It Takes a Woman! Bette Midler on Why She Said 'Yes' to HELLO, DOLLY!

BroadwayWorld has heard from Carol Channing, our amazing readers, and more since Bette Midler was announced for the role of 'Dolly Gallagher Levi' in the Broadway return of one of the most cherished shows in musical theater history, HELLO, DOLLY! And now the diva herself has chimed in on coming back to the Great White Way in an interview with The New York Times.

"It has an enormous amount of weight, and the score is irresistible," Midler told the Times on why she agreed to star in the show. "It's a very American thing, with a joyous quality, a kind of can-do quality, and an incredible sweetness, and in these dire times, when the whole world seems to be on fire, it seems like something people would love to see."

Composer/lyricist Jerry Herman couldn't agree with her more. Speaking to the Times about choosing the right actress for the role, he said: "There were so many suggestions of very talented women, but nobody pressed that button that made me say, 'Wow,' and then when I saw Bette on television doing a part of her Vegas act, it all happened. I said, 'This is the lady who can do it.' The time has come...Bette is an original, and Dolly needs to be an original."

Midler will star in Michael Stewart's (book) and Jerry Herman's (music and lyrics) masterpiece, HELLO, DOLLY!, directed by four-time Tony Award-winner Jerry Zaks with choreography by Tony Award-winner Warren Carlyle. The musical begins performances on Broadway on March 13, 2017, with an official opening night slated for April 20, 2017.

She will be 71 years old (a younger 'Dolly' than Channing, who was 74 during the last production) when the revival bows next spring.

"It's a lot - I'm no spring chicken - but I'm curious, and I love to do all the things this character is required to do. It keeps me thin, which I like, and it keeps me engaged," Midler told the Times. She added that despite it being "a big challenge", the role is "going to be fun, and more than anything I like to have fun."

In a legendary career spanning five unbroken decades of matchless cultural relevance, Bette Midler is a performer who thrillingly continues to defy categorization. She is a recording artist who has sold more than 35 million albums and won four Grammy Awards. She is a stage performer who has, year after year and in show after show, sold out the largest venues around the globe across more than a dozen tours. She is a Tony Award, three-time Emmy, three-time Golden Globe-winning and twice Academy Award-nominated actress who made her Broadway debut in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof in 1967, and went on to star in dozens of blockbuster films, creating some of the most iconic screen performances in cinematic history.

Throughout the 1970's, she brought to Broadway three well-loved concert events: Bette Midler (in 1973, and for which she received a special Tony Award), Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue (in 1975), and Bette! Divine Madness (in 1979). In 2013, Midler returned to the Broadway stage, after a nearly 40-year absence, to star in the one-woman play I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers in which she played the legendary Hollywood agent, wowing critics and selling out performance after performance in a run that broke the house record at the Booth Theatre. In addition to being one of the best-loved, most versatile, and instantly recognizable entertainers in the world, Midler is also a great and abiding New Yorker and one of its most generous and tireless citizens. In 1994, she started the New York Restoration Project, a non-profit organization devoted to bringing abandoned and neglected parks, gardens and open spaces in all five boroughs back to abundant life.

Based on Thornton Wilder's farce The Matchmaker, HELLO, DOLLY! caused an instant sensation when it premiered on Broadway in 1964, starring Carol Channing in the title role. It went on to win a record-shattering ten Tony Awards, including those for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Producer of a Musical, Best Choreography, Best Scenic Design, and Best Costume Design. It was also named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. Its original Broadway cast recording hit the top of the Billboard album chart, and years later was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It also marked the greatest producing triumph of legendary impresario David Merrick, running for 2,844 performances over seven years and breaking the record for the longest running show in Broadway history. In addition to Ms. Channing, an astonishing list of Broadway and Hollywood luminaries have inhabited the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi, including Pearl Bailey, Phyllis Diller, Betty Grable, Martha Raye, Ginger Rogers, Ethel Merman (in her last appearance on Broadway), and Mary Martin, who led the West End company.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride