Theatre legend Channing mourned

NEW YORK — Broadway theatres will dim their lights to honour the death of Carol Channing, the three-time Tony Award-winning ebullient musical comedy star who delighted American audiences over 5,000 performances as the scheming Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway and beyond. She was 97.

Publicist B. Harlan Boll said Channing died of natural causes at 12:31 a.m. Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California.

Boll says she had twice suffered strokes in the last year.

Besides “Hello, Dolly!,” Channing starred in other Broadway shows, but none with equal magnetism. She often appeared on television and in nightclubs, for a time partnering with George Burns in Las Vegas and a national tour.

Her outsized personality seemed too much for the screen, and she made only a few movies, notably “The First Traveling Saleslady” with Ginger Rogers and “Thoroughly Modern Millie” with Julie Andrews.

Over the years, Channing continued as Dolly in national tours, the last in 1996, when she was in her 70s.

Tom Shales of The Washington Post called her “the ninth wonder of the world.”

Messages of love and appreciation lit up Twitter early Tuesday, with the League of Professional Theatre Women saying Channing “was a gift of inspiration to so many.”

Fans who saw her work also took to social media, calling her a “firecracker” and saying she was “matchmaking for the angels now.”

Channing was not the immediate choice to play Dolly, a matchmaker who receives her toughest challenge yet when a rich grump seeks a suitable wife.

The show features a rousing score by Jerry Herman that’s bursting with joy and tunes like “Put On Your Sunday Clothes,” “Before the Parade Passes By” and “It Only Takes a Moment.”