Dolly Levi age range.

[BwayTday]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 7:06pm

What about the character Dolly Levi in the show allows her to have such a wide age range? I got curious after seeing that Carol Channing played the role in a in her forties and her seventies, but know close to nothing about the show.

[KneelBeeWon]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 7:10pm

There is no doubt the Barbra proved the role should only be played by a women in her 20s.

No one before or since has been as successful in the role. Can Carol Channing sing better than Barbra? No.

So case closed.

Updated On: 8/6/10 at 07:10 PM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 7:22pm

I agree. Dolly Levi HAS to be played by a woman under 30. Barbra (26 at the time HELLO, DOLLY! was filmed) was the ultimate Dolly, hands down!

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 7:29pm

I disagree...I think she should be in at LEAST her 30s (and for the record...I don't think Barbra "read" 20s at all.)

She's suppose to be a widow that has had to support herself and has turned into this very resourceful woman. She is suppose to have LIVED and then stopped due to the death of her beloved. She also has to have been "out of action" for some time for all the brouhaha at the Harmonia Gardens.

But I agree: a wide range of ages for the characgter can EASILY be realized....as long as it makes sense with the age of Vandegelder (sp)

[CapnHook]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 7:54pm

Question: How old is the character "Dolly Levi" in the musical HELLO, DOLLY!?

Answer: However old Carol Channing is at the present time.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 7:58pm

I like Streisand in Dolly and agree with dramamama that regardless of how old she was when she played the role - she doesn't read as too young.

One thing that I do think is important is that the audience sees Dolly as being in a vital state of life - in which her relationship with Horace will still be a romance - not the story of a woman looking for a man she can just have as a senior companion.

I personally think Dolly should 'read' in her late 30s-mid 40s.

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 8:02pm

I agree, Streisand didn't read as in her 20s. At least mid-30s. For me, Dolly should be at least that: mid-30s. Otherwise, it would seem odd to see her setting up all of these people and going of Vandergelder, who is obviously written as a middle age man.

[KneelBeeWon]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 8:16pm

That is how great a star Barbra is: she was 26 and made you think she was 36 plus.. without any age make-up.. just brilliant.

She wasn't some broad cartoon like Carol Channing. Barbra was a glamorous, sexy STAR! Everything she did on the screen forces you to pay attention to her. You even forget the story you are so mesmerized by her talent.

She even out did Mae West! Mae West was never as good a Mae West as Barbra was as Mae West as Dolly!

She should have one another oscar.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 8:24pm

Where is Dollypop?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 8:37pm

What's wrong with the cast of the film version of Hello, Dolly! could fill a book. Only Danny Lockin is appropriately cast. While I don't think Streisand stinks in the role, she's not exactly a revelation, either. Carol Channing knows how to deliver every single line, to perfection.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/10 at 11:54pm

If you go to the original source material, Thornton Wilder's THE MATCHMAKER, the stage directions state that Dolly is "A woman of a certain age". That is polite language for indicating a woman in her late 40's or mid 50's.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 11:50am

That description of Dolly's age is also given in the original play the Merchant of Yonkers, which was the basis of The Matchmaker. Although I think we have to take in account that in the late 1800s, when the life expectancy of a woman was only about 50, that a 'woman of a certain age' was likely younger.

Here is actually an interesting NY TImes article about the history of that phrase, which states that at the time it was first used it was indeed meant to describe a woman in her late 30s or early 40s...

A Woman of a Certain Age Updated On: 8/7/10 at 11:50 AM

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 5:33pm

Interesting article. Thanks for posting the link, Michael Bennett.

In both The Merchant of Yonkers and The Matchmaker, Dolly is not described as being "a woman of a certain age." She's described as being of "uncertain age." (And not even as "a woman of uncertain age." Just "Uncertain age.")

Jane Cowl was 48 when The Merchant of Yonkers opened on Broadway.

Wilder did actually want to Ruth Gordon to play the role in The Merchant of Yonkers, but it didn't happen. She was still with Jed Harris at the time, and it's not surprising that Wilder and Harris were not on good terms by the time of The Merchant of Yonkers since Harris rarely managed to stay on good terms with anyone for long.

Gordon would have been 42 had she played the role then. By the time she did play the role on Broadway, in The Matchmaker, she was 59. She'd been 57 when she first played the role in Edinburgh.

Btw, the two plays are almost identical, despite what popular mythology says. I suspect Wilder wanted it to be thought of as more of a new play, and probably both Binkie Beaumont and Merrick felt the same, so they probably said that it had been significantly revised and that's been accepted by most people since. In fact, it had hardly been revised at all.

[JP2]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 5:55pm

"What's wrong with the cast of the film version of Hello, Dolly! could fill a book. Only Danny Lockin is appropriately cast. While I don't think Streisand stinks in the role, she's not exactly a revelation, either. Carol Channing knows how to deliver every single line, to perfection.
"

Couldn't disagree more.
I don't want an old baritone playing a young naive 20 something year old.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 6:09pm

"I don't want an old baritone playing a young naive 20 something year old."

To what character are you referring when you write "a young naive 20 something year old"? I hope not Dolly.

[JP2]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 6:58pm

Barnaby, of course!

The movie is the only Hello, Dolly! incarnation I've seen where Barnaby Tucker feels real.

It's kinda like Burton casting actual kids as Johanna, Antony, and Tobey. It just works better. Updated On: 8/7/10 at 06:58 PM

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 7:04pm

Tell me something, is there a known reason why Carol Channing didn't play the role in the movie?

It can't be because she wasn't a movie actress, she was, she had done movies and was nominated for an Oscar (if not, won) for one.

Was Barbra really a bigger box-office draw at this time?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 7:05pm

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry I was confused, but it was odd that you quoted JohnBoy2 writing:

"What's wrong with the cast of the film version of Hello, Dolly! could fill a book. Only Danny Lockin is appropriately cast. While I don't think Streisand stinks in the role, she's not exactly a revelation, either. Carol Channing knows how to deliver every single line, to perfection."

And then you responded with: "Couldn't disagree more.
I don't want an old baritone playing a young naive 20 something year old."

It sounds like you agreed with JohnBoy2 (at least about Danny Lockin as Barnaby), not disagreed.

[JP2]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 7:14pm

oops, I just realized I said Barnaby Tucker when I meant to say Cornelius Hackle.

D:

[JOak]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 7:17pm

Tell me something, is there a known reason why Carol Channing didn't play the role in the movie?

I read somewhere the studios thought she was unnatractive, and didn't have the voice nor the screen presence to do it. Shame on them!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 7:52pm

It was because That Streisand Woman was back-stabbing and lying with everyone in Hollywood until she got the part.

Read Carol's memoir: JUST LUCK I GUESS.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 8:15pm

Shame on her!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 10:23pm

When we did the show in high school the director insisted on casting a sophomore in the role. Everyone thought he was crazy and that he should have cast a senior. Everyone was right, the sophomore sucked.

(I played Minnie Faye, in case you were wondering, and was the dance captain!)

[bwayguy22089]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 11:32pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOQwxup-jv4

Great performance

[chewy5000]

Posted: 8/7/10 at 11:34pm

Oh, I'd say somewhere in between forty and death