Lyric pulls out all stops with dazzling ‘Hello, Dolly!’
It only takes a moment to fall in love with “Hello, Dolly!”
The classic musical is just packed with indelible moments: when the title character uproariously stuffs her face with dumplings while the entire ensemble looks on; when the nimble waiters frolic with their silver trays and ice buckets in the restaurant scene; and, of course, when Dolly makes her dramatic Act 2 entrance at the top of the staircase in her sparkling red gown.
In its lavish new production that puts the “extra” in extravaganza, Lyric Theatre plays every iconic moment to maximum effect, making it practically impossible for any musical theater fan not to adore it. Just the more than 200 elaborate period outfits Lyric resident costume designer Jeffrey Meek and his team have spent the last three months building alone are worth the price of a ticket to “Hello, Dolly!,” the second production on Lyric’s “Summer at the Civic” season.
Set in New York at the turn of the 20th century, Lyric’s production stars three-time Tony Award nominee Dee Hoty as Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi, a fast-talking matchmaker whose latest gig is finding a new wife for the grouchy and stingy “half-a-millionaire” widower Horace Vandergelder (George Dvorsky). The show reunites Hoty and Dvorsky, who played the leads in Lyric’s “A Little Night Music,” and the actors have an inviting rapport.
But Dolly also has been commissioned by struggling artist Ambrose Kemper (Jackson Walker) to help him make a match with Vandergelder’s melodramatic niece Ermengarde (Megan Carpenter), whom he wishes to marry over the curmudgeonly businessman’s objections.
When Vandergelder travels from his hometown of Yonkers to New York City with the intention of proposing to widowed hat shop owner Irene Molloy (Kristy Cates), Dolly secretly dispatches Ambrose and Ermengarde to the Big Apple, too, with a plan to prove that the artist can make a decent living.
But Dolly also schemes to prevent Vandergelder from popping the question to Irene, becausethe widowed matchmaker wants to marry him herself.
Back in Yonkers, Cornelius Hackl (Matthew Alvin Brown) and Barnaby Tucker (Gordie Beingessner), the oppressed clerks at Vandergelder’s feed store, plot torun away to New Yorkto find love and adventure. When they wander into Irene’s shop and cross paths with the restless owner and her chatty clerk Minnie Fay (Virginia Newsome), the stage is set for a madcap romp that includesa stage-filling paradeand a showstopping cabaret.
Directed by Ashley Wells and choreographed by Matthew Sipress, who both worked on the 1990s Broadway revival, Lyric’s “Hello, Dolly!” leaves no bell unrung and no whistle unblown. Their love for Kennedy Center honoree Jerry Herman’s iconic music and lyrics, as well as Michael Stewart’s book based on Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker,” is apparent.
In her first outing as Dolly, Hoty exudes charisma, as well as longing as the good-natured, golden-tongued schemer, plus she boasts the stage presence to pull off the iconic red dress entrance. Lighting designer Helena Kuukka earns her kudos for this scene alone, as the spotlights dazzle across Dolly’s bejeweled finery.
Likewise, Meek and Co. garnered spontaneous cheers Tuesday night for the Technicolor costume procession during “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” with the performers high-stepping in all their bustled, plaid and feathered glory along the stage extension surrounding the pit, where the incomparable David Andrews Rogers conducts the 22-piece orchestra. Scenic Designer Kimberly Powers’ quaint and clever sets are equally glorious.
Popularized by the animated movie “WALLE,” the lively numbers “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” and “It Only Takes a Moment” are ideal showcases for the evercharming Brown,and Cates manages to upstage the parade with Irene’s big number “Ribbons Down My Back.”
“Hello, Dolly!” is as much about dance as it is song, and Sipress gives his plucky ensemble quite a workout in the exhilarating title number where the adoring waiters at a ritzy restaurant pay tribute to Dolly by fencing with oversized skewers, vaulting over tables and even leaping over the orchestra pit.
They don’t make them like “Hello, Dolly!” anymore in this age of smaller and more economical musicals, but the title couldn’t be timelier, with a blockbuster Broadway revival continuing to sell out as it alternates Tonywinning superstars Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters in the starring role.
Despite a few openingnight bloopers— curly mustaches that peeled off sweaty dancers’ faces and a few lines of thetwisty dialogue that got some performers tongue-tied — after seeing Lyric’s production with my 8-yearold daughter, Brenna, I’m convinced that every musical theater fan should see the full-scale version of “Hello, Dolly!” live at least once.
Lyric’s “Hello, Dolly!” is playing through Sunday at the Civic Center Music Hall.