Hello, Dolly! Tickets

About Hello, Dolly!

The curtain rises on "New York City, 1890s," and we expect ruddy brownstones and quaint streetlights. Instead, one spies the first of several wanly painted backdrops that whisper "Modest Budget" -- and it's immediately apparent that it will be the actors' job to evoke old New York, and not the scenery's. And this they eventually do, thanks largely to Lee's winning Dolly and a full-bodied ensemble of athletic dancers and robust vocalists.

Hello, Dolly! is, of course, the tale of the widowed Dolly Gallagher Levi, a hired matchmaker who also has plans to find a new mate for herself. Her affections are targeted to the "half-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder. While setting her plans in motion, Dolly also tries to think of a way to convince Mr. Vandergelder to allow the marriage of his young niece Ermendgarde to the cautious Ambrose Kemper. She also manages to find time to foster romances between Vandergelder's two shop clerks, Cornelius and Barnaby, and hat shop owner Irene Molloy and her young assistant Minnie Fay. Dolly uses her varied skills, a little deception and blackmail, and her womanly ways to find a love and a happy ending for everyone, including herself.

The selection of the right actress to play the title character is of vital importance for any production of Hello, Dolly!, and La Comedia has done very well with its choice of Gwendolyn Jones as its lead. Ms. Jones has a number of national tour and New York credits and is a perfect fit for Dolly. She recalls memories of Ethel Merman at times, and has a big, brassy personality (and voice) that captures the essence of the role appropriately. Ms. Jones is equally effective in producing hearty laughs, as she does with "I Put My Hand In", and in tugging at the audience's heartstrings during numbers such as "Before the Parade Passes By". The supporting actors all sing and dance well, and also deliver many humorous lines with great success. Nancy Anderson (Irene Molloy), Paul Andolsek (Cornelius Hackl), Katie Ann Richardson (Minnie Fay), Christopher Noffke (Barnaby Tucker), and Bobb James (Horace Vandergelder) all deserve praise for their fine efforts. The spirited chorus members were sometimes not quite together both vocally and in movement, but should achieve the desired results after a few more performances.

Besides a strong cast and spectacular special effects (a rotating stage, a trolley car, fireworks, etc.), this show benefits from the collaboration of innovative choreographer Michael Lichtefeld and Berthold Carriere, Stratford's venerable musical director. That duo's piece de resistance is the Hello, Dolly! dance number, spotlighting the "lightning-fast" waiters at the Harmonia Gardens supper club. The sequence is one of the most energized and invigorating scenes ever to occupy the Festival Theatre stage and was an electrifying show.