make the storyline work.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 10:47am

I have seen two different professionally filmed videos featuring Carol. I have to agree that she is not as magical in the '94 video, but she is electric in the '78 video.

[DAME]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 11:31am

There is some good footage from the 70's tour.  The stop was San Francisco.  Most of the big production numbers are included.   Carol looks beautiful in it.  Mary Martin is in the audience and carol introduces her after her final bow.

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 11:37am

I believe one 1994 video is incorrectly labeled as 1978 on YouTube. Are both on there?

[DAME]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 11:43am

Yes.  the one that is mislabeled is the one from 94.  I will try to look for a link to the other footage.  

[DAME]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 11:47am

Here is some of that footage... somehow in this link it is all out of order.   And it has footage from the 70;s and 80's mixed in.  But I think it is all there.  And look at all the other links ..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCiCrRxxeBk

Updated On: 8/18/17 at 11:47 AM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 11:50am

Carol was definitely a bit wobbly and rickety, but endearing as hell. Major suspension of disbelief required to make the storyline work.

Carol was 73 when she did the 1994 revival.  Bette is almost 72.  

Bette still looks and moves as she did decades ago.  Carol looked and moved like a little old lady - very tentative to her movements.  

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 11:51am

" I saw it and loved it.  A recreation of Gower Champion's 1964 original Broadway production.  After every performance Carol gave a nice long curtain call speech.  You felt like it was a special moment at your performance until you go another night and she says the same speech verbatim with her little ad-lib of acting like she forgot something and looking over at Florence Lacey. "

Charles Busch does this at every show I've ever seen him in as well. It's the Broadway Cares speech and he tells the same story in the same way, flubbing and laughing with Julie Halston. I find it endearing he cares so much he's rehearsed and made it look endearing.

 

[markypoo]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 1:54pm

The tour stopped at the Shubert in Chicago in June of '94.  I caught it at the final matinee, and there was a sizable amount of empty seats on the main floor.   Channing had been announced to hold a post-show audience with members of The Chicago Drama League, but after she came out, she seemed to have little or no idea of just why she was there.  She spent several awkward minutes making slight conversation until her husband came out on stage, told her they were going to miss the plane, and led her off.

[David10086]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 3:26pm

I caught Channing in the revival when her tour stopped in Providence, RI (March, 1995) before she landed on Broadway - it was a wonderful, legendary experience and Channing was in fine form. 

Her stop in Providence made national headlines, which some of you may not be familiar....

On the second night of her week long engagement, our (now deceased) Mayor Cianci attended with a group of some 'very boisterous friends' of his (he was notorious for this), sitting up front in the second or third row of orchestra center. At one point, he left the show to smoke outside near the stage door.  Channing's stage manager reprimanded the Mayor, and told him to move away from the stage door if he wanted to smoke, and also reminded him to tell his group  'keep their voices down' during the performance, as they were distracting Ms Channing. 

Cianci, a proclaimed 'gay friendly Mayor' allegedly called the stage manager a 'homosexual slur' and refused to put out his cigarette. (Cianci denied he was smoking or had any interaction at all with the stage manager). His group did quiet down, though, when he returned.  Word got back to Channing and she was furious. She held a press conference the next morningt, said how insulted she was by the mayor's behavior - and refused to accept the 'Key to the City' from him, which was scheduled for the last day of the show, before the Sunday matinee. 

When the Mayor was told Channing would not be attending the ceremony and didn't want any part of the proclamation, Cianci responded to reporters: "Who cares?" 

[Flowerlovestage5]

Posted: 8/18/17 at 4:07pm

jimmycurry01 said: "I have seen two different professionally filmed videos featuring Carol. I have to agree that she is not as magical in the '94 video, but she is electric in the '78 video." 

I never got to see Carol on stage, so I'm glad the '94 video exists. I'd love to see the '78 though...