Tony Award®-winning Broadway legend Betty Buckley stars in HELLO, DOLLY! – the universally acclaimed smash that NPR calls “the best show of the year!” and the Los Angeles Times says “distills the mood-elevating properties of the American musical at its giddy best.” Winner of four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, director Jerry Zaks’ “gorgeous” new production (Vogue) is “making people crazy happy!” (The Washington Post). Breaking box office records week after week and receiving unanimous raves on Broadway, this HELLO, DOLLY! pays tribute to the original work of legendary director/choreographer Gower Champion – hailed both then and now as one of the greatest stagings in musical theater history. Rolling Stone calls it “a must-see event. A musical comedy dream. If you’re lucky enough to score a ticket, you’ll be seeing something historic. Wow, wow, wow, indeed!”
HELLO DOLLY
Reviews
There is never a dull moment in this entertaining Golden Musical filled with humor, love and comedic excellence that will have you rise from your seat in exuberant applause.
Betty Buckley delivers a glorious performance. Lewis J. Stadlen as Horace is her equal. The whole show from top to bottom is first-rate.
The real heroes of this production are the chorus. Their energy, their collective vocal power and their energetic dancing rescued this production from a rather by-the-numbers revival. They provided the “oomph” that seemed to be lacking from the supporting cast.
If you're like me, you always thought you had seen Hello, Dolly!. Sure, you listened to the cast album zillions of times. Sure, you've seen the movie … well, sometime in the past, and you thought Barbra Streisand was too young for the part, and why would she want Walter Matthau anyway? But you didn't remember it that well. But when did you last see Hello, Dolly!, well done, on an actual stage?
If you're like me, it was, well, I can't remember if I have.
Seeing Betty Buckley (FB) in Hello, Dolly! Sunday evening at the Hollywood Pantages (FB) was a revelation. It was a reminder of what theatre was in the golden age — the days of Gower Champion and David Merrick. It was also a reminder about how what you might remember as a fluff of a show — a star vehicle — has surprising relevance over 50 years after it first premiered.
Every inch and every corner of this new production---directed with a nostalgic, old-fashioned nod to classic Broadway showy-ness by Zaks---is bursting at the seams with pure, dazzling joy and incredible, top-notch production values. To borrow a song from this very show, HELLO, DOLLY!'s got elegance.
Zaks directs his cast toward stylized, animated performances, which plays into the book's humor...
Hello, Dolly! continues to delight audiences, both as a showcase for Broadway royalty and as a throwback to the old-fashioned musical, with glorious, memorable songs, brainless hijinks and humor, and a return to a more innocent time.
We love Buckley in a slight memory of her greatness, if not as much in her presence. Yes, she lifts up her dress a bit and even attempts to convince us of her dancing skills. But alas, in both voice and gams she's simply not the Dolly we need to convince us of the magic the character achieves, bringing the entire Yonkers community into her domain and suddenly forcing even the grumpy Horace of her amazing transformative gifts, let alone allowing the gods to let her former loving husband speak through her new fiancé's voice.
Still, I'd go again to this lovely production, and stand up to applause for the lovely songs she belts out.
It may be "old-time," but its portrayal of a powerful older woman at the center of the story, in control of the narrative, is timeless.
The entire production is elegant with its beautiful scenic and luscious costumes designed by Santo Loquasto, but the most captiating aspect of this musical is its star, Betty Buckley.
From the moment Carol Channing walked down that red velvet staircase some fifty-five years ago, there's scarcely been a role that becomes a Broadway legend better than Dolly Levi. To the long list of illustrious superstars who have preceded her, the magnificent Betty Buckley can now add her own name in lights.
These near three hours display spunk to spare, even heart. And Tony-winner Betty Buckley's beautifully modulated and indomitable Dolly Gallagher Levi offers poignancy and perkiness to spare — but her voice was raw on opening night in L.A. (she cancelled most of her performances last week in Costa Mesa). Yet even if that wasn't the case, she doesn't seem to own the fun factor that we got from Midler, Peters, Streisand (too young for the film, maybe, but exceptional), and the late, great Carol Channing, whose star right in front of the theater on Hollywood Boulevard was bedecked with a red rose, red feathers, and a sparkling tiara...
Yet the show remains indomitably jubilant because Dolly exists to make life flourish, not fester, and her chosen fertilizers are money and matchmaking.
Though by modern standards the plot and sentiments of Dolly are far from politically correct, star power takes center stage, supported by an ensemble that adds the requisite humor and goofy charm...
The show is full of froth, and love triumphs as expected. The cast and ensemble meld together as perfectly as one would hope, which is not always the case in touring shows.
Buckley and Stadlen, whose own credits include more than a dozen Broadway shows and Tony nominations for Candide and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, are a terrific pair. His chauvinism belongs to a different time and her unwavering ability to steamroll past any objection is a practice women are still having to exercise today. That their verbal volley works is a credit to director Jerry Zaks, who doesn't try to sidestep Horace's dated mindset but instead highlights it and then surrounds him with a theatrical reality big enough to make him grow in the process.
Betty Buckley, a Broadway icon in her own right, best known for her Tony-winning performance as Grizabella in Cats, and her scene-stealing turn as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd, makes this role her own. It's a rich, boisterous, nimble performance full of life and personality, just like Dolly herself.
Starring Broadway legend Betty Buckley and based on The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, this 1964 musical is a feel-good relic and a perfect example of classic musical theatre, where a grand overture begins the evening and there are too many dazzling dance numbers to count.
If you are the type of theatre goer who demands of each performance the absolute best in story line, performance, undeniable music, riveting stagecraft, abundant humor and pure nonstop entertainment then you need to get over to the Hollywood Pantages Theatre right now and enjoy Hello Dolly. It truly is one of the very best of the best in musical theatre, led by the utterly captivating Betty Buckley as the irrepressible, somewhat devious yet totally loveable Dolly Gallagher Levi.
If the supporting parts and story lines are cheerfully cartoonish, written mostly like ham sandwiches, the cast members bite into them with gusto. Lewis J. Stadlen is consistently entertaining as the curmudgeonly Horace. Nic Rouleau and Jess LeProtto, who play Horace's dimwitted clerks, and Analisa Leaming and Kristen Hahn as their love interests, are all fun to watch.
There is never a dull moment in this entertaining Golden Musical filled with humor, love and comedic excellence that will have you rise from your seat in exuberant applause.
Betty Buckley delivers a glorious performance. Lewis J. Stadlen as Horace is her equal. The whole show from top to bottom is first-rate.
The real heroes of this production are the chorus. Their energy, their collective vocal power and their energetic dancing rescued this production from a rather by-the-numbers revival. They provided the “oomph” that seemed to be lacking from the supporting cast.
If you're like me, you always thought you had seen Hello, Dolly!. Sure, you listened to the cast album zillions of times. Sure, you've seen the movie … well, sometime in the past, and you thought Barbra Streisand was too young for the part, and why would she want Walter Matthau anyway? But you didn't remember it that well. But when did you last see Hello, Dolly!, well done, on an actual stage?
If you're like me, it was, well, I can't remember if I have.
Seeing Betty Buckley (FB) in Hello, Dolly! Sunday evening at the Hollywood Pantages (FB) was a revelation. It was a reminder of what theatre was in the golden age — the days of Gower Champion and David Merrick. It was also a reminder about how what you might remember as a fluff of a show — a star vehicle — has surprising relevance over 50 years after it first premiered.
Every inch and every corner of this new production---directed with a nostalgic, old-fashioned nod to classic Broadway showy-ness by Zaks---is bursting at the seams with pure, dazzling joy and incredible, top-notch production values. To borrow a song from this very show, HELLO, DOLLY!'s got elegance.
Zaks directs his cast toward stylized, animated performances, which plays into the book's humor...
Hello, Dolly! continues to delight audiences, both as a showcase for Broadway royalty and as a throwback to the old-fashioned musical, with glorious, memorable songs, brainless hijinks and humor, and a return to a more innocent time.
We love Buckley in a slight memory of her greatness, if not as much in her presence. Yes, she lifts up her dress a bit and even attempts to convince us of her dancing skills. But alas, in both voice and gams she's simply not the Dolly we need to convince us of the magic the character achieves, bringing the entire Yonkers community into her domain and suddenly forcing even the grumpy Horace of her amazing transformative gifts, let alone allowing the gods to let her former loving husband speak through her new fiancé's voice.
Still, I'd go again to this lovely production, and stand up to applause for the lovely songs she belts out.
It may be "old-time," but its portrayal of a powerful older woman at the center of the story, in control of the narrative, is timeless.
The entire production is elegant with its beautiful scenic and luscious costumes designed by Santo Loquasto, but the most captiating aspect of this musical is its star, Betty Buckley.
From the moment Carol Channing walked down that red velvet staircase some fifty-five years ago, there's scarcely been a role that becomes a Broadway legend better than Dolly Levi. To the long list of illustrious superstars who have preceded her, the magnificent Betty Buckley can now add her own name in lights.
These near three hours display spunk to spare, even heart. And Tony-winner Betty Buckley's beautifully modulated and indomitable Dolly Gallagher Levi offers poignancy and perkiness to spare — but her voice was raw on opening night in L.A. (she cancelled most of her performances last week in Costa Mesa). Yet even if that wasn't the case, she doesn't seem to own the fun factor that we got from Midler, Peters, Streisand (too young for the film, maybe, but exceptional), and the late, great Carol Channing, whose star right in front of the theater on Hollywood Boulevard was bedecked with a red rose, red feathers, and a sparkling tiara...
Yet the show remains indomitably jubilant because Dolly exists to make life flourish, not fester, and her chosen fertilizers are money and matchmaking.
Though by modern standards the plot and sentiments of Dolly are far from politically correct, star power takes center stage, supported by an ensemble that adds the requisite humor and goofy charm...
The show is full of froth, and love triumphs as expected. The cast and ensemble meld together as perfectly as one would hope, which is not always the case in touring shows.
Buckley and Stadlen, whose own credits include more than a dozen Broadway shows and Tony nominations for Candide and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, are a terrific pair. His chauvinism belongs to a different time and her unwavering ability to steamroll past any objection is a practice women are still having to exercise today. That their verbal volley works is a credit to director Jerry Zaks, who doesn't try to sidestep Horace's dated mindset but instead highlights it and then surrounds him with a theatrical reality big enough to make him grow in the process.
Betty Buckley, a Broadway icon in her own right, best known for her Tony-winning performance as Grizabella in Cats, and her scene-stealing turn as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd, makes this role her own. It's a rich, boisterous, nimble performance full of life and personality, just like Dolly herself.
Starring Broadway legend Betty Buckley and based on The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, this 1964 musical is a feel-good relic and a perfect example of classic musical theatre, where a grand overture begins the evening and there are too many dazzling dance numbers to count.
If you are the type of theatre goer who demands of each performance the absolute best in story line, performance, undeniable music, riveting stagecraft, abundant humor and pure nonstop entertainment then you need to get over to the Hollywood Pantages Theatre right now and enjoy Hello Dolly. It truly is one of the very best of the best in musical theatre, led by the utterly captivating Betty Buckley as the irrepressible, somewhat devious yet totally loveable Dolly Gallagher Levi.
If the supporting parts and story lines are cheerfully cartoonish, written mostly like ham sandwiches, the cast members bite into them with gusto. Lewis J. Stadlen is consistently entertaining as the curmudgeonly Horace. Nic Rouleau and Jess LeProtto, who play Horace's dimwitted clerks, and Analisa Leaming and Kristen Hahn as their love interests, are all fun to watch.