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Henry Hitchings's rating
Hello Dolly! makes a virtue of its limits
By
Henry Hitchings
11.08.09
A matchmaker is someone who starts a fire and then skips out of the way, and the titular heroine of this popular musical, set at the turn of the last century, is a queen among matchmakers, a sort of street-fighting Emma Woodhouse.
Dolly Levi is the kind of opportunist who has a business card for all occasions and a song to answer every disbelieving sigh. She also has a man in mind for herself, one Horace Vandergelder. “Half a millionaire”, Vandergelder is a Yonkers seed magnate — and that’s as close as Jerry Herman’s version of Thornton Wilder’s play ever gets to racy innuendo.
For this is wholesome, feelgood entertainment. Cynics and firebrands should look elsewhere for their fun. What we get instead is a nostalgia trip, replete with upbeat tunes and spectacular millinery.
Stephen Mear’s crisp choreography and Timothy Sheader’s pacy, clear direction ensure that this is a buoyant production. Peter McKintosh’s judiciously uncomplicated design allows the ensemble to whirl its way through the more elaborate Busby Berkeley numbers, and Phil Bateman’s band plays with gusto.
This, undeniably, is a star vehicle, and Samantha Spiro is that star. Her Dolly is spirited, puckish, brassy, intelligent. Her mezzo voice may lack a certain creaminess towards its bottom end, but this is a small complaint: she’s a delight to behold, possessing a luminosity that’s both delicate and strong.
Among the support there is some overacting — a touch, indeed, of cartoonish flummery. Yet there’s plenty to relish.
Allan Corduner, occasionally resembling a disgruntled amphibian, brings nervy gravity to Vandergelder, and the poised Josefina Gabrielle also excels, while the troupe of waiters who staff the Harmonia Gardens restaurant where Dolly snares Vandergelder are a prancing delight and would steal a weaker show.
Brisk, energetic and joyful, Hello Dolly makes a virtue of its limits. It’s an exuberant exhibition of elegant silliness, and in Samantha Spiro it has a superlative lead who deserves to be far better known.
Until 12 September. Information: 0844 826 4242.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (3)
I agree with Brian Nathan - the Reviews hardly do justice to a Show which has to be top-scorer in the "feel good" stakes. The production is superb - excellent acting, singing and dancing, without exception - magnificent bucolic, idyllic setting, as always, and the choreography? - sheer brilliance - imaginative and creative, from the magnicficent tap-dancing waiters straight from 42nd Street, to the hilarious re-creation of the train journey taking the cast from Yonkers to downtown New York; and the Slow-Motion crowd scene, reminiscent of the Ascot Gavotte in "My Fair Lady", and just as well handled. A total winner - go and see it!!
- John Eaton, Bingley West Yorks, 25/08/2009 10:00
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What a wonderful evening we all enjoyed as we allowed ourselves to be transported into Dolly Levi's world - no better place to be on a warm starlit night! How we wished the music and dancing could go on and on..........
- Susan, Whitton, 19/08/2009 09:58
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Having seen the show to-night I feel that your reviewer does not do full justice to it. It is an evening of sheer delight. The ensemble numbers bring the house down with members of the audience standing in praise not at the end of the show but at the end of the numbers. For summer magic make haste to Regent's Park.
- Brian Nathan, London England, 11/08/2009 23:48
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