Broadway Star Joined: 10/14/21
Wow, what a CAST!
https://playbill.com/article/j-harrison-ghee-beth-leavel-santino-fontana-katie-finneran-more-set-for-hello-dolly-at-carnegie-hall
An incredibly stacked cast. I hope Kate Baldwin will be reprising her gorgeous "Ribbons Down My Back" for this.
Great cast - can’t wait, despite director. The cast, 30 piece orchestra, vocals and some original choreography should be winning!
Kad said: "An incredibly stacked cast. I hope Kate Baldwin will be reprising her gorgeous "Ribbons Down My Back" for this."
I think Nikki Renee Daniels might be singing that song based from her instagram stories today. I was secretly hoping to hear Lea Salonga sing that song.
I wonder who will be Dolly! Do you think they'll wait to announce it?
Wick3 said: "Kad said: "An incredibly stacked cast. I hope Kate Baldwin will be reprising her gorgeous "Ribbons Down My Back" for this."
I think Nikki Renee Daniels might be singing that song based from her instagram stories today. I was secretly hoping to hear Lea Salonga sing that song.
I wonder who will be Dolly! Do you think they'll wait to announce it?"
There won't be a single Dolly: "This concert series features a different lineup of performers for each song, rather than a role portrayed by one actor for the entire evening."
It's a real throwback to the days of Actor's Fund benefit galas like Pippin and Funny Girl, which did the same rotating-cast thing... not to mention their most famous benefit revusical, Hair with Seth Rudetsky's orchestra. It's not my favorite Hair recording front to back, but the expanded orchestrations are perfect and some of the tracks are the best versions of that individual song.
Fun (or not so fun) fact: most of those expanded orchestrations were improvised or learned by ear. People try constantly to get those charts for their own production of Hair, since the Concord books are very rudimentary, but they sadly don't exist on paper.
This doesn’t excite me as much as FOLLIES. Maybe because the Rudin production is so burned into my memory and the overall lushness can’t be replicated in a concert, or maybe it’s because I was tipped off about this a while back and have had a month+ to ponder who might be their Dollys, or maybe it’s because I find Lee Roy Reams to be rather grating on stage.
It’s ambitious to announce it a mere month in advance, with top prices double that of FOLLIES.
(but I’m also away that night so can’t even go…hope those who do go have a blissful evening!)
It’s selling quite well considering the official announcement was only yesterday. There may be more names to come. …
Stand-by Joined: 3/29/25
Looks like some prices have been reduced a bit. I bought the seat next to me today for a friend and it was $40 less than what I paid for mine.
Updated On: 6/14/25 at 06:15 PMSwing Joined: 12/16/20
I was so looking forward to this celebration of Hello Dolly! Based on the amazing lineup of talent, I purchased tickets on the day they went on sale. I was happy with the additions announced since then. Until yesterday! It was announced that Frank DiLella would be a co-host. Am I the only one who finds him smarmy and as irritating as fingernails on a chalkboard? Honestly, if he was initially announced as a participant, I would not have decided to attend. I can only hope that his participation will be minimal or that in the next week or so, he will back out. And having recently watched an episode of his NY1 show, someone needs to tell him to wear socks!
If the concert is like last year's Follies, the Co-Hosts basically just fill in the storyline between songs and sometimes offered brief insights about the making of the musical. I have a feeling DiLella's main job will be keeping Lee Roy Reams on a short leash so he doesn't start bounding from one tangent to another.
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