REVIEW: Hello, Dolly! (Olney Theatre Center)

The year is 2017. Falsettos, Great Comet, and Hello, Dolly! are playing on Broadway.

The year is 2025. Falsettos, Great Comet, and Hello, Dolly! have played in the DMV in the last four months.

Incidentally, these are some of the musicals I started my obsession with, and that I wrote some of my first reviews for on Facebook, long before this blog existed. So it’s a bit of a fun throwback activity to revisit these works having seen literally hundreds of other shows in the years since. Hello, Dolly! is the last of the three to get this treatment — a little surprising, given its bedrock role as one of THE musicals of the golden age. But it was also the one I was craving the most, since its relative simplicity compared to the other two meant it was suitable for a DIY take on the turn of the century aesthetics and bubbly score. Ultimately it was Olney who stepped up to the plate to deliver it, and with it a healthy dose of charming Americana supercharged by an unparalleled Nova Y. Payton.

Book/Music

What can’t Dolly Gallagher Levi do?

No, seriously, is there a limit?

The 1964 musical follows the cartoonish antics of Dolly, an older widow who, frankly, gets shit done. But her primary trade is matchmaking. As told in the first of many infectious numbers from Jerry Herman, “I Put My Hand In”, she has a tendency to meddle, but seldom does it not work out how she wants it. Her meddling expertly wrangles all of its affable side characters: Horace Vandergelder, Yonkers’ uppity half-a-millionaire who has employed Dolly to find him a wife; his clerks at his feed store who play hookie to galavant in Manhattan, Cornelius and Barnaby; Vandergelder’s match-to-be Irine Molloy and her affable hat shop assistant Minnie Fay. It’s a testament to the power of Michael Stewart’s ticklish book that every character feels funny and grounded in their own ways, even if everyone’s broader motivation is the same (mission: “fall in love”.) The pacing is among the finest you’ll see in the American theatre: a quick two-ish hours for a two-act show, and each song is catchy and engrossing across the entire score; and if you want more, go check out the 2017 cast recording, since it features “Penny in My Pocket”, which was omitted from Olney’s production. The earworms in the score and goofy plot are such a great match, you wonder if Dolly herself wrote it in real life. 10/10

Acting

Nova Payton returns to DC stages as the title character, and what a homecoming it is. Each mannerism and quippy expression are worth the price of admission alone, but that would discredit the excellence of the cast by-and-large, which are unmatched on DMV stages right now. Should we begin with the hilariously stern Moses Villarama’s Vandergelder, or perhaps the sublimely ebullient Cornelius from Michael Perrie Jr.? Maybe the inquisitive joy provided by Caitlin Brooke’s Irene? Even the subdued roles of Barnaby and Minnie are bouncy and elegant from Ricky Devon Hall and Alex De Bard, respectively. I had very high hopes for an ensemble that was as magnetic as they were well-sung, and they were met, if not exceeded. 10/10

Production

Director Kevin S. McAllister opted to keep this a “more grounded” production, which he does; but in my opinion, this isn’t a show that could use that. At least where it was most liberally applied. But let’s start with the great: most things. The frilly and colorful turn-of-the-century costumes from Paris Francesca (and the non-frilly and somehow more colorful dresses on Dolly, too) are mezmerizing, in a way a pleasant compliment to the airy set by Riw Rakkulchon. On the “good” is sketchy lighting by Christina Watanabe that works too, and the choreography by Eamon Foley has several moments of pure awe, such as the Waiters’ Gallop and “It Takes A Woman”. The direction’s biggest swing is where it regrettably misses: the part where everything comes to a head in the bodacious title number in Act II. What’s supposed to be a kick-down-the-door musical explosion, the official re-introduction of Dolly into high society, merely crawls in with subdued low-tone arrangements and a “She’s here!” that is a whisper at best. Instead of a climactic coalescence of Dolly’s work, it felt deflated and weak, an element that is basically what has built this musical into such an event. 7/10

Viz

Between the key art and the merchandise, Olney has put a lot into the early 20th century aesthetics, which is a cutely useful way of setting the vibe. (It helps that they use an easy-on-the-eyes burgundy and dandelion palette.) The show introduces itself to the audience via a title projected onto the stage; a lazy choice, but not as egregious as the AI-generated backdrop of a train station behind it. (The trains are on the wrong side, the letters morph into each other, the iron details are raggedy, and in the foreground, a suitcase is transmuted into the adjacent bench.) But for those not looking into those details, the scene is well set, or at least was prompted to be. 6/10

Verdict

Hello, Dolly! is one heck of a musical spectacle, as it should be, even if it’s not as explosive as it could be. 33/40