Hello, Dolly! @ The Firehouse Theatre
Photos by Jason Anderson/Pendleton Studios
—Jan Farrington
I came out of The Firehouse Theatre’s Hello, Dolly! humming a tune (of course) and feeling the afterglow of this happy and high-energy production. What fun to spend a couple of hours in old New York (and Yonkers, just up the river), where the yen for love and life feels the same as ours—but the clothes and music are, let’s face it, way more fun.
You don’t do Dolly unless you’ve found a good one—and The Firehouse Theatre’s Dolly is a doozy, the wonderful Stacia Goad-Malone, a petite strawberry blonde with great comic chops and a fine strong voice. (She was a memorable MaMa Murphy in TFT’s Bright Star a few seasons back.) As Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi, a widow who “arranges things” for fun and profit, she’s a charmer who gets results.
When we meet her, she’s working to arrange a second marriage for Yonkers merchant Horace Vandergelder, a gruff older gent who thinks he wants a “husky” woman to keep his life in order. Michael Brightman is hilarious in the part, a master of fine-tuned facial expressions (and a pretty good New Yawk accent) that keep the audience in stitches. Horace doesn’t understand what’s happening to him—that Dolly’s marked him for her own, and spends much of the show slowly reeling him in.
Garret Holton and Max Morgan are cherub-faced and appealing as store clerks Cornelius and Barnaby, who (in the boss’s absence) run off for a day of fun in New York—only to wind up (isn’t musical comedy wonderful?) in the hat shop of the very woman Horace is thinking of marrying. Molly Robinson is lovely as the young widow Irene Molloy, who is tired of hats and looking for love. (Her sweet soprano seems to linger in the air of the beautiful “Ribbons Down My Back.”) Irene’s shop assistant Minnie Fay (played by Tilda Grace) is a funny, nosy, bubbly ball of energy. They’re perfect for Cornelius and Barnaby, and a cute foursome in the song “Elegance.”
Also among the runaways are Horace’s niece, the weepy Ermengarde (Arianna Reed’s sobs keep us giggling) and the artist she wants to marry, Ambrose (played by Octavian Lewis subbing for Kenneth Lane at the performance reviewed), a determined guy who keeps smiling through Ermengarde’s tears. Cameron Wisener makes us grin as the fake “heiress” (clearly a hoochie-coochie girl) Ernestina Money, who’s the last straw for marriage-minded Horace. Nathan Benson is a warmly elegant Rudolph (maître d' of the Harmonia Gardens), and it’s fun watching the restaurant staff flip, twirl, and tumble across the stage in the “Waiters’ Gallop”—some high kickers in there!
As a team, director Pamela Anglero, music director Billy Veer, and choreographer Victoria Anne Lee have crafted one of the best and liveliest Dolly’s I’ve seen in a long time. The sound is crystal-clear (kudos to Dylan Hearn), not something that’s easy to accomplish, and it’s a delight to see this show in such an intimate setting.
In case you need reminding, the 1963 classic runs on the energy of Jerry Herman’s fabulous music and lyrics, and Michael Stewart’s funny, heart-tugging book. As we get to know the independent Dolly, we discover her secret: that she’s still mourning the loss of her much-loved husband Ephraim. But, she’s decided it’s high time to get back into life, to “rejoin the human race”—a decision Goad-Malone reveals in the beautifully moving “Before the Parade Passes By.” She’s just waiting for a “sign” from Ephraim that he approves.
Great music, great laughs, great heart. What more could you ask for?
WHEN: Through April 23
WHERE: 2535 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch
