Village Theatre was smart to make their season closer “Hello, Dolly!”
It’s fun. It’s hilarious. It’s got a happy ending. It just sets the right mood to kick off summer.
There’s even a parade, complete with confetti and Uncle Sam on stilts. What a summertime treat.
Village Theatre’s “Dolly,” which opens tonight in Everett, is among the classic musicals, with a cherished score that is as much a mainstay of Broadway as corn on the cob is to a July picnic.
But first a little reminder about the plot.
Go back to the days before the Internet, when guys and gals hooked up through an intermediary. Not MySpace.com. A matchmaker.
That matchmaker is Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi. It’s the 1890s in New York City and Dolly is a well-known widowed matchmaker, on her way to Yonkers to attend to one of her clients, Horace Vandergelder, a successful miser in the hay and feed business.
As Dolly puts it, she arranges things: “Furniture, daffodils, lives.” She arranges, against Horace’s wishes, to have Horace’s niece Emengarde and artist Ambrose Kemper prove their love to Uncle Horace. She arranges to find true love for Horace’s employees, Cornelius and Barnaby. Finally, Dolly arranges for Horace to fall in love with her.
Through all this arranging are some mad-cap scenes, romance and, yes, that toe-tapping score. Songs include “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” “It Only Takes a Moment,” and the enduring “Hello, Dolly!”
The wild adventure of finding love reaches its high point at the famed Harmonia Gardens restaurant, where watching the waiters bring food, sort of, has never been so entertaining.
Stars include Peggy O’Connell as Dolly Levi, John Patrick Lowrie as Horace Vandergelder and Greg Michael Allen as Cornelius. Allen has a voice like buttah, and in the number “Dancing,” he was so animated and lithe it looked as if he were made of rubber. He’s wonderful to watch.
Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Peggy O’Connell stars in “Hello, Dolly!” at Village Theatre in Everett.
Jay Koh photos for Village Thheatre
John Patrick Lowrie and Peggy O’Connell star in “Hello, Dolly!” at Village Theatre in Everett.
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