HELLO, DOLLY!

Musical by Jerry Herman

Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly!” is one of the three great classical musicals of the fifties and sixties, alongside “My Fair Lady” and “Kiss Me, Kate.” Premiering in January 1964 at St. James Theatre in New York, it skillfully blended elements of the great Broadway revues with a varied and well-structured comedic plot.

“Hello, Dolly!”, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Michael
Stewart, was based on Thornton Wilder’s comedy “The Matchmaker.” Wilder’s comedy deftly combined aspects of the matchmaker Frosine from Molière’s “The Miser” with a farce by John Oxenford –
“A Day Well Spent,” first performed in London in 1834 and adapted nine years later into the play “He’ll Have Himself a Good Time” by Viennese playwrite Johann Nepomuk Nestroy. Wilder set his story in turn-of-the-century New York, in the still rural suburb of Yonkers. The result was a delightful comedy.
The somewhat eccentric but quite wealthy businessman Horace Vandergelder has decided to put an end to his loneliness and get married. And so he hires the widowed matchmaker Dolly Levi, a woman well versed in the pleasures of life. She too has lacked a partner to spend the rest of her life with. So she does her best to persuade her picky client that the only partner for him is her…

“Hello, Dolly!” won a total of seven Tony Awards in 1964, including the distinctions Best Musical, Best Direction, and Best Actress in a Musical – to Carol Channings in the role of Dolly Levi. Its 2,844 performances on Broadway are a testimony of the musical’s enormous success. It was even adapted to the cinema in 1969, directed by Gene Kelly and starring Barbra Streisand in the leading role. The theme song “Hello, Dolly!” became a worldwide hit. To this day Dolly is still considered one of the most challenging female roles in musical theatre.

André Meyer
(Translation: David Burnett)