HELLO, DOLLY! Reviews — Page 8

Wow, wow, WOW!

What a special and wonderful night of theater! I can't stop smiling - and was moved to tears a few times because it was just pure JOY!

I wouldn't believe anyone who says there's been an offer made to replace Bette already. There's no doubt that Scott Rudin will try and move heaven and earth to get her to extend before they start formally looking for her replacement.

Could there be names that have been bandied about internally by the production? Sure, and they're probably most of the women who are discussed here every time this comes up. But the process of looking into another actress to keep the show open won't start until they know definitively when they're losing Bette. I imagine she wouldn't even entertain the discussion of a possible extension (even if only for a few months) until after award season, etc.

Updated On: 4/22/17 at 01:28 AM

The WSJ- and you- are certainly entitled to your opinions- but you are ids the distinct minority- quite obviously. I LOVED the production and found it to be pure joy for two and a half hours. I am sure there are people who find Hamilton a bore- who find Book Of Mormon offensive, and that is fine by me. Which shows, might I ask, did you find enthralling?

Updated On: 4/22/17 at 05:56 AM

And how is the train, btw? Does one's spine tingle when it comes on stage during Put on Your Sunday Clothes?

Nobody even cares what Terry Teachout thinks. His little stunt of early posting was so obvious. Plus a review that doesn't make any attempt to be fair and balanced is frankly irresponsible on his part, his editors and ultimately the paper. Come on...really? In stinker shows like War Paint, Amelie and Charlie one can always find some light in the dark. Bottomline The WSJ is irrelevant in the art world and Terry T's career is over. If I were producers I would simply ask that Terry and the WSJ not attend. If you're going to pull stunts like that then don't even bother. Opinion and thoughtful commentary are one thing but nasty, mean spirited and ludicrous reviews like Terry's and his early release stunt are unacceptable. And frankly classless. What a lump.

I've seen critics accuse the supporting cast of playing too broad. Wasn't the original production played this way? When you cast Eileen Brennan, Charles Nelson Reilly and Carol Channing you aren't going for Checkov. Heck you're barely going for Thornton Wilder.

The production, the cast, the designs, the orchestra are all operating in Perfect Mode. Absolutely perfect, pitch perfect, confection perfect. Jerry Zaks deserves not just a Tony but a Nobel Prize for instilling such joie de vivre into every aspect of this production. Musical-comedy high spirits are hard in this day-and-age. This production makes it seem as if it had never gone away.

The overture immediately puts the entire audience into a kind of sugar rush that feels startlingly therapeutic and doesn't let up until everyone spills out into Shubert Alley.

As the exit music played at the end, one rapturously happy lady walking up the aisle and exclaimed, to no one in particular, "Everyone's SO happy!" Then she caught my equally smiling eye and added, "For the first time in months."

The sight of the suffragette banner during the 14th Street parade also evoked a spontaneous cheer, as if to echo the lyric and say "Pardon us if our old spirit is showing." We all want to feel our hearts coming alive again, and this musical is telling us we can.

And, yes, Scrippsy, everyone's hearts leap in unison as the train comes on, as all hearts do similarly for the reveals of the tableaux of dancers in "Sunday Clothes" and "Dancing" and "Before the Parade," as well as the entrance of the horse-drawn carriage (Addy and I chatted briefly afterward with the young man who plays the shapely front legs of the carriage--he is also the vacant knee Dolly sits on briefly, and he is having the time of his life).

He told us that on the first day of rehearsal Jerry Zaks told the cast the the Washington tryout of the original production happened in the wake of the assassination of JFK. The entire country was in mourning and worried that more violence was on the way. Hello, Dolly came as a soothing, healing balm back then--and Bette and Jerry and this production fulfill that legacy, just about as perfectly as could be imagined.

Here's hoping we all can feel our hearts coming alive again.

Updated On: 4/22/17 at 09:07 AM

Sounds great, I am going to see it with my entire family Labor day weekend.

Thank you, After Eight, but if if every dish were pudding, we would never have lamb.

Here's a YouTube link to the joyous opening night curtain call:

https://youtu.be/od1GDmfPldY

The entire musical is about rebirth, despite its frivolous facade: Three of the main characters are hoping to find new happiness after the death of a spouse (Dolly, Irene, and Horace), and Cornelius at 33 is facing of life that would imprison him as a kind of indentured servant to Vandergelder.

Two of the songs are about reconnecting to a community ("Before the Parade" and the title number), and four of the songs are about finding happiness before it's too late ("Sunday Clothes," "Dancing," "Before the Parade," and "It Only Takes a Moment".

For such a confection of a musical, there are strains of desperation in all the main characters--sometimes comic, sometimes poignant--mixed with a fierce determination (especially fierce on the parts of Dolly, Irene, and Cornelius) to persevere.

But mostly it's fun.

I LOVE that they have a shirt with "It's a little lumpy, but it rings."

They have a really great vintage-looking tote with "Vandergelder's Hay & Feed Store" on it.