The cast of “Hello, Dolly!” Photo by Mark S. Howard.
Presented by Lyric Stage of Boston
Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman
Book by Michael Stewart
Based on “The Matchmaker” by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Music direction by Dan Rodriguez
Choreography by Ilyse Robbins
Featuring Temma Beaudreau, Joshua Wolf Coleman, Max Connor, Aimee Doherty,
Kristian Espiritu, Mark Linehan, Michael Jennings Mahoney
May 16 – June 22
Lyric Stage Theatre
140 Clarendon Street, 2nd floor
Boston, MA 02116
Runtime: 2 hours and 30 minutes including intermission.
Review by Maegan Bergeron-Clearwood
BOSTON — Full disclosure: I am something of a Hello, Dolly! apologist. Sure, it’s Broadway at its hammiest, and I won’t pretend that it’s aged perfectly. But beneath its veneer of feathers and bows and heteronormativity, this is a musical about characters pushing against turn-of-the-century gender and class constraints, straining to express themselves as loudly and brassily as possible.
Jerry Herman, the composer-lyricist behind some of Broadway’s most fabulous characters (see Mame and La Cage aux Folles) knew what exactly he was doing here: Hello, Dolly! is queer joy incarnate, and you can’t convince me otherwise.
Maurice Emmanuel Parent, director of Lyric Stage’s current production, fully realizes the musical’s radical potential, never shying away from its cornier side: the ensemble delivers every high kick and high note with the utmost sincerity and cheese. The optimism is palpable. Parent sprinkles some progressive twists throughout the production. “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” the musical’s ode to life’s little pleasures, features two masculine- presenting characters as a dancing pair, and “Before the Parade Passes By” is
reimagined as a suffragette march. These moments aren’t forced; instead, they feel right at home within Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart’s story of communal joy and human connection.
Aimee Doherty is a heartwarming Dolly Levi. She nails the character’s humor and confidence, but more than anything, she taps into Dolly’s softer side: the monologues urging her late husband for his blessing so that she can rejoin her community are deeply moving, serving as an emotional scaffold for the production’s more farcical moments to build upon. Doherty is paired with Joshua Wolf Coleman as Horace Vandergelder, the half-a-millionaire on whom Dolly has her matrimonial sights set. Coleman neglects Vandergelder’s more vulnerable moments, coming across as more antagonistic than grumpily set in his ways, but he successfully complements Dolly’s bubblier energy, and the conclusion to their whirlwind courtship is sweet and satisfying.
The production rarely sits still, which is fitting for a jam-packed farce that spans only 24 hours of the characters’ lives. Ilyse Robbins’ choreography is delectable, filling the theater with a near-constant undercurrent of cheer. Parent’s staging utilizes every inch of the venue’s limited space, such that the
performers are practically bursting from every entrance. Sometimes the use of aisles and balconies causes sight line issues (Dolly’s grand entrance, for instance, is diminished when half of the audience needs to crane their necks to see her at the top of the aisle stairs), but I appreciate the desire to use take up as much space as possible.
The design elements don’t quite match this energy. The set (Janie E. Howland) is creative, but incohesive: a plastic-y staircase is set against a backdrop of New York landmarks (including the Statue of Liberty, which is strangely floating in space), on top of a sepia-toned map of the city. The lighting design (Karen Perlo) is extravagant but distracting, and the costumes, while appropriately bedecked with buckles and lace, rarely stand out against the set’s subdued tones.
Still: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a production that’s such an unapologetic celebration of its own frothy genre, and Hello, Dolly! filled that musical-shaped hole in my heart, practically to bursting. And if ever there was a time for such a zenith of theatrical sincerity, it’s now.
I am not alone in feeling drained and defeated right now. But musicals are a special kind of medicine. I alternated between writing paragraphs of this review and calling my state representatives, and after leaving each voicemail, pleading for the release of ICE detainees, I found such relief in returning to the comforting frills of Hello, Dolly! Jerry Herman recommends putting on your Sunday clothes when you feel down and out, but going to the theatre is a fabulous alternative.
