Hello Dolly after Bette

[jerrybythesea]

Broadway show prices are way out of reach for most in NYC. Broadway is really for the wealthy and out-of towners. And TDF seats are mainly in the balcony!

 

In addition, seats are very uncomfortable with little leg room for tall people like me. There is a lack of restrooms for the elderly and handicapped.

[bostonman]

There is a lack of restrooms for the elderly and handicapped.

 

There is a lack of restrooms, period.

 

I make sure I go before the show starts. Most often, that means I can last until the end of the show. But I know not everyone can.

[+ Gar1eth]

 

I'm more interested in the rumors I'm hearing about a male Dolly (at some point) and Rudin pulling a page from the Merrick playbook with an all-black Dolly.

 

Are we taking Harvey?

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

That was a bad role for Streisand but movie-makers think with their box office $$ first. Was the same for The Wiz, Ross was nothing in that role and her voice never measured up for what the songs required. I'm a big Barbra fan but, just like Hello Dolly the movie, "back to Broadway" for Babs WOULD make big bucks!!

 

I've always loved the movie. I don't care that she was too young.

 

Gman

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Are we taking Harvey?

 

Gman

 

 

No. Friends of mine who are producers for other shows have said Rudin put out the call to Nathan Lane.

 

He turned it down.

[bostonman]

I'm more interested in the rumors I'm hearing about a male Dolly (at some point)...

 

Are we taking Harvey?

 

Only if it's the invisible rabbit.

 

I think a male Dolly (i.e. in drag) would make a mockery of the show. It would become a campy drag act, and the rest of the cast be damned. I think if there was a way to make the character male, and play it honestly as a man, that might be interesting. Similar to having Whoopi play a female version of Pseudolus, which was done "straight" (so to speak).

[Jakeenct]

I've always loved the movie. I don't care that she was too young.

Was the same for Sweet Charity, Verdon was light-years a much better dancer than Maclain but the movie was successful and profited.

[RyanDean]

Leroy Reams played Dolly, apparently quite successfully, in a sanctioned production a couple years ago in Florida.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-First-Look-at-Lee-Roy-Reams-in-Gender-Bending-HELLO-DOLLY-20151110

[+ WilliamM]

I think a male Dolly (i.e. in drag) would make a mockery of the show. It would become a campy drag act, and the rest of the cast be damned.

 

I agree with this comment as well as everything else you have written on this specific issue. It's a crazy idea.

[bostonman]

Leroy Reams played Dolly, apparently quite successfully, in a sanctioned production a couple years ago in Florida.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-First-Look-at-Lee-Roy-Reams-in-Gender-Bending-HELLO-DOLLY-20151110

 

Yes, but that was a limited one-month run at a small regional theatre that surely has a large subscription base - I'm not sure it would work for an open-ended Broadway run.

[RyanDean]

Not sure it would work for an open-ended Broadway run.

Not suggesting it would.

Just an interesting point of reference (ie. the only sanctioned production in which a man played Dolly did not play it camp).

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Leroy Reams played Dolly, apparently quite successfully, in a sanctioned production a couple years ago in Florida.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-First-Look-at-Lee-Roy-Reams-in-Gender-Bending-HELLO-DOLLY-20151110

 

I saw Lee Roy do this. He played it straight, no camp, and it worked nicely. It also helps that his history with the show runs so deep.

[bostonman]

Not suggesting it would.

Just an interesting point of reference (ie. the only sanctioned production in which a man played Dolly did not play it camp).

 

Understood. But I also think that Reams, having been involved with the show many times before, had a connection with the material that afforded him that opportunity better than others may have. A male actor, say, who just wanted to play the role but who was approaching the show for the first time, might more easily fall into the trap of playing "at" the role than finding an honest way in. Reams has also played Albin/Zaza in La Cage Aux Folles (on Broadway and on tour), so in a role like that which IS more drag (and written to be so), he knew from experience what NOT to do with Dolly Levi.

 

So yes, Reams could most probably pull it off on Broadway were he interested. (And, given his age and the fact that he hasn't done a long run on Broadway in over 10 years, I would think he might not be, unless it were again a limited engagement.) But like Donna Murphy, he's an "insider" - someone very well known in the theatre community, but not the kind of name performer that Rudin most likely would want for box office. (Which is surely why he asked Nathan Lane. But I think Lane, talented as he is, would have wound up camping it up.)

 

(Also, were Reams asked, He also might see the writing on the wall and know that he wouldn't help sell the show well enough, were he to follow Midler.)

[bostonman]

It also helps that his history with the show runs so deep.

 

Ha! I didn't see your message as I was typing mine, but we definitely agree on that point.

[bostonman]

Mystery solved!!!

 

BERNADETTE

PETERS

IN

"HELLO,

DOLLY!"

 

WOW, WOW, WOW, FELLAS!

 

STARTING JANUARY 20, 2018

 

New York, NY - Producer Scott Rudin announced today that the legendary two-time Tony Award®-winning Bernadette Peters, capping a 60-years-long career of triumph after triumph as "the most accomplished musical comedy star of her generation" (The Washington Post), will take on the title role in the most successful and beloved Broadway production of the year: Hello, Dolly!. Ms. Peters will begin performances Saturday evening, January 20, 2018, prior to a Thursday, February 22 opening night. A new block of tickets goes on sale, via Telecharge.com and Shubert Theatre box office, Saturday, September 9, at 10:00 A.M. (ET).

 

Bette Midler, who received universal raves and every Broadway acting honor for her performance as Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!, including the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical, will play her final performance on Sunday, January 14.

 

In a statement, Ms. Peters said, "I'm absolutely thrilled to continue in the tradition of the incomparable Bette Midler, Carol Channing, and all of the other wonderful actresses who have played Dolly Levi, and I look forward to joining this wonderful company at the Shubert."

 

Ms. Midler said, "I cannot imagine leaving Dolly Levi in better hands than those of Bernadette Peters. She has created more historic roles in more legendary musicals than any living Broadway star, and most of the dead ones, too. I cannot wait to see her in the show from my very expensive premium seat in Row G which I know I will have to pay for. She is joining the greatest group of people I have ever worked with, and when my run in this amazing show - and in this amazing part - is over, I will miss all of them more than I can express. I know they will take care of her the way they have taken care of me - with the heart and generosity they have shown me since day one of rehearsal."

 

Ms. Peters has been heralded by The Washington Post as "a theater goddess." Frank Rich, in The New York Times, proclaimed, "She has no peer in the musical theater." Scott Simon of National Public Radio says, "she has stopped more shows on Broadway than the stagehands' union." She has been honored with two Tony Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Drama League Award.

 

[+ WilliamM]

Show business has changed significantly since David Merrick found replacements for Carol Channing. To be fair, I saw Ginger Rodgers perform before "Hello, Dolly," and she was not in the same league with Bernadette Peters -- not even close.

[handiacefailure]

Thanks for the heads up about Bernedette. I'll have to make sure to jump online at 10 on Saturday:)

[bostonman]

Show business has changed significantly since David Merrick found replacements for Carol Channing. To be fair, I saw Ginger Rodgers perform before "Hello, Dolly," and she was not in the same league with Bernadette Peters -- not even close.

 

Rogers wasn't a singer first by any means. She was an amazing, beautiful dancer and actress who could carry a tune, and it's not a bad sound, but she didn't have the pipes to really "sell" a song. Notice in the following audio clips from her in Hello Dolly, how she generally tries to avoid ever sustaining a note, except for the few she absolutely has to. Not the sign of a true singer who wants to really relish each note. But - with the rest of her talent - clearly she knew she could make it work with what she could do. And that's really all one can ask, lol.

 

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

Any word on whether Miss Peters will be doing all shows, or will she follow Miss Midler's schedule?

[+ WilliamM]

I saw Ginger in "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1960 at a summer theater when I was in high school. Even by summer theater standards, she was barely adequate.

 

It was a large summer theater. My guess is Ginger was used to playing smaller summer venues.

[bostonman]

Any word on whether Miss Peters will be doing all shows, or will she follow Miss Midler's schedule?

 

I tend to assume Peters would do the full week. But I also don't know what the terms of Murphy's contract are - whether she's only slated to be on board while Midler is, or if her contract extends beyond that.

[N13]

I do not understand the gushing over Bernadette Peters. Didn't you see how she ruined "A Little Night Music"? Unfortunately I have seen here way more than I wish. Aside from "Dames at Sea" in which she was brilliant and "Sunday in the Park With George" where she was also brilliant (and this in a show I did not like!) I have never seen her when she has not dragged down the quality of the show she was in. Remember her horrific performance in "Follies"? I don't get her any more than I get Lizard....ooops....I mean Liza.

 

As I have said before out of all of the Dolly's I have seen - Channing, Merman, Bailey, Raye, Rogers, Streisand, Hines, and a few I can't remember...Betty Grable gave the only performance that showed Dolly as a character and not as a caricature.

[edjames]

And the winner is BERNADETTE PETERS!

News of Bernadette's casting "leaked" by new co-star Victor Garber's husband!

 

Bernadette Peters to take over for Bette Midler in ‘Hello, Dolly!’

By Ian Mohr

September 5, 2017 | 6:36pm

 

Bernadette Peters will replace Bette Midler in the smash Broadway hit “Hello, Dolly!” in January — and the news was first accidentally leaked on Instagram when the husband of another actor, who will replace David Hyde Pierce in the show, spilled the beans.

 

Seven-time Tony nominee Peters will be joined in the show by Victor Garber (“Alias”), whose husband Rainer Andreesen accidentally dropped the top-secret theater news of Peters and Garber’s casting when he commented on a famous friend’s Instagram feed. The new stars were planned to be revealed in a big announcement at a later date by producer Scott Rudin.

 

Celebrity stylist and E! “Fashion Police” star Brad Goreski posted a selfie with his partner, “Family Guy” producer Gary Janetti, over Labor Day weekend in front of the Shubert Theatre’s “Hello, Dolly!” marquee, exclaiming how much they loved the show.

 

Garber’s model/painter husband Andreesen then commented on Goreski’s photo: “Now you will have to come back and see Victor and Bernadette when they replace in January.” Whoops!

 

The comment was apparently deleted minutes later but didn’t get past eagle-eyed Broadway fans who posted it on Reddit. Said one reader of the slip, “OMFG if that’s true, whatever possessed him to say that in writing, anywhere?”

 

Midler is scheduled to exit the show Jan. 13, and speculation has ramped up over who could replace her — with names from Peters to Dolly Parton and Sutton Foster bandied about. Variety reported producer Rudin as coyly saying, “There’s no replacement for Bette.” Midler’s alternate has been Donna Murphy.

 

One perhaps overly dramatic theater source told Page Six after the Instagram casting reveal snafu that Garber could lose the job because, “the stars have to sign non-disclosure agreements, and there is a strict no-leak policy.”

 

But we hear that despite the leak, Garber will take over the role.

 

After Page Six reached out for comment, the show sent out a press release announcing Peters will take over for Midler.

 

Reps for Garber and Andreesen and the show did not comment.

[handiacefailure]

I do not understand the gushing over Bernadette Peters. Didn't you see how she ruined "A Little Night Music"? Unfortunately I have seen here way more than I wish. Aside from "Dames at Sea" in which she was brilliant and "Sunday in the Park With George" where she was also brilliant (and this in a show I did not like!) I have never seen her when she has not dragged down the quality of the show she was in. Remember her horrific performance in "Follies"? I don't get her any more than I get Lizard....ooops....I mean Liza.

 

As I have said before out of all of the Dolly's I have seen - Channing, Merman, Bailey, Raye, Rogers, Streisand, Hines, and a few I can't remember...Betty Grable gave the only performance that showed Dolly as a character and not as a caricature.

 

I saw her in Night Music and thought her and Elaine Stritch were a lot better than Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury in their roles.

 

I wonder if this means there won't be another season of Mozart in the Jungle now that she is doing Hello Dolly

[N13]

I saw her in Night Music and thought her and Elaine Stritch were a lot better than Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury in their roles.

 

Not saying much especially since Zeta-Jones was no better than Peters. I did, however enjoy Stritch.