Hello Dolly (2018)

Hello Dolly, lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart

Schubert Theatre, Thursday 26^th April.

Scratch that. 3 Tall Women rocks, Hello Dolly sucks. The lavish costumes, big, belting tunes and gaudy set could not disguise the fact that this production was a total crock. I guess you can’t expect a Broadway musical to offer much in the way of genuine dramatic tension, or intellectual interest. I knew this going in, and I don’t think my expectations were especially high. However, I was not prepared for the degree to which this frothy production bored the shit out of me. Moving closer to the stage after the interval gave me a closer view of the production values that make theatre tickets in this city so expensive. I must congratulate the design team on their attention to detail, yet, despite their efforts, I found it impossible for me to lose myself in this dreary tale about a matchmaker who attempts to find herself a man of her own. Bernadette Peters was appropriately sassy and irreverent and possessed the pipes to project herself far into the nose-bleed section of the Schubert theatre, but even her star talent couldn’t make me focus.

 

This creaky production certainly showed its age: it was written in a very different era when gender stereotypes remained sacrosanct and generated widespread guffaws. Perhaps the work may have been a bit more engaging had the director attempted to introduce a bit of irony to offset the dated and dreary ‘battle of the sexes’ scenario that lies at the heart of the staple. IN short, I couldn’t get lost in Yonkers.