Once upon an amateur musical theatre time there were popular shows for the family regularly showing off big amateur talents in smaller venues and the expression ‘belting’ was unheard of. Neither were ear shattering musical theatre young wannabes busting a gut and straining their vocal chords to blast out a song to impress. Hello, Dolly! is not one of those shows but, holy cabooses, it sure is a belter. With very catchy tunes.
Jerry Herman’s evergreen popular musical Hello, Dolly! is playing at The Duchess Theatre Long Eaton until Saturday 25th May. The Beeston Musical Theatre Group have produced, and are playing, an exceptionally good version with every part perfectly cast. This is one of those shows with a simple and witty plot with great tunes you’ll be humming for weeks afterwards coupled with memories of a darn good time at The Duchess Theatre.
In my humble opinion the famous Barbara Streisand filmed version cast Streisand too young as Dolly Levi and in BMTG’s staged version features the superb Yvonne Taylor in the role. Taylor gives Dolly Levi all that you’d hope for in very controlled strong vocals, an emotionally solid character trying to work out the best way to go forward in life after losing her beloved husband and plenty of well-timed wit. And boy can she deliver a song! Taylor does this all with the refined grace of one born to play the part.
Opposite Taylor’s Dolly Levi is Martin Holtom as the grumpy old hay and feed business owner Horace Vandergelder. Well he might be grumpy but in no way is his part played two dimensionally and Holtom enjoys some ‘twinkle in his eye and twinkle in his toes’ fun along the way to potential matrimony. Ben Sherwin (Ambrose Kemper) and Marie Nelson as Ermengarde appear on stage only a few key times but when they do they are very amusing together. In an even briefer role Claire Farrand – Preston shows off her brilliant comedy interpretation of Horace’s Vandergelder’s highly unsuitable dinner date.
There are plenty of funny scenes in this musical directed by Paul Mills and musically directed by Lisa Mills. The verbal and physical comedy finds its perfect placement in the joyous talents of many in the cast but especially in Matthew McAuley’s sweet and innocent Barnaby Tucker, Craig Arme’s comically versatile and vocally clear Cornelius Hachl, Daisy Foster’s ditzy Minnie Fay and Cibele Alvarenga’s positively glowing Irene Molloy.
The character of Irene Molloy is a principal one in the story of the matchmaker Dolly Levi. It necessitates casting a naturally beautiful woman who can sing the birds down from the trees, have confident acting talents, be disarmingly witty, dance with confidence and exude an attractive radiant positivity throughout a pretty decent amount of stage time. BMTG have found their Irene Molloy in Cibele Alvarenga and tonight’s audience have fallen in love with her many charms as will audiences throughout this week.
The show is beautifully choreographed by Charlotte Drewett and Jodie Lakin and the Hello, Dolly! ensemble do them proud particularly in the restaurant scene with the fast moving dancing waiters. The hired costumes from Charades Theatrical Costume Hire, St Helens are wonderful to behold, particularly the fancy ladies’ hats. BMTG’s production has a polished live band accompaniment and the show features all those favourite tunes like ‘Hello, Dolly!’, ‘Put On Your Sunday Clothes’, ‘Ribbons Down My Back’, ‘Before The Parade Passes By’ and ‘It Only Takes A Moment’. The show sets are greatly enhanced by the use of projections and if you look carefully you can see that a great deal of effort and thought has gone into the combined details of both the physical sets and the projected additions.
Go and see Hello, Dolly! and The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton. You’d be Yonkers not to!
Hello, Dolly! photos by Megrosehill Photography
