Official Bernadette Peters in Hello, Dolly! performances thread — Page 18

Storkish said: "Young people are hardly exposed to Bette's culture because: one, they don't listen to her music, and two, she's a total diva unlike Donna Murphy, who would be so kind and spend tenminutes with each of her fans waiting outside. Don't get me wrong, I am in my 20s andI adore Bette, but a lot of my peers seem to enjoy the stars they can get "personal" with.

A strayed question: are the producers of Hello Dolly keeping the lead actresses from doing stage door? Bette did some in the first several months and stopped, and when I went to see Donna's performance, the security kept telling us Donna was not coming out (but of course she did after an hour or so). Now Bernadette is not doing stage door either. I wonder if this is their selling strategy, to keep the leads in mystery?



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I saw references a couple places to Bette being considered about falling ill during this run, which is why she only signed for fanmail or the BC/EFA pieces. Donna Murphy came out quite a bit, but she was only on once a week, with smaller crowds on a Tuesday night.

It wouldn't surprise me if Bernadette isn't coming out for similar reasons to the ones I saw for Bette; it's the absolute height of a nasty flu season, and I wouldn't want to take the risk either. When the weather/flu season gets better, we'll see if she starts signing again; she's done it at all her other shows as far as I know!

Saw this Wednesday night. I was lucky to snag a 6th Row Center Orchestra Seat via TKTS.

It was glorious to be in the presence of Broadway royalty (Bernadette). I was lucky enough to see the show for first time in November with Bette (at four times the price). While Bette really sold the humor, Bernadette found the vulnerability in Dolly. Bette’s dinner scene was still the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on a Broadway stage (although I loved Bernadette’s “ripple, ripple, ripple...” scene). I kept blowing kisses at Bernadette from the 6th Row. Lol. She had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand. Make no mistake, both Bette and Bernadette have star power to burn.

The sets and stagecraft blew me away even more from such a primo seat this time.

As far as the rest of the cast:

Victor Garber is paired well with Bernadette. I’ll have to say I still slightly prefer David Hyde Pierce but I have no complaints about Garber’s performance.

Gavin Creel is still great, but that Charlie Stemp was awesome as Barnaby (and I loved Trensch in November).

If it’s possible, Kate Baldwin was even more rapturous this time.

Molly Griggs was fun as Minnie Fay but I did miss Beanie Feldstein. I do think new audiences will have no gripes as they’ll have nothing to compare her performances to. Molly did sell her moment when Kate’s Irene Malloy walks on stage. It was when she shown the brightest.

Jennifer Simard continues to portray Ernestina in a way that will never be replicated or likely exceeded.

Since I live in Oklahoma, I either have to take vacations (November) to see shows or hope work sends me close enough to NYC (last week). As much as I’ve loved Hello, Dolly! both times, I’m not sure I need to see it a third time unless the rumors of Audra McDonald replacing Bernadette are true. I’m so there for that!

Updated On: 2/11/18 at 04:39 PM

You kept blowing kisses from the 6th row----during the show ???

I can see that the way I wrote that it does indeed seem creepy. In reality, I only did it a couple of times - when she entered for the first time and everyone was applauding like crazy. And then another time when the crowd was also going crazy including some guys (not me) who gave her a standing ovation during the show. Maybe still creepy, but at least only twice during the course of the show. Lol.

As usual, Riedel is wildly exaggerating and stretching the facts.

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She definitely missed a string of performances early on in Gypsy, but I don't know the exact timing or total number (e.g., see below)

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/05-2003/bernadette-peters-misses-fifth-performance-of-gyps_3491.html

"As of last night, the star had missed a total of nine performances since the show began previews on March 31. Aside from disappointing theatergoers, her inability to perform has the show's publicists scrambling to try to reschedule nominators and voters for the various New York theater awards to see the show with Peters; the star was passed over for an Outer Critics Circle award nomination, and her continued absences may impact negatively on her chances to win a Drama Desk Award or to secure a Tony nomination. (The Tony nominating committee is scheduled to meet this Sunday, May 11, so those of its members who haven't yet seen Peters in the the show have only three more chances to do so.)"

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Updated On: 2/13/18 at 08:54 PM

He does. It would be silly if he didn't.

Updated On: 2/13/18 at 09:54 PM

https://nypost.com/2018/02/13/bernadette-peters-is-as-good-as-bette-midler-in-hello-dolly/

He should really get better at fact checking...she performed Rose's Turn at the Tonys....Patti did Everything's Coming Up Roses....ugh.

He did the same kind of thing with Elaine Stritch on Theater Talk on her 88th birthday show. She was trying to think of a name of a play by Emlyn Williams and she couldn't remember it. She said it was recently revived and the movie version starred Rosalind Russell. Both he and Susan Haskins were calling out Wait Until Dark and Stritch kept saying, no, no, no, that isn't it! Both Susan and Michael kept saying it's Wait Until Dark and Stritch kept saying, that isn't it. Stritch said it just starred the guy in Nice Work if You Can Get It and it was a great playwright. Finally, over the rolling credits, Michael came up with the right name, Night Must Fall.
As others have said here, he comes up short sometimes- surprisingly for a theatre journalist.
Anyway, hope he is right about the buzz he's hearing about Bernadette.

msmp said: "Riedel's factual issues aside, I'm glad that Bernadette is getting such a glowing review. I just booked tickets towards the end of March and I cannot wait."

That is not a review . It’s a puff peice. He hasn’t even gone yet.

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MR pretty much single handed cost Peters the Tony Award that year. She should invite him to Dolly and drop the stuffed whale on his head.

He wielded more power back then. The internet wasn't quite the rabid beast it is now and so newspaper columns still had real influence. Particularly with the older members of any voting body.