Hello, Dolly! @ Stolen Shakespeare Guild
—Jan Farrington
I’ll be caught in the delightful loop of “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” for at least a week. Don’t know why that’s always the earworm I carry away from Hello, Dolly!—but it is.
Stolen Shakespeare Guild’s tuneful and lively production of this classic Broadway “upper” is a great way to get out of the heat. After all these years, the laughs still come easily, and Jerry Herman’s tunes are as hummable as ever. Based on the play by Thornton Wilder (of Our Town fame), adaptor Michael Stewart tweaked and shaped the material to give us characters that once seen, we can’t forget.
You don’t do a Dolly unless you have a Dolly in mind—and Tiana Shuntae Alexander is a warm, funny, and clever Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi. She can sing up a storm, too—sometimes throwing in a touch of jazz or blues—and dances on light feet, swishing the lovely skirts of her many costumes (created by talented SSG co-founder Lauren Morgan). Paired with the dryly funny Stan Graner as Horace Vandergelder (the “half a millionaire” merchant of Yonkers), we can see Dolly’s new life shaping up nicely: while she makes matches for others (including Horace, who’s looking for wife #2) Dolly has the rich and crusty older man on her mind. She’s ready to “rejoin the human race”…and sees Horace as her way back into life.
Keith J. Warren (such a great voice) is Horace’s chief clerk Cornelius Hackl—a guy in his thirties who still doesn’t have a night off. But when Horace goes to New York to meet Dolly (and his future bride…maybe), Cornelius and his junior clerk Barnaby (David Helms, a terrific dancer) follow him into the city for a night of adventure. Charming hatmaker Irene Molloy (Jessica Peterson) and her easily startled shop assistant Minnie Fay (nice screaming, Marisa Duran) are the first ladies they meet, pretending to be rich “swells” out on the town.
Dolly, of course, teaches them all to dance in the blink of an eye—and sends them off to the Harmonia Gardens, a favorite restaurant/dance hall from Dolly’s legendary past. Just for fun (?), she’s sent Horace’s weepy, lovelorn niece Ermengarde (Liz Shirley) to the same place, along with her artistic beau Ambrose (Dillon Hanson, another engaging dancer). What’s more, she’s meeting Horace with a fake “Mrs. Horace” possibility…the better to let him see Dolly as a much better choice.
Whew! Choreographer Monica Glenn had a challenge keeping dances moving on SSG’s small square stage for this 18-member cast. But tight quarters seem to be her jam: particularly in massed numbers such as “Sunday Clothes” there’s plenty of period charm in the elbow-to-elbow dancing.
Graner and the male ensemble are cheerfully, hilariously sexist in “It Takes a Woman”; the foursome of Warren, Peterson, Duran and Helms do a great job with the walk-‘til-you-drop song “Elegance”; and I don’t know where to start with Alexander, who sells every one of Dolly’s numbers, from “I Put My Hand In” to “Before the Parade Passes By” to “So Long Dearie” and the title number itself.
Hello, Dolly! is only a couple of years shy of its 60th anniversary (though the play goes back even farther). But the show feels fresh and funny. Why not put on your Sunday clothes (or a pair of Bermudas) and spend a few hours up the Hudson in turn-of-the-century Yonkers, NY. What fun!
WHEN: Through July 31
WHERE: Fort Worth Community Arts Center (museum district)
WEB: stolenshakespeareguild.org
