‘ Hello, Dolly!’ revival pops with vibrancy, vigor and star power
In one of the lesser known songs in “Helly, Dolly!” matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi lets us know, “I have always been a woman who arranges things” — “things” being the love lives of everyone in her orbit. Dolly is the 19th- century precursor of today’s dating apps but with a personal flair and a song in her heart.
Betty Buckley brings the brio and wattage required to play Dolly, starring in the dazzling revival at the Benedum Center, Downtown, through Sunday. The tour stop marks a grand finale to Pittsburgh CLO’s 73rd season.
In a career that onstage ranges from “Pippin” to “Sunset Boulevard,” Buckley has every trick of stagecraft up her sleeve, and she uses them to great advantage here. When as Dolly she hands out business cards to meet individualized needs, it’s not a stretch to see Buckley’s Dolly helping one and all.
As Dolly’s star attraction, Buckley is vivacious as ever at 72. The revival plays to her abilities to take part in energetic dance numbers and plays to her strengths as a singer, even if her voice is not the same powerhouse that earned her a Tony Award in 1983, singing “Memory” in a “Cats” suit.
This production was built on Broadway for Bette Midler, with both the Divine Miss M and the show winning Tonys, so you know it allows whoever is playing Dolly to strut her stuff. A silent secondact scene, when the entire cast must wait while Buckley’s Dolly enjoys every last bit of a turkey dinner, shows what a pro can do with the right material and the right creative team.
Jerry Zaks directs and Warren Carlyle choreographs this production, with many nods to Gower Champion’s original work, circa 1964. The Jerry Herman/ Michael Stewart musical ran for 2,844 performances in its first run, with Carol Channing in her career- defining role.
Although this is Dolly’s show, as the title suggests, Buckley doesn’t have to do the heavy lifting on her own. For that, there is an uber- talented cast, unceasing costume and scenic eye candy, and dazzling dance numbers. Set in the late 1800s, the spectacle begins when the curtain goes up to a cleverly realized faux horse and carriage. And it never stops.
The show is a botanic garden of vibrant colors — from the sunny bouquet that is Yonkers, home of wealthy merchant Horace Vandergelder to Dolly’s ruby- red New York City nightspot.
If your program included a note saying Lewis J. Stadlen would be MIA on opening night, that was an oops; that was the three- time Tony nominee playing Horace. Stadlen, who so memorably opened the tour of “The Producers” in Pittsburgh, has the grumpy, “greed is good” turn- of- the- century guy down pat. He’s all business and bluster until Dolly comes into his life — and you just know she will deliver on her vow to find love for all, herself included.
As Horace’s tyrannized clerks, Sean Burns’ Barnaby dances up a storm and Nic Rouleau’s Cornelius
exhibits the voice that earned him a run as Elder Price in “The Book of Mormon.” Cornelius and Barnaby escape their hardhearted boss for a one- day getaway that turns into adventure and romance with Analisa Leaming’s Irene and Carnegie Mellon University alumna Kristen Hahn as Minnie Fay.
Dolly’s machinations originally set up Horace and Irene, but once the matchmaker sets her sights on the “half- millionaire” store owner for herself, Irene’s destiny is obviously elsewhere.
Leaming brings a sweet soprano to sassy Irene, and, along with Hahn’s comic timing as Minnie, no wonder Cornelius and Barnaby are smitten.
And you just know the couple who set events in motion, Colin LeMoine as artist Ambrose Kemper and Morgan Kirner as Horace’s evershrieking Ermengarde, will end up together because Dolly is on the case.
For theater buffs or fans of the 1969 Barbra Streisand movie ( directed by Gene Kelly), songs such as “Before the Parade Passes By,” “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” and “It Takes a Woman” earn appreciation anew in this wildly entertaining revival.
“Hello, Dolly!” also includes expertly timed elements of farce and eye- popping dance moves in the first- act shop scene and the second- act tour de force set in the Maxim’s of Manhattan, Harmonia Gardens.
With each ensemble number, you get new appreciation for the music and moves in this show, but none so much as the “Hello, Dolly!” number welcoming the beloved Dolly “back where she belongs.”
As Buckley descends that staircase, blinged- out and sparkling in a scarlet gown and feathered headpiece, audience members are at the edge of their seats, and by the end of the exuberant, athletic number, the cast was enjoying its biggest ovation of the night.
When Dolly sings, “wow, wow, wow fellas,” in the title song, she’s absolutely right, as Dolly Gallagher Levi always is.