Hello, Dolly!

Hello, Dolly! is a big brassy star vehicle with a hit title song. The libretto is based on a play by Thornton Wilder which lifted generously from French and Austrian farces. Though Dolly is a matchmaker the story isn't necessarily a romance.

Dolly, Horace and Irene have each survived a spouse and settled into unfulfilling lives. Dolly decides to let her memories go and "rejoin the human race." She learns to like herself again and teaches the others to do the same.

Check out Richard Skipper's collection of testimonials on the many, many divas who've played Dolly Gallagher Levi.

I Can Get It For You Wholesale

How much can an anti-hero get away with in a financially successful musical? The onstage Harry Bogen was guilted out of his worst act in the source novel but his victims were more sympathetic than those of J. P. Finch or Pal Joey.

Regardless, Harry Bogen is not the one folks remember from Wholesale today:

The evening’s find is Barbara Streisand, a girl with an oafish expression, a loud irascible voice and an arpeggiated laugh. Miss Streisand is a natural comedienne, and Mr. Rome has given her a brash, amusing song, “Miss Marmelstein,” to lament her secretarial fate.

~ Howard Taubman. New York Times.