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Hello Dolly!
Book by Michael Stewart
Adapted from Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker
Music & Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Directed by Bill Pullinsi
Music Director William A. Underwood
Choreographed by Stacy Flaster
At The Theatre at the Center
1040 Ridge Road
Munster, IN
Call 219-836-3255, tickets $36- $39
Wednesdays & Thursdays at 2 pm
Fridays at 8 pm
Additional Saturday matinees and Thursdays and Sundays evenings
Running time is 2 hours, 25 minutes with intermission
Through October 21, 2007
Lush classic Broadway musical, Hello Dolly!, thoroughly enchanting
The Theatre at the Center, for under $40 per ticket, offers a large scale Broadway musical, Hello Dolly! that presents a marvelous evening of theatre. The production values here are exquisite; from terrific voices to energetic dances, together with smart comedy make this remounting of Hello Dolly! a sure winner.
William Pullinsi is adept at mounting old chestnuts in the classic form without losing any of the charm or vigor of the original. He has done just that with Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly!—winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical that ran 2,844 performances beginning in 1964. Carol Channing made Dolly Gallagher Levi her’s playing the frisky 1900 circa matchmaker. Here Paula Scrofano scores a hit as the quirky yet lovable Dolly who always seems to make things happen to help people live life to the fullest. Not only does Scrofano give Dolly an empathic and human touch, she adds many funny moments as well as landing the charisma and commanding presence needed for Dolly. Scrofano combines terrific understanding of what makes Dolly tick while emoting her emotional moments in tunes like “Before The Parade Passes By” and “So Long Dearie.” Paula Scrofano is a pure delight as Dolly Levi giving Dolly a truthfulness and vulnerability that engages.
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Her real life husband, John Reeger is the best Horace I’ve ever seen. Reeger’s strong acting talents, large stature together with his spot-on comic timing produced many laughs. Having played many roles with each other, Reeger and Scrofano have developed a sort of stage shorthand that works magnificently landing every ounce of humor and humanity contained in Horace and Dolly. Their performance alone makes the show worth seeing.
Hello Dolly! contains a funny, romantic and innocent book by Michael Stewart adapted from Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker. Director Bill Pullinsi plays it for all the laughs contained. We see Horace as a cranky, unloved miser and ˝ millionare who runs a feed store in Yonkers, New York. Dolly Levi is determined to marry Horace but she must help some loved starved folks while she eliminated her competition for Horace’s hand. The result is a bewitchingly cute tuneful romantic musical comedy.
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From the spirited opening number, “I Put My Hand In,” we experience Dolly’s quick wit and determined resourcefulness. Horace delivers his anti-bachelor anthem with “It Takes A Woman.” Next, Horace’s clerks, Cornelius (the funny Ed Kross) and Barnaby (the rubber-legged comic Zach Zube) decide to go to NYC to have a night out vowing they’ll not come home until they’ve kissed a girl—setting up the classic show-stopper “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” were we get our first glimpse of the fantastic dancers knocking out wonderful routines on The Theartre At the Center’s thrust stage. Stacey Flaster (coming off her acclaimed choreography of Cats), uses the spirit and feel of Gower Champion’s original choreography while adding her vision to spark her talented dancers forward. Stacey Flaster deserves to choreography a major Broadway show.
In NYC, Irene Malloy (Cory Goodrich) dreams of a man to love in the sweet “Robbins Down My Back” while her clerk, Minnie Fay (the hilarious squeaky voiced Dara Cameron) is pure young woman. Cornelius, Barnaby, Irene and Minnie eventually are matched up (with help from Dolly). They combine to open act two with the cute “Elegance” song and dance on their way to the Harmonia Gardens for dinner.
In a pure Broadway moment, the waiters dance and line-up to cheer Dolly in the classic greeting song “Hello Dolly.” The staging was sophisticated. Paula Scrofano looks exquisite in Brenda Winstead’s vivid, period-perfect costumes.
While John Reeger and Paula Scrofano anchor the show, they get help from Cory Goodrich (Irene), Ed Kross (Cornelius) and Zach Zube (Barnaby). Jon Cunningham’s Ambrsoe and Audrey Billings’ Ermengarde added fine moments. The dancing waiters—Phil Higgins, D. Eric Woolweber, Chris Walsh, Jon Cunningham, Rodrigo Cruz, Brandon Kollar and Chris Walsh were fantastic with their fast-paced vibrant routines in several numbers.
This production of Hello Dolly! has all the elements of a great show—terrific score, fine vocals, spirited dances and rich humor from sweet characters. Bill Pullinsi sure knows how to mount classic musicals. This Hello Dolly! is smart and polished. Scrofano and Reeger sure deliver. You’d be hard pressed to find a better musical for under $40 per ticket.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: Sept 20, 2007
Jeff Recommended
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