HELLO, DOLLY! Previews — Page 28

I love Bette Midler, but I feel like I'd be paying all that money to see "Bette Midler" - not "Hello, Dolly" (one of my favorite shows).

FYI: every actress in the original Broadway production played Dolly in their own public personas - Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Pearl Bailey as well as Ethel Merman. This is what made the original production so grand and ran for years: each actress added her own public persona infusions as Bette Midler is doing.

Sadly, Donna Murphy doesn't have a mass audience public persona therefore her audiences with be composed of her fans and people unaware of her.

BrodyFosse123 said: "I love Bette Midler, but I feel like I'd be paying all that money to see "Bette Midler" - not "Hello, Dolly" (one of my favorite shows@

brody, beforeI saw the show I had a dreaded feeling that Bette would be merely, even coarsly, grandstanding her own persona rather than portraying Dolly. I assure you (or rather whomever you are quoting) that Bette is totally invested in her character, fully incorporating herself into Dolly, which is exactly how any great star needs to play this role Bette does so with passion, love, grace, warmth, brilliant humor and longing to rejoin the human race. It would not surprise me if you were completely delighted with her performance



"

Updated On: 4/15/17 at 08:19 PM

I was. I attended the first preview so I had nothing to go on aside from my assumptions and hopes that she would be playing Dolly Levi infused with her Divine Miss M. After a few moments into the show, I was smiling that my assumptions and hopes were right. Yes, she creates a character but infuses the Divine Miss M in there as well. Especially during those monologues to Efrain that she does on the catwalk and out to the audience.

I don't think Hello Dolly! is strong enough of a musical to survive without an extremely charismatic Dolly Levi. The storyline and jokes were dated even in 1964. Therefore I don't mind that Bette Midler is doing the Divine Miss M schtick. I mean it's a very enjoyable musical but I don't think it's in the top tier of American musicals.

poisonivy2 said: "I don't think Hello Dolly! is strong enough of a musical to survive without an extremely charismatic Dolly Levi. The storyline and jokes were dated even in 1964. Therefore I don't mind that Bette Midler is doing the Divine Miss M schtick. I mean it's a very enjoyable musical but I don't think it's in the top tier of American musicals."

I disagree with that. Hello, Dolly! isn't bullet-proof and can certainly be scuttled by bad casting or poor production values, but it's resilience is what makes it so enduring. Look at the roster of stars who have made Dolly their own, as already mentioned by BrodyFosse123. It wasn't that they changed the character. They inhabited her and made her breathe. That's a strength, not a weakness, in a great show. I'd like to add to the list of actresses who became Dolly, Yvonne DeCarlo who I saw in a tour many, many years ago. She was terrific playing Dolly as Irish, brogue and all, and even this Carol Channing fanatic was charmed.

Dolly does not have to played by a "megastar" to be successful as a musical. A couple years ago I saw Beth Leavel play Dolly in summer stock on Cape Cod and Klea Blackhurst at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. Both were fantastic! Klea brought the house down with her "courtroom" solo dining scene, milking it for all it was worth. Never laughed so hard. I have seen countless performances of Dolly, including an amazing high school production. I've also seen lackluster Dollys, notably one at the Gateway Playhouse, the whole production was like watching paint dry and Dolly - Mimi Hines was clearly struggling. So it depends on the cast.

For new-found fans of Hello Dolly, check out this blog, Call on Dolly, by Richard Skipper. It's an exhaustive Dolly history. http://www.callondolly.com/

Updated On: 4/15/17 at 08:36 AM

poisonivy2 said: "I don't think Hello Dolly! is strong enough of a musical to survive without an extremely charismatic Dolly Levi. The storyline and jokes were dated even in 1964. Therefore I don't mind that Bette Midler is doing the Divine Miss M schtick. I mean it's a very enjoyable musical but I don't think it's in the top tier of American musicals.



Hi Ivy. I've seen you on parterre. I guess you are a real culture vulture like me! Any way, I've always considered Dolly! to be the ne plus ultra of musical comedy. Ethan Mordden contrasts Dolly and Gypsy, two star vehicles heavily associated with their original stars but able to work with many different actresses, with earlier star vehicles that only work with the star they were written for , such as Redhead with Gwen Verdon.

So what do you consider the best example of a musical comedy, if not Dolly?

I consider ALNM , SLM and MFL to be "musical plays" rather than "musical comedy " ,but Guys and Dolls and On the Town are great examples. Many on here called the last On the Town revival corny but I loved it.

Stage Door Sally said: "Dolly does not have to played by a "megastar" to be successful as a musical. A couple years ago I saw Beth Leavel play Dolly in summer stock on Cape Cod and Klea Blackhurst at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. Both were fantastic! Klea brought the house down with her "courtroom" solo dining scene, milking it for all it was worth. Never laughed so hard. I have seen countless performances of Dolly, including an amazing high school production. I've also seen lackluster Dollys, notably one at the Gateway Playhouse, the whole production was like watching paint dry and Dolly - Mimi Hines was clearly struggling. So it depends on the cast.

For new-found fans of Hello Dolly, check out this blog, Call on Dolly, by Richard Skipper. It's an exhaustive Dolly history. http://www.callondolly.com/

I live near the Gateway Playhouse and know for fact that Mimi Hines was ill during the run of the show. In fact she missed opening night. The producer actually asked how long I would need to get-up in the part and when I told him I was willing to go on right then and there in my street clothes without script Mimi suddenly rallied. I'm not joking.

Shows like "Gypsy" and "Dolly" need charismatic actresses to play these parts. This could be why there has never been a revival on Broadway of "Funny Girl". Having seen Carol Channing that last time she toured the county in "Dolly", made my day.

Double post

Updated On: 4/16/17 at 01:53 AM

So was Ben Brantley.

Ragtime Ray writes "I saw a very good production (back in the 70s) in the round starring Betsy Palmer. In place of on-stage stairs, she made her entrance down one of the aisles of the theatre. Surprisingly, Sunday Clothes worked fine without the train."

I might have seen that very same production of DOLLY with Betsy Palmer in the round, I want to say at North Shore Music Fair or something like that near the Massachusetts coast probably around 1972 or 73 It was an absolutely lovely production according to my 16 or 17-year-old's recollection. But the show I saw definitely did stage the train, in the form of a series of train window cutouts that Dolly handed out to each chorus member as they went by. The climax of the song was a diagonal formation of the entire company all holding their windows in position across the stage space to make an absolutely explicit train with Dolly at the caboose waving goodbye as the whole company exited. Sublime!