Hello Dolly!
‘Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she’s a householder!’
Dolly Levi
I have seen Hello Dolly! live once before in Timothy Sheader’s production at Regent’s Park. I liked it then but that may have been to do with that magical venue. What I found most surprising is that it was written in 1963, whereas from the content I would place it in the 1940s but with Jerry Herman’s music that is not as strong as Rodgers and Hammerstein. It seems incredulous that it is from the same decade as Hair. Apologies to fans of Hello Dolly! out there to rain on your parade. In my opinion, it is no accident my musical direction hero Hal Prince turned this musical down.
More bad news is on its way. Imelda Staunton’s charms are always lost on me. I know she can sing but I almost never warm to the characters she plays. So again I apologise to those of you who are staunch Staunton fans. I found the first act of this musical about the matchmaker heavy going as it sets up a more entertaining second act.
Andy Nyman plays Horace Vandergelder, a tight fisted half-millionaire in need of a wife, who runs a business called Vandergelder’s Hay and Feed in Yonkers. Hello Dolly! is set at the turn of the twentieth century. Imelda Staunton as Dolly Levi spreads her visiting cards far and wide, advertising her multi-aspected business as a fixer or as she calls it, a meddler. On the pretence of trying to find a wife for Horace, Dolly has actually set her sights on him.
A side plot involves Vandergelders’ two clerks, Cornelius Heckl (Harry Hepple) and Barnaby Tucker (the always charming Tyrone Huntley) who are never given any time off but escape when the boss goes to New York to meet a prospective wife. Dolly interferes and sends the clerks off to New York to Irene Molloy (Jenna Russell)’s hat shop where Cornelius will fall for the owner and Barnaby for her assistant Minnie Fay (Emily Lane).
What the first act does well is the large scale choreography in brilliantly coloured costumes. “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” and “Before The Parade Passes By” are big dance numbers from choreographer Bill Deamer.
In the second act, the show stopping number is the dance of the waiters at the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant as Dolly comes down the magnificent staircase to the waiters chorusing the title song “Hello Dolly!”. It is of course this scene which Barbra Streisand made so famous in the film. What thrilled me was not the entrance but the choreography of the silver tray carrying, velvet jacketed dancing waiters.
Dominic Cooke is directing here after his success with Follies and Rae Smith has designed several excellent sets, the grand restaurant, the hat shop and the Yonkers feed store, as well as the costumes.
Sadly I found I didn’t really care about anyone in this production but I am in a minority
Musical Numbers
Act One
Overture
Call On Dolly
I Put My Hand In
It Takes a Woman
It Takes a Woman (Reprise)
World, Take Me Back
Put On Your Sunday Clothes
Ribbons Down My Back
Ribbons Down My Back (Reprise)
Motherhood March
Dancing
Love, Look in My Window
Before the Parade Passes By
Finale Act I: Before the Parade Passes By
Act Two
Entr’acte
Penny in My Pocket
Elegance
The Waiters’ Gallop
Hello, Dolly!
The Waiters’ Gallop (Reprise)
The Polka Contest
It Only Takes a Moment
So Long Dearie
Hello, Dolly! (Reprise)
Finale Act II
Production Notes
Hello Dolly!
Book by Michael Stewart
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Cast
Starring:
Andy Nyman
Imelda Staunton
Jenna Russell
Harry Hepple
Tyrone Huntley
Emily Lane
Jodie Jacobs
Michael Lin
With:
Amira Matthews
Brendan Cull
Craig Armstrong
Edwin Ray
Emily Langham
Gavin Wilkinson
Gemma Atkins
Jacqueline Hughes
Jenni Bowden,
Kevin Brewis
Kraig Thornber
Laura Medforth
Lindsay Atherton
Olly Christopher
Paul Kemble
Phil Snowden
Samara Casteallo
Tom Partridge
Jabari Braham
Liam Wrate
Matt Overfield
Shirley Jameson
Leo Abad
Alan Bradshaw
Daisy Boyles
Hayley Diamond
Ashlee Irish
Wendy-Lee Purdy
Creatives
Director: Dominic Cooke
Choreographer: Bill Deamer
Designer: Rae Smith
Musical Supervisor and Director: Nicholas Skillbeck
Lighting Designer: Jon Clark
Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis
Video and Projection: Finn Ross
Orchestrator: Tom Kelly
Information
Running Time: Two hours 25 minutes with an interval
Booking until 14th September 2024
Theatre:
The London Palladium
8 Argyll St
Soho
London W1F 7TF
Tube : Oxford Circus
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge
at the London Palladium
on 18th July 2024
