Back where they belong. Bette Midler. Hello, Dolly!
Michael Stewart's (book) and Jerry Herman's (music and lyrics) masterpiece, Hello, Dolly!, returns to Broadway starring none other than Bette Midler. Directed by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, Hello, Dolly! is playing Broadway's legendary Shubert Theatre.
This production, the first new production of Hello, Dolly! to appear on Broadway since it opened more than fifty years ago, will pay tribute to the original work of legendary director/choreographer Gower Champion, which has been hailed both then and now as one of the greatest stagings in musical theater history.
We must, of course, credit the actress' brilliance as a performer. Her iconic comic chops - honed in Upper West Side gay bathhouses, Upper East Side divorcée-revenge capers and Las Vegas concerts - are on delicious display as Dolly the meddling matchmaker, especially next to David Hyde Pierce as her cheerfully crotchety leading man. And there is nothing more invigorating than Midler crooning Jerry Herman's sensational standards. But the actress' nonstop hustle during her 50-year career is every bit as ingenious as her art.
If there were such a thing as a happiness meter at the Shubert Theatre these days, where, oh, where would that be placed? The obvious position is in the audience, where fans of 'Hello, Dolly!' and fans of Bette Midler - which may well add up to just about everyone - have come together in a palpable bonding festival of hot-ticket excitement, contentment and raucous joy. And yet, it is the happiness exuded by Midler that makes this first-rate revival of Jerry Herman's 1964 chestnut so delightful and, yes, so deeply touching.
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