Hello, Dolly!: A Striking Match

From Carol Channing to Ethel Merman to Pearl Bailey and back to Carol Channing again (not to mention Barbra Streisand on film and dozens more big name celebs on stage), Hello, Dolly! has garnered a reputation for being perhaps the definitive musical comedy star vehicle. Certainly, acting skill is required to properly pull off the leading role (Carol Channing has given in depth interviews discussing the motivations and subtexts she uses in playing Dolly Gallagher Levi) but more often than not, audiences are more than happy to leave a good production of Hello, Dolly! humming that most hummable of Jerry Herman tunes, chuckling at the jokes in Michael Stewart's well crafted book taken from Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker and, of course, relishing the star's entrance at the top of that grand staircase.

Tovah Feldshuh gives no less than a star performance in The Paper Mill's new mounting of Hello, Dolly!, but under director Mark S. Hoebee it's a subtler interpretation that eschews larger than life fireworks and presents the character as an earthier, more realistic representation of late 1800's immigrant survival in America. Don't worry; this isn't a dark, ominous interpretation of the show. But it isn't Hello, Tovah!, either.

Stewart's book and Wilder's source play are centered around Dolly Gallagher Levi, a widowed New Yorker who scratches out a living as a Jill of all trades, but primarily as a matchmaker. Her most prominent client (half a millionaire!) is Yonkers businessman Horace Vandergelder, whom she intends to set up Manhattan milliner Irene Malloy. But Dolly is a lonely woman who feels a need to "rejoin the human race", and the way to do that, she feels, is to give in to the human need to find a partner with which to couple. Although she may not be in love with Horace, he's a good man who starts seeming like the ideal mate for herself. Once a meeting between he and the widow Malloy ends in disaster, Dolly envisions herself marrying him so she can have the same kind of happy and fulfilling life she had with her late husband Ephraim Levi, using his wealth to help others. She privately pleads with Ephraim's spirit to send her a sign that he gives his blessing to her remarrying.

Playing the role with a low melodic brogue, Feldshuh's Dolly reminds us of the shiploads of immigrants populating New York during The Great Migration and their willingness to try their hands at anything to achieve their American dream. You can easily imagine her Dolly coming to these shores as a refugee of the Irish potato famine and, determined to escape poverty forever, charming her way into landing a husband with a bit of money to spend. She's a tough lady; small and dark, and as a widow, hungry for security. Her humor is restrained and deadpan, but still very funny. She thickens her accent like a dialect comic during lighter moments and occasionally dips into a blunt Lower East Side tough guy whenever quoting her Ephraim. She's a pixie when she dances but her singing is powerful and heartfelt. Her Act I closer, "Before The Parade Passes By", sung as a Statue of Liberty replica leads a parade across 14^th Street, becomes a stirring anthem for those who came to America seeking the right to pursue happiness, as Feldshuh sweeps her arms in the air in an attempt to grab at something nearly within her reach.

Yes, she makes that famous Act II entrance atop the stairs of Harmonia Gardens, but the show-biz quality of the moment is downplayed by having her first seen wearing a black topcoat. As she makes her way down singing one of musical theatre's most famous songs ever, a gentleman takes her coat, revealing a attractive and figure-flattering deep red dress trimmed in black. As the waiters fall all over themselves singing her praises, she indeed, as the lyric states, seems overwhelmed by their attentions, as well as humbled and touched by this chorus of Prince Charmings treating her like Cinderella at the ball. Feldshuh makes the song not just a Broadway showstopper, but also a lovely scene where a lonely middle-aged woman feels attractive and appreciated for the first time since her husband's death.

The interpretation does run into a few awkward moments, mostly because Hello, Dolly! was written as a sunny musical comedy farce. The running gag where Dolly has a business card to cover every moneymaking opportunity that arises doesn't work with Feldshuh's heightened realism. And the 11 O'clock number, "So Long, Dearie", is too blatantly vaudevillian for this Dolly. However, given the extremely brief preview period before the show's press opening, I wouldn't be surprised to see rough edges smoothed over in time. An introspective moment that fits perfectly is the addition of "Love, Look in My Window," an infrequently used song that did not appear in the Broadway production until Jerry Herman added it for Ethel Merman's stint.

Walter Charles is a stern and dignified Horace, singing his one comedy song with the kind of smooth virility that makes you wish the character had another number or two. As Irene Molloy, Kate Baldwin gives a ravishing and thoughtful rendition of "Ribbons Down My Back", enhanced by Charlie Morrison 's lights, which turn the pink walls of her hat shop a seductive deep purple. Baldwin plays the role with a mature balance of adventurous spirit and demure sex appeal. The sweet-singing Jonathan Rayson makes for a genial nice guy as her new gentleman friend, Vandergelder's clerk, Cornelius, who is desperate for one night of danger and adventure. As their young co-workers, Brian Sears is a comical bowl of Jell-O as Barnaby and Jessica-Snow Wilson is a skittish delight as Minnie Fay.

Choreographer Mia Michaels flavors ensemble numbers with numerous quick freezes, as if the characters are posing for a photographer. Her staging of the famous "Waiters' Gallop" hints of an early version of Mack Sennet's Keystone Kops (as do bits of her work in the title song where the boys find themselves tangled in clumps), but there's a lack of the kind of momentum that makes the routine soar. Though Michael Anania's set is a bit skeletal, perhaps due to a small budget, it is quite attractive, as are James Schuette's costumes. The frothy and delicious Jerry Herman score sounds lovely under Tom Helm's baton.

The thought of a mellow, defiantly earthbound Hello, Dolly! may sound like a terrible idea to many musical theatre enthusiasts, but Paper Mill's production is a legitimate interpretation of Herman and Stewart's exceptional material. Tovah Feldshuh may not be flashy in the title role, but the warmth of her performance is lingering.

Photos by Gerry Goodstein: Top: Tovah Feldshuh, Walter Charles (with drum) and company

Center: Tovah Feldshuh and Walter Charles

Bottom: Kate Baldwin

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