Hello Dolly Regional

[BwayLB]

Posted: 8/26/25 at 5:58pm

Musical Theatre West in Long Beach is doing Hello Dolly in the fall to end its 2025 season! I loved the national tour with Betty Buckley. I’m thinking of going. Is regional theatre almost as amazing as full tour when it comes to this classic musical?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/26/25 at 6:13pm

Both leads: David Engel and Tami Tappan are Equity actors with various Broadway credits so you have that going. Musical Theatre West is a respected regional theatre and puts on quality level productions so go and enjoy yourself. It won’t be at the production level as the tour of the last Broadway revival but good enough, nonetheless. 

[nealb1]

Posted: 8/26/25 at 6:23pm

BwayLB, as you and have discussed several times, Musical Theatre West always does great shows.  The company is 73 years old, and still in existence.  It's an amazing feat as they first started out as The Whittier Civic Light Opera, and did 2 shows a year, for just 2 days each.  So many musical theatre/civic light opera companies in So Cal have closed over the decades, too.  

Full disclosure - I'm a little biased as I have done quite a few shows with the organization over the decades.  :)  

Updated On: 8/26/25 at 06:23 PM

[BwayLB]

Posted: 8/26/25 at 7:42pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Both leads: David Engel and Tami Tappan are Equity actors with various Broadway credits so you have that going. Musical Theatre West is a respected regional theatre and puts on quality level productions so go and enjoy yourself. It won’t be at the production level as the tour of the last Broadway revival but good enough, nonetheless."

I actually saw the two paired up on a morning field trip to see Never Gonna Dance almost 20 years ago. I can’t remember my impression. But I enjoyed the dancing. I was in 6th grade. And the last MTW show I saw was Newsies last year 

[Ensemble175586582425]

Posted: 8/27/25 at 4:38am

BwayLB said: "BrodyFosse123 said: "Both leads: David Engel and Tami Tappan are Equity actors with various Broadway credits so you have that going. Musical Theatre West is a respected regional theatre and puts on quality level productions so go and enjoy yourself. It won’t be at the production level as the tour of the last Broadway revival but good enough, nonetheless."

I actually saw the two paired up on a morning field trip to see Never Gonna Dance almost 20 years ago. I can’t remember my impression. But I enjoyed the https://trinityrental.com/ dancing. I was in 6th grade. And the last MTW show I saw was Newsies last year"Є

That’s really cool that you got to see them back on a school field trip! Funny how, years later, you look at the same performances with a totally different perspective. I’ve also noticed MTW always puts strong focus on choreography — even if it’s not full Broadway scale, the energy of the dancing is really captivating. Their ‘Newsies’ production had such great drive too, I can see why you enjoyed it.

 

[BwayLB]

Posted: 8/27/25 at 8:59am

^ I’ve been hoping for 20 years to see Never Gonna Dance again someday first of all. Secondly as a late millennial, I gravitate towards newer musicals almost as I gravitate towards the classics. Third with Newsies, it was great but nothing can top the original choreography by Christopher Gatelli or Jeremy Jordan, Kara Lindsay and Andrew Keegan. But I had to see Newsies when I found out Dillion Klena was going to play Jack.