Dolly Levi age range.

What about the character Dolly Levi in the show allows her to have such a wide age range? I got curious after seeing that Carol Channing played the role in a in her forties and her seventies, but know close to nothing about the show.

I agree. Dolly Levi HAS to be played by a woman under 30. Barbra (26 at the time HELLO, DOLLY! was filmed) was the ultimate Dolly, hands down!

Question: How old is the character "Dolly Levi" in the musical HELLO, DOLLY!?

Answer: However old Carol Channing is at the present time.

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I agree, Streisand didn't read as in her 20s. At least mid-30s. For me, Dolly should be at least that: mid-30s. Otherwise, it would seem odd to see her setting up all of these people and going of Vandergelder, who is obviously written as a middle age man.

Where is Dollypop?

If you go to the original source material, Thornton Wilder's THE MATCHMAKER, the stage directions state that Dolly is "A woman of a certain age". That is polite language for indicating a woman in her late 40's or mid 50's.

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Interesting article. Thanks for posting the link, Michael Bennett.

In both The Merchant of Yonkers and The Matchmaker, Dolly is not described as being "a woman of a certain age." She's described as being of "uncertain age." (And not even as "a woman of uncertain age." Just "Uncertain age.")

Jane Cowl was 48 when The Merchant of Yonkers opened on Broadway.

Wilder did actually want to Ruth Gordon to play the role in The Merchant of Yonkers, but it didn't happen. She was still with Jed Harris at the time, and it's not surprising that Wilder and Harris were not on good terms by the time of The Merchant of Yonkers since Harris rarely managed to stay on good terms with anyone for long.

Gordon would have been 42 had she played the role then. By the time she did play the role on Broadway, in The Matchmaker, she was 59. She'd been 57 when she first played the role in Edinburgh.

Btw, the two plays are almost identical, despite what popular mythology says. I suspect Wilder wanted it to be thought of as more of a new play, and probably both Binkie Beaumont and Merrick felt the same, so they probably said that it had been significantly revised and that's been accepted by most people since. In fact, it had hardly been revised at all.

"I don't want an old baritone playing a young naive 20 something year old."

To what character are you referring when you write "a young naive 20 something year old"? I hope not Dolly.

Tell me something, is there a known reason why Carol Channing didn't play the role in the movie?

It can't be because she wasn't a movie actress, she was, she had done movies and was nominated for an Oscar (if not, won) for one.

Was Barbra really a bigger box-office draw at this time?

oops, I just realized I said Barnaby Tucker when I meant to say Cornelius Hackle.

D:

It was because That Streisand Woman was back-stabbing and lying with everyone in Hollywood until she got the part.

Read Carol's memoir: JUST LUCK I GUESS.

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When we did the show in high school the director insisted on casting a sophomore in the role. Everyone thought he was crazy and that he should have cast a senior. Everyone was right, the sophomore sucked.

(I played Minnie Faye, in case you were wondering, and was the dance captain!)

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Oh, I'd say somewhere in between forty and death