Hello, Dolly!

Well the reviews are coming in... and the first is very negative... I shall paste the whole thing as you have to be a subscriber to read it so here it is for you guys.

The Wall Street Journal: "Disaster Despite a Diva"

Bette Midler is playing in “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway. As far as most people are concerned, this review could end right here. The box office at the Shubert Theatre has been printing $100 bills by the truckload ever since previews for the show started in March, and no matter what I or anybody else has to say, it will continue to do so as long as Ms. Midler doesn’t slip and fracture a tibia. She is what she is, “Hello, Dolly!” is what it is, and putting the two together is as close as show business gets to a no-brainer: “Dolly” won’t work without a superstar in the title role and Patti LuPone is otherwise occupied, so casting Ms. Midler as Dolly Gallagher Levi, the matchmaker with a big heart and an empty purse who longs for a rich husband to ease her life, makes perfect sense. That’s the theory, anyway, and judging by the show-stopping shrieks of joy that greeted Ms. Midler when she made her first entrance on Wednesday night, her fans are going to love this revival. I’ve never seen a performance of anything at which there was so unanimous a consensus on the part of the audience that the diva could do no wrong.

Perhaps critics ought not to dash cold water on such displays of collective affection, but the producers of “Hello, Dolly!” are charging $169 for an orchestra seat, for which reason it seems to me that I have an obligation to report honestly on what I saw and heard. So here goes: Ms. Midler’s singing voice is in a desperate, sometimes shocking state of disrepair. If you remember what Ethel Merman sounded like in her last years, you’ll know exactly how she sounded in “Before the Parade Passes By.” I’m not sure whether she’s suffering from an acute case of laryngitis (her speaking voice was hoarse as well) or the inescapable effects of age (she is 71). Whatever the reason, her singing suggested that she’d have trouble making it through the curtain calls, much less the run of a show as demanding as “Dolly.” As for the rest of the performance, Ms. Midler doesn’t even bother to act: She simply comes on stage and plays her familiar self, albeit at a disturbingly low level of energy. Unlike Carol Channing, who created the role, she can’t dance and isn’t funny (I was actually embarrassed by her mugging in the courtroom scene). All she has to offer is the memory of a great career, and if that’s enough for you, then you’ll be happy to shell out to see her in “Hello, Dolly!”

Ms. Midler is playing opposite David Hyde Pierce, who is all wrong as Horace Vandergelder, the blustering miser who falls for Dolly after fighting off his inescapable fate right up to the finale. He is, to be sure, a talented actor, but his lightweight charm is utterly ill-suited to the role, and I’ve no idea what possessed him to speak his lines in a now-you-hear-it, now-you-don’t Groucho Marx accent. What’s more, he and Ms. Midler have no romantic chemistry at all, which makes the show even less dramatically plausible.

Jerry Zaks and Warren Carlyle, the director and choreographer, have staged this revival in a cartoonish manner. That’s appropriate in a way, since “Hello, Dolly!” is a cartoon version of Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker,” the enduringly winning 1955 farce from which it was adapted by Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart in 1964. Nevertheless, it’s possible to perform “Dolly” with the same unforced sweetness and underlying emotional seriousness that make “The Matchmaker” so satisfying a romantic comedy, and that’s what’s wrong with Mr. Zaks’s staging: It’s totally unfelt. Every supporting performance is a grotesque caricature—even Kate Baldwin and Jennifer Simard, two of Broadway’s best musical-comedy actors, are here reduced to the most benumbingly obvious of clichés—and every laugh is jerked out of the audience by brute force instead of emerging naturally from the script. As for the musical numbers, they’re camped up to the hilt, an approach that puts an odd spin on “It Takes a Woman.”

I very much liked Santo Loquasto’s deliberately old-fashioned sets and costumes, which would have served a better production very well indeed. It was also a pleasure to hear the 22-piece pit band, which played Larry Hochman’s new orchestrations with satisfying professionalism. But there is nothing else good to be said for this “Hello, Dolly!” While the show itself, like all of Mr. Herman’s musicals, is lapel-clutchingly cheery to the point of diminishing returns, it’s not hard to see why it was and is so popular, nor is it impossible for skeptics to appreciate a production that makes the most of its cornball charms. This one makes the worst of them.

And the big review from The New York Times... all rave, all about Bette!

www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/theater/hello-dolly-review-bette-midler.html?_r=0

There has GOT to be a cast recording coming of this right?

Same day as Dreamgirls cast recording. It's just. too. much.

Here's some (kind of) footage from the production:

I. Want. That. Hat.

This will never transfer to the West End. Period. Bette is on 150,000 dollars a week before a cut of the box office. It's too expensive and ticket prices in the West End are nowhere near what they are on Broadway (premium for this are 750!!!!) It will never ever happen sad to say.. It's a one off event.

So I never saw the original (mainly because I wasn't born!) but can soemone tell me, why was Carol Channing so iconic in this role for people? I've been watching clips of her doing the role and whist funny and a good actress, she is by no means a great singer or dancer, so is she mainly iconic because she was just the first and the role iself is iconic? Curious.

I was lucky enough to grab a ticket for this when they first went on sale, so I've just come back from a quick trip to NYC to see Hello Dolly on Friday night 28Apr17

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and as I expected / hoped, it's Bette playing Bette playing Dolly. The Divine Miss M is perfect for this role: I thought she sounded great and her comic prowess and timing just adds to the enjoyment. The audience were so into this, when she initially appeared onstage it was to a standing ovation and rapturous applause: I think there were four / five standing ovations in total

I wanted to enjoy it, I prayed I'd enjoy it and it exceeded all my expectations: she's hilarious in this, with lot's of breaking the fourth wall moments and having asides with the audience, faux collapsing with exhaustion after a routine and her famous Sophie Tucker mannerisms also creeping in. No spoilers, however there's a part where she's having dinner and it's so funny it literally stops the show: I'm not a laugh out loud sort of person however tears of laughter were streaming down my face

Rest of the cast are top notch and David Hyde Pierce is a perfect Horace Vandergelder

So if you haven't guessed, I loved it

I think when she finishes her contract in NYC, there should be a limited engagement over here. During her last tour, she sold out multiple arena's in various UK cities so I'm sure a wee four / five week run in a London theatre would sell out

Can't wait for the cast recording!!!

Believe it or not, because of course this is just a rumour and there is no reliable source that this member has provided, it is a very good guess as she is heavily rumoured to be the one to take over Bette. But it is just rumours, nothing has at all been confirmed.

What a feat! This week was Dolly's highest grossing yet, for both the show and the theatre with $2,105,473 taken. But the remarkable thing is, this is based on 7 performances rather than Broadway's usual 8 and 3 performances this week were heavily comped press performances.

Saw this on Saturday night and absolutely loved it.  Have never seen Hello, Dolly before but was familiar with most of the more well known songs.  The set and the costumes were fabulous as were the cast.  Bette sounded hoarse in places, and people who I'd met who had seen the matinee said she had a coughing fit on stage and had water bought out, so she's obviously still suffering.  

Audience was up for it from the beginning with standing ovations throughout, and they lapped it up when Bette broke character when she dropped a baton.  I was sat next to a Bette Midler super fan who said that this was her first time in a theatre - that was obvious when she pulled out her phone and started recording.  She came back late from the interval looking like the merch stand had thrown up on her and wore the Hello, Dolly baseball hat for the remainder of the second act.  Only thing I didn't enjoy was the clapping along with songs...

Looking forward to getting a copy of the cast recording next week and I've had a big smile on my face since coming out of the theatre