Bette officially leaving Dolly on January 14th — Page 3

Every once in awhile a performer "steals the show." Historically it's usually not been the leading player. It's usually some unsung hero who's been slogging away, unnoticed for years, who suddenly has a breakthrough moment on stage, and their careers and lives are forever changed. Tuesday August 1st, however, was different. On that night, Donna Murphy stole "Hello Dolly" away from Carol, Pearl, Barbra, and Bette (among many others) and kept stealing, singing, dancing, meddling, clowning and mugging right at us from the stage with sheer delight. Get a cheap seat now, sit back and relax, Donna's got this one covered. So Long Dearie, Before the Parade passes by, Put on Your Sunday Clothes and Just Leave Everything to Me! Uh, Dolly. Uh, Donna!

Updated On: 8/3/17 at 10:37 AM

The show was on fire yesterday. Entrance applause for everyone. Bette sounded AMAZING! One nice new thing for me; the last bow when she used to step forward and take the bow on her own and then step back and grab David's arm as the curtain falls... Yesterday she stepped forward with David and they both bowed and embraced and then stepped back. She also took even more time in the passarelle shaking people's hands before that. There was so much love in that theater.

Updated On: 8/3/17 at 11:42 AM

Updated On: 8/3/17 at 11:54 AM

Something else that was new for me yesterday was the audience singing along during the Dolly portion of the overture. It was fab.

Not one understudy.

Flowerlovestage5 said: "According to a poster on All That Chat, it was reported on pg. 19 of the Daily News today, that Donna will be taking over permanently and reps did not comment.

There is no link as apparently it was only in print. Did anyone read it? "



I have trouble believing this when Donna's performances are readily available on TDF.

Flowerlovestage5 said: "There is no link as apparently it was only in print. Did anyone read it?"

Yeah, sites are really fussy about which print stories they put on the web...

It hasn't.

www.keepvid.com.

Just sayin'.

It would be interesting to see how long Murphy could sustain the box-office if she took over for Midler in January - unless it would be a 'limited 8 week engagement' and they brought in a big replacement for the Spring (Midler returns)?

So Thursday was the day I took my 94 y/o grandmother to the show. It was a 7p show, and we didn't tell her until she finished her lunch at 1. And she was NOT having it, trying to get me to take my mother instead, and saying she was too old to be doing this, etc., etc., but as she is saying this, she is still agreeing with my mother about what to wear, etc., so there is still some movement happening. We load the wheelchair in the car, and off we go! For the first 45 minutes or so, she was still going on about it, until we entered New Jersey, as I guess she figured she already left Pennsylvania, and we were in a car headed into New York... and she just shifted to taking in the scenery.

When we saw the skyline in the distance, she said she never thought she would ever see this again. Once in town, we grabbed a quick dinner at Le Pain on Bryant Park (since she doesn't have a huge appetite anymore, and they have good portions for the price for her, and vegan stuff for me), and then I pushed her over to the show, and got her an assisted listening device.

The whole day, she couldn't stop saying "I never thought I would ever do this again..." and she really enjoyed the show, since she loves both the show and Bette. And I could tell she was hearing things OK, since she was laughing at all the jokes (as she will often not mention if she can't quite hear things, so I wanted to make sure). And she even sang the first "Hello Dolly!" (probably not even knowing it) when Bette was coming down the stairs...

And now, she says... she would consider going to another show in the future?!? Although, she did admit, we would still have to surprise her on the day.

And, for her breakfast the next morning, I brought her her coffee in her new Hello Dolly mug, which I bought and quickly stowed in my backpack without her noticing.

Everything worked out perfectly!

haterobics said: "So Thursday was the day I took my 94 y/o grandmother to the show. It was a 7p show, and we didn't tell her until she finished her lunch at 1. And she was NOT having it, trying to get me to take my mother instead, and saying she was too old to be doing this, etc., etc., but as she is saying this, she is still agreeing with my mother about what to wear, etc., so there is still some movement happening. We load the wheelchair in the car, and off we go! For the first 45 minutes or so, she was still going on about it, until we entered New Jersey, as I guess she figured she already left Pennsylvania, and we were in a car headed into New York... and she just shifted to taking in the scenery.

When we saw the skyline in the distance, she said she never thought she would ever see this again. Once in town, we grabbed a quick dinner at Le Pain on Bryant Park (since she doesn't have a huge appetite anymore, and they have good portions for the price for her, and vegan stuff for me), and then I pushed her over to the show, and got her an assisted listening device.

The whole day, she couldn't stop saying "I never thought I would ever do this again..." and she really enjoyed the show, since she loves both the show and Bette. And I could tell she was hearing things OK, since she was laughing at all the jokes (as she will often not mention if she can't quite hear things, so I wanted to make sure). And she even sang the first "Hello Dolly!" (probably not even knowing it) when Bette was coming down the stairs...

And now, she says... she would consider going to another show in the future?!? Although, she did admit, we would still have to surprise her on the day.

And, for her breakfast the next morning, I brought her her coffee in her new Hello Dolly mug, which I bought and quickly stowed in my backpack without her noticing.

Everything worked out perfectly!



That's really cute. It's great that your grandma got to experience this show!

I'm so grateful I got tickets last week by chance. Bette was defientely a once-in-a-lifetime performance. She was funny, charismatic, and fierce.

Aw, Haterobics, thanks for sharing. Truth be told, you had me at: " I took my 94 year old grandmother..."