Happy 50th Anniversary to HELLO DOLLY!

One of the most beloved and successful musical hits opened on Broadway fifty years ago today, going on to play 2,844 performances, spawn a hugely successful cast album and win a then-record-setting 10 Tony awards.

Would anyone who saw the original run with any of its illustrious leading ladies care to share their memories?

I never saw the original, but I did see the 1975 revival with Pearl Bailey, Carol Channing in 1978 and 1994, and Nell Carter somewhere in between, and I'm with you, After Eight. Like no other show, HELLO, DOLLY! triggers the same emotional responses with me...every...single...time.

I read somewhere that Gower Champion could predict exactly where, in the title number, the audience would burst into applause, right down to the precise note. So obviously we're not the only two people who get carried away with this show.

I have a bootleg recording of Ethel Merman in DOLLY, which I have listened to over and over, so not only the songs, but the book is firmly embedded in my brain.

Before I die, I hope to see a full-scale production featuring the two songs that were reinstated for Ethel Merman.

Anybody else going to Town Hall on the 20th to see Carol Channing? I hope she gets a chance to talk a lot about the original production.

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Updated On: 1/16/14 at 07:23 AM

Hushpuppy,

I got to see Ethel Merman twice in Dolly! The two additional songs were both wonderful, and when she rang out the final notes of those songs like a clarion, electricity coursed through me and the entire audience. The applause was like a volcanic eruption. What an experience!

HELLO, DOLLY! Is a legend. Even if you don't know musical theatre, you have heard of HELLO, DOLLY! Each leading lady to play Dolly has brought something to the role; be it the soulfulness of Pearl Bailey, the cool brass of Ethel Merman, or the joyful ease of Carol Channing.
It is odd to think that back in 1963/1964 reviews for "Dolly, a Damned Exasperating Woman" were unenthusiastic. And yet, with the great flexibility of Carol Channing and David Burns, the genius songwriter Jerry Herman, the amazing direction by David Merrick, the addition of "Before The Parade Passes By", and the change of title, it became the biggest hit of the decade. I am sure we are all happy no one listened to the advice that "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" be cut because it stopped the show.

I, too, have listen to Merman portraying this role, and those 2 added songs are simply perfection. The book plays with ease and the entire production never seems to age. How I wish I could have been there to see those great ladies at the top of the stairs, in that iconic red dress, singing one of the best songs in theatre.

And yet, 50 years later, all that remain of the original Broadway Dolly's are the original: the glowing, loving, and fantastic Carol Channing. She is just as much alive now as she was then and always eager to talk about the show and her Iconic role.

In an age where orchestras are being eliminated, "Rock Operas" won the Tony, and casts of 20 are large, we need something to bring Broadway back to what it should be, and I believe a revival of HELLO, DOLLY! could do just that.

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Updated On: 1/16/14 at 10:59 AM

Hello Dolly was the very first Broadway musical I ever saw.

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@patash: yeah, it was a typo. not enough coffee. I only wish I had been part of the production.

In the 1994 revival, during her curtain speech , Channing talked about taking the show abroad, after its US tour. That never happened. Does anyone have any insight as to what occurred?

When I saw Pearl Bailey in 1975, at the Shubert in Los Angeles, she did an 'Act III' where she talked a little bit, and then did a duet with Billy Daniels (who played Horace) of 'A Foggy Day in London Town'. I know Channing did curtain speeches, and that Merman gave a curtain speech after the final performance (something about 'going out for Neopolitan ice cream', borrowing a line from the Harmonia Gardens scene). Mary Martin sang 'Hello, Fellas' in Vietnam and 'Hello, Tokyo' in Japan, but did all the actresses who played Dolly give curtain speeches?

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I was at HELLO, DOLLY's final performance at the St. James. Merman did not give any speech. And there's no line about Neopolitan ice cream. It's "tutti frutti ice cream"

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Updated On: 1/16/14 at 01:05 PM

According to both Lita Doolan's 5/29/08 review in the Daily Info, and Richard Skipper's chapter on Carleton Carpenter on his website 'Call on Dolly', it's Neapolitan ice cream, but I'll have to go back to my live recording to see just what Russell Nype orders at the Harmonia Gardens in the Broadway production.

I got part about the Merman speech from Peter Filichia's book Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959-2009, page 29:

"Following Bailey came Phyllis Diller (yes, the eccentric comedian played it straight) until Ethel Merman took over. She was in place for the closing. Theater historian Skip Koenig reports that Merman's curtain speech after minutes of tumultuous cheers included, 'Well, I don't know about you, but I am going out for some Neopolitan (sic) ice cream!"
Daily Mail review of Hello Dolly

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Thank gawd you confirmed that "Neapolitan" ice cream line, I can sleep in peace now.

Considering that the show was both originally written for her and provided her with a triumphant final role on Broadway, how appropriate that today is also Merman's birthday.

Happy birthday, Ethel and Dolly!

Updated On: 1/16/14 at 07:13 PM

My first memories of Hello Dolly were seeing an in-the-round production starring the warm-as-honey Betsy Palmer at the North Shore Music Theater probably in the late 60's. By the time Pearl Bailey's touring company came back to Broadway in the mid-70's I thought there was no way the show could live up to the hype, but Lordy that company put such an everlasting smile on my face, I remember leaning on the 2nd balcony rail just beaming and beaming.

It wasn't till the mid-80's that I finally saw the legendary Carol Channing in one of her tours. Again, I thought there was no way that lady could have anything fresh left to show us after all those years touring the provinces. And yes, there WAS a bit of a museum piece to the ritual of the show with that cast and that choreography. But the lady was a total marvel and the show was built of solid gold, truly one for the ages. Let it never grow old.

There's supposedly a revival for the show planned for next season. It'll play a Nederlander house and will star Kristen Chenoweth--who is also supposed to star in ON THE 20th CENTURY. Maybe she has the ability to bi-locate, I don't know.

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Those Dolly photos are wonderful Caroline! Today there is a Dolly reunion featuring original Broadway cast members at the Local 802 Musician's Hall - NY Sheet Music Society. Should be fun!


Dolly reunion