Hello, Dolly! Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Book by Michael Stewart, adapted from The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder. Directed by Michael Moore. Musical direction by Jenna Hinton. Choreography by Belinda Hassall. Queanbeyan Players. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Until June 9. Bookings: theq.net.au or 62856290.
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Queanbeyan Players take you back to the Golden Age of the Broadway musical with their endearing production of Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart's Hello, Dolly! Based on Thornton Wilder's stage play, The Matchmaker, the 1964 musical was a big hit and won 10 Tony Awards including best musical.
It tells the story of widow Dolly Levi (Janelle McMenamin), wealthy hay and seed merchant Horace Vandergelder (Tony Falla). Also featured are Vandergelder's employees Cornelius Hackl (Will Collett) and Barnaby Tucker (Max Macmillan), his niece Ermengarde (Madeline Calder) and her boyfriend Ambrose Kemper (Aaron Sims).
Matchmaker Dolly is out to find herself and everyone a perfect match. Ambrose hopes to elope with Ermengarde and Cornelius and Barnaby take off to New York and meet milliner Irene Molloy (Demi Smith) and her assistant Minnie Fay (Emily Pogson). At the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant, chaos, confusion and comical calamity come to a head with hilarious consequences. But love triumphs and all's well that ends well.
After a somewhat flat Sunday matinee start, this admirable and highly entertaining amateur production hits its straps with a boisterous It Takes A Woman (Falla and Chorus).
Excellent singing is finely accompanied by the orchestra under musical director Jenna Hinton's baton and lively choreography, imaginatively staged by Belinda Hassall to suit the enthusiastic company of community players.
Excellent singing is finely accompanied by the orchestra under musical director Jenna Hinton's baton and lively choreography, imaginatively staged by Belinda Hassall to suit the enthusiastic company of community players.
There are very fine performances from Falla as the curmudgeonly merchant, Collett and Macmillan as young men in search of love and adventure and Smith as the milliner who longs for a new life. In the central role of Dolly, Janelle McMenamin appeared tentative in her dramatic moments, appearing to reserve her energy for numbers like Before The Parade Passes By that she delivers with some gusto and So Long, Dearie to the befuddled Vandergelder. It is left to other members of the company to lift the lid on the show's hit numbers, Put On Your Sunday Clothes and Hello, Dolly!
Director Michael Moore and Hinton and Hassall marshal a large and well-disciplined cast and it is a pleasure to see a classic musical performed with such a sense of fun by such a large company. Some may express concern at the musical's misogyny, but then it's the women who hold the power and the suffragette parade spells change is in the air.
Thompson Quan Wing's economical and tasteful set design captures the right sense of period and location. Janetta McRae and her team costume a large cast colourfully and stylishly. Jacob Aquilina's lighting design is patchy, leaving actors at times in the shadows.
Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable production of Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! and the packed theatre echoed with the audience's appreciative laughter and applause.
