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Hello
Dolly!
Based
on The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, Hello Dolly tells the story
of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a matchmaker who has been hired to arrange
a marriage for the widowed half-millionaire Horace Vandergelder.
Dolly, however, has other plans. She has herself been recently
widowed and come to the conclusion that Horace and his fortune
will make her the perfect mate. So when she arrives in Yonkers,
she immediately begins to plant seeds of doubt in Vandergelder's
mind about Irene Molloy, the pretty young widow she has picked
out for him. Meanwhile, down in the bowels of Vandergelder's Hay
and Feed Store, two of his employees are plotting to take advantage
of the boss' absence. Cornelius and Barnaby have decided to sneak
off for their first-ever peek at the big city. They want to experience
everything--maybe even kiss a girl! Once they make their escape,
however, they have the misfortune of spotting Vandergelder on
the street. Attempting to escape unnoticed, they slip into Irene
Molloy's hat shop, the very place Vandergelder has arranged to
meet with Mrs. Molloy. Dolly and Irene attempt to hide the boys
from Vandergelder who, much to Dolly's delight, quickly comes
to the conclusion that his intended fiancée is hiding a
roomful of strange men. Vandergelder storms out indignantly, announcing
his intention to meet instead with the extraordinarily wealthy
Ernestina Money. This suits everyone just fine, for
Cornelius has found himself smitten by Irene, and Irene, for her
part, has already admitted to her assistant, Minnie Fay, that
she was about to accept Vandergelder's proposal only to escape
from the drudgeries of her little hat shop. Dolly quickly sizes
up the situation and suggests that the boys take Irene and Minnie
Fay to dinner at the fashionable Harmonia Gardens to make amends
for ruining the meeting with Vandergelder. Although Cornelius
and Barnaby cannot afford such an expensive dinner, they soon
find themselves standing in front of the Harmonia Gardens, two
beautiful women on their arms and no idea how they will pay the
bill. But when Vandergelder shows up at the same restaurant searching
for the mysterious Ernestina, mayhem erupts, and by the time the
confusion
is over, everything may just have worked itself out--even if it
isn't the way one might have expected when the evening began!
Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre on January 16, 1964
with a cast that featured Carol Channing (Dolly), David Burns
(Horace), Charles Nelson Reilly (Cornelius), Jerry Dodge (Barnaby),
Eileen Brennan (Irene), and Sondra Lee (Minnie Fay). The show
ran for 2,844 performances and briefly held the record for the
longest-running Broadway production before it was overtaken by
Fiddler on the Roof. During the Broadway run, Ms. Channing was
succeeded by Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Bibi Osterwald,
Pearl Bailey, Phyllis Diller, and Ethel Merman (who had originally
turned down the role.) The 1969 film version featured Barbra Streisand
and Walter Matthau.
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