Hello, Dolly! (musical)
Hello, Dolly! is a 1964 musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1954. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder.
This article is about the stage musical. For the film adaptation, see Hello, Dolly! (film).Hello, Dolly!
Jerry Herman
November 16, 1963: Fisher Theatre, Detroit
1964 Broadway
1965 West End
1975 Broadway revival
1978 Broadway revival
1995 Broadway revival
2009 West End revival
2017 Broadway revival
2018 US tour
Hello, Dolly! debuted at the Fisher Theater in Detroit on November 18, 1963,[1] directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick. It starred stage performer Carol Channing as Dolly Gallagher Levi, a role theatrical audiences of the world would forever associate with her.[2] The show moved to Broadway in 1964, winning 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical for Channing. The awards earned set a record which the play held for 37 years. The show album Hello, Dolly! An Original Cast Recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.[3] The album reached number one on the Billboard album chart on June 6, 1964, and was replaced the next week by Louis Armstrong's album Hello, Dolly![4] Louis Armstrong also was featured in the film version of the show, performing a small part of the song "Hello, Dolly!".
The show has become one of the most enduring musical theater hits, with four Broadway revivals and international success. It was also made into the 1969 film Hello Dolly! by 20th Century Fox, which won three Academy Awards, including Best Score of a Musical Picture and was nominated in four other categories, including Best Picture at the 42nd Academy Awards.
History[edit]
The plot of Hello, Dolly! originated in the 1835 English play A Day Well Spent by John Oxenford, which Johann Nestroy adapted into the farce Einen Jux will er sich machen (He Will Go on a Spree or He'll Have Himself a Good Time) in 1842. Thornton Wilder adapted Nestroy's play into his 1938 farcical play The Merchant of Yonkers. That play was a flop, so he revised it and retitled it as The Matchmaker in 1954, expanding the role of Dolly (played by Ruth Gordon).[5]
The role of Dolly Gallagher Levi was originally written for Ethel Merman but she turned it down, as did Mary Martin—although both eventually played it.[5] Merrick then auditioned Nancy Walker, but he hired Carol Channing, who then went on to originate the role of Dolly.[6] Director Gower Champion was not the producer's first choice, but Hal Prince and others turned it down, among them Jerome Robbins and Joe Layton.[7]
Hello, Dolly! had rocky tryouts in Detroit, Michigan and Washington, D.C.[6] After receiving the reviews, the creators made major changes to the script and score, including the addition of the song "Before the Parade Passes By".[8] Initially called Dolly, A Damned Exasperating Woman,[9] then Call on Dolly, Merrick revised the show's title after hearing Louis Armstrong's version of "Hello, Dolly". The show became one of the most iconic Broadway shows of the latter half of the 1960s, and running for 2,844 performances, was the longest-running musical in Broadway history for a time.[10]
Productions[edit]
Original Broadway production[edit]
The musical, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick, opened on January 16, 1964, at the St. James Theatre and closed on December 27, 1970, after 2,844 performances.[39] Carol Channing starred as Dolly, with a supporting cast that included David Burns as Horace, Charles Nelson Reilly as Cornelius, Eileen Brennan as Irene, Jerry Dodge as Barnaby, Sondra Lee as Minnie Fay, Mary Jo Catlett as Ermengarde, and Igors Gavon as Ambrose. Although facing competition from Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand, Hello, Dolly! swept the Tony Awards in 1964, winning awards in ten categories[40] (out of eleven nominations) that tied the musical with the previous record keeper South Pacific, record that remained unbroken for 37 years until The Producers won twelve Tonys in 2001.[41]
Recordings[edit]
The RCA Victor cast recording of the original Broadway production was released in 1964. It was the number-one album on the Billboard pop albums chart for seven weeks, the top album of the year on the Year-End chart and won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. In 1965, a recording of the original London production was released. In 1967, RCA Victor released a recording of the all-black Broadway replacement cast, featuring Pearl Bailey, who also starred in the unrecorded 1975 revival.[122]
The movie soundtrack was released in 1969. On November 15, 1994, the 1994 revival cast recording was released.[123]
The 2017 Broadway Revival cast recording was released on May 12, 2017, featuring the songs now sung by Bette Midler, David Hyde Pierce, Kate Baldwin, and Gavin Creel.[124]