Hello, Dolly! (musical)

This article is about the stage musical. For the film adaptation, see Hello, Dolly! (film). For other uses, see Hello, Dolly! (disambiguation).

Hello, Dolly!
1964 Broadway poster
Music	Jerry Herman
Lyrics	Jerry Herman
Book	Michael Stewart
Basis	The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder
Premiere	November 18, 1963 (1963-11-18): Fisher Theatre, Detroit
Productions	1964 Broadway 1965 West End 1975 Broadway revival 1978 Broadway revival 1995 Broadway revival 2009 West End revival 2017 Broadway revival 2018 US tour 2024 West End revival
Awards	1964 Tony Award for Best Musical 1964 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical 1964 Tony Award for Best Original Score 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival 2017 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical

Hello, Dolly! is a 1964 musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1954. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder.

Hello, Dolly! debuted at the Fisher Theater in Detroit on November 18, 1963, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick. It starred Carol Channing as Dolly Gallagher Levi, the role with which she became most closely associated. The show moved to Broadway in 1964, winning 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical, tying a record that stood for 37 years. The show album Hello, Dolly! An Original Cast Recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. The album reached number one on the Billboard album chart on June 6, 1964, and was replaced the next week by Louis Armstrong's album Hello, Dolly!

A scene from a college production of the musical at Lee University

The show has become one of the most enduring musical theater hits, with four Broadway revivals and international success. It was also made into the 1969 film Hello Dolly! by 20th Century Fox, which won three Academy Awards, including Best Score of a Musical Picture, and was nominated in four other categories, including Best Picture, at the 42nd Academy Awards.

Background and development

The plot of Hello, Dolly! originated in the 1835 English play A Day Well Spent by John Oxenford, which Johann Nestroy adapted into the farce Einen Jux will er sich machen (He Will Go on a Spree or He'll Have Himself a Good Time) in 1842. Thornton Wilder adapted Nestroy's play into his 1938 farcical play The Merchant of Yonkers. That play was a flop, so he revised it and retitled it as The Matchmaker in 1954, expanding the role of Dolly (played by Ruth Gordon).

The role of Dolly Gallagher Levi was originally written for Ethel Merman, for whose voice Herman tailored the score, but she turned it down, as did Mary Martin, though both eventually played it. Merrick auditioned Nancy Walker and considered Nanette Fabray before Gower Champion cast Carol Channing after seeing her in a stock production of The Millionairess; Herman, at first skeptical, was won over by her larger-than-life comic style. Ruth Gordon, who had created the role of Dolly in The Matchmaker, took singing lessons in hopes of being considered but was never asked to audition. Champion was not the producer's first choice to direct; the job had been turned down by Hal Prince, Jerome Robbins, Joshua Logan, and Joe Layton, among others, with Prince declining because he considered the title number pointless. Champion's casting notes listed some forty actors considered for Horace Vandergelder, among them Art Carney, Jim Backus, Pat O'Brien, and Bert Lahr, before he cast David Burns. Champion staged the title number on the first day of rehearsals, confident it would stop the show.

The show was initially titled Dolly, A Damned Exasperating Woman and then Call on Dolly before it was retitled Hello, Dolly!, a change reported in October 1963. Hello, Dolly! then had rocky tryouts in Detroit, Michigan, and Washington, D.C. During the troubled Detroit engagement, a dissatisfied Merrick threatened to close the show until Champion called his bluff. Merrick later called the pre-Broadway version "a sort of failure" that was "remanufactured out of town in nine weeks" across Detroit and Washington. After receiving the reviews, the creators made major changes to the script and score, most significantly replacing Vandergelder's first-act finale "Penny in My Pocket" with a new number for Dolly, "Before the Parade Passes By". Dissatisfied with the act's ending, Champion and Merrick had brought in the Bye Bye Birdie songwriters Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, who wrote a version overnight; Champion rejected it, and Herman wrote "Before the Parade Passes By" himself during the Detroit tryout. Merrick nonetheless assigned half of Herman's royalty on the song to Strouse and Adams, and ASCAP lists the three as co-writers, an arrangement that has led some writers to misattribute the song; Herman's authorship is affirmed by his biographer Stephen Citron and by a letter from Strouse. Merrick also summoned Bob Merrill, the composer of Carnival!, to help doctor the score; Herman said Merrill wrote the first eight bars and opening lines of "Elegance" while he wrote the rest, calling it a "fifty-fifty job", and "The Motherhood March" was likewise a Merrill–Herman collaboration. During the tryout, the role of Barnaby Tucker passed through three performers: the tap dancer James Dybas, then Glenn Walken (brother of the actor Christopher Walken), before Jerry Dodge assumed the role. It became one of the most iconic Broadway musicals of the 1960s and, for a time, the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Synopsis

Sources: Tams-Witmark Guide to Musical Theatre Masterworks Broadway

Act I

David Burns and Carol Channing in the original Broadway cast, 1964

As the 19th becomes the 20th century, all of New York City is excited because brassy widow Dolly Gallagher Levi is in town ("Call on Dolly"). Dolly makes a living through what she calls "meddling" – matchmaking and numerous sidelines, including dance instruction and mandolin lessons ("I Put My Hand In"). She is currently seeking a wife for grumpy Horace Vandergelder, the well-known half-a-millionaire, but it becomes clear that Dolly intends to marry Horace herself. Ambrose Kemper, a young artist, wants to marry Horace's weepy niece Ermengarde, but Horace opposes this because Ambrose's vocation does not guarantee a steady living. Ambrose enlists Dolly's help, and they travel to Yonkers to visit Horace, who is a prominent citizen there and owns Vandergelder's Hay and Feed.

Horace explains to his two clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, that he is going to get married because he needs a wife to cheerfully do all the household chores ("It Takes a Woman"). He plans to travel with Dolly to New York City to march in the Fourteenth Street Association Parade and propose to the widow Irene Molloy, who owns a hat shop there. Dolly arrives in Yonkers and "accidentally" mentions that Irene's first husband might not have died of natural causes, and also mentions that she knows an heiress, Ernestina Money, who may be interested in Horace. Horace departs for New York and leaves Cornelius and Barnaby to mind the store in his absence.

Cornelius decides that he and Barnaby need to get out of Yonkers and have an adventure in New York. They blow up some tomato cans to create a terrible stench as a pretext to close the store. Dolly mentions that she knows two ladies in New York they should call on: Irene Molloy and her shop assistant, Minnie Fay. She tells Ermengarde and Ambrose that she will enter them in the polka competition at the upscale Harmonia Gardens Restaurant in New York City so Ambrose can demonstrate to Horace his ability to be a breadwinner. Cornelius, Barnaby, Ambrose, Ermengarde and Dolly all take the train to New York ("Put on Your Sunday Clothes").

Irene and Minnie open their hat shop for the afternoon. Irene wants a husband, but does not love Horace Vandergelder. She declares that she will wear an elaborate hat to impress a gentleman ("Ribbons Down My Back"). Cornelius and Barnaby arrive at the shop and pretend to be rich. Horace and Dolly arrive at the shop, and Cornelius and Barnaby hide from him. Irene inadvertently mentions that she knows Cornelius, and Dolly tells her and Horace that even though Cornelius is Horace's clerk by day, he is a notorious New York playboy by night. Minnie screams when she finds Cornelius hiding in the armoire. Horace is about to open the armoire himself, but Dolly, Irene and Minnie distract him with a burst of patriotic sentiment ("Motherhood March"). Cornelius sneezes, and Horace storms out, realizing there are men hiding in the shop, but not knowing they are his clerks.

Dolly arranges for Cornelius and Barnaby, who are still pretending to be rich, to take the ladies out to dinner to the Harmonia Gardens restaurant to make up for their humiliation. She teaches Cornelius and Barnaby how to dance since they always have dancing at such establishments ("Dancing"). Soon, Cornelius, Irene, Barnaby, and Minnie are happily dancing. They go to watch the great 14th Street Association Parade together. Alone, Dolly decides to put her dear departed husband Ephraim behind her and to move on with life ("Before the Parade Passes By"). She asks Ephraim's permission to marry Horace, requesting a sign from him. Dolly catches up with the annoyed Vandergelder, who has missed the whole parade, and she convinces him to give her matchmaking one more chance. She tells him that Ernestina Money would be perfect for him and asks him to meet her at the swanky Harmonia Gardens that evening.

Act II

Milo Boulton and Carol Channing in one of several national tours, 1966

Cornelius is determined to get a kiss before the night is over, but Barnaby isn't so sure. As the clerks have no money for a carriage, they tell the girls that walking to the restaurant shows that they've got "Elegance". At the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant, Rudolph, the head waiter, prepares his service crew for Dolly Gallagher Levi's return: their usual lightning service, he tells them, must be "twice as lightning" ("The Waiters' Gallop"). Horace arrives with his date, but she proves neither as rich nor as elegant as Dolly had implied; furthermore she is soon bored by Horace and leaves, as Dolly had planned she would.

Cornelius, Barnaby, and their dates arrive, unaware that Horace is also dining at the restaurant. Irene and Minnie, inspired by the restaurant's opulence, order the menu's most expensive items. Cornelius and Barnaby grow increasingly anxious as they discover they have little more than a dollar left. Dolly makes her triumphant return to the Harmonia Gardens and is greeted in style by the staff ("Hello, Dolly!") She sits in the now-empty seat at Horace's table and proceeds to eat a large, expensive dinner, telling the exasperated Horace that no matter what he says, she will not marry him. Barnaby and Horace hail waiters at the same time, and in the ensuing confusion each drops his wallet and inadvertently picks up the other's. Barnaby is delighted that he can now pay the restaurant bill, while Horace finds only a little spare change. Barnaby and Cornelius realize that the wallet must belong to Horace. Cornelius, Irene, Barnaby and Minnie try to sneak out during "The Polka Contest", but Horace recognizes them and spots Ermengarde and Ambrose as well. The ensuing free-for-all culminates in a trip to night court.

Cornelius and Barnaby confess that they have no money and have never been to New York before. Cornelius declares that even if he has to dig ditches the rest of his life, he'll never forget the day because he had met Irene. Cornelius, Barnaby, and Ambrose then each profess their love for their companion ("It Only Takes A Moment"). Dolly convinces the judge that their only crime was being in love. The judge finds everyone innocent and cleared of all charges, but Horace is declared guilty and forced to pay damages. Dolly mentions marriage again, and Horace declares that he wouldn't marry her if she were the last woman in the world. Dolly angrily bids him goodbye ("So Long, Dearie"), telling him that while he's bored and lonely, she'll be living the high life.

The next morning, back at the hay and feed store, Cornelius and Irene, Barnaby and Minnie, and Ambrose and Ermengarde each set out on new life's paths. A chastened Horace Vandergelder finally admits that he needs Dolly in his life, but Dolly is unsure about the marriage until her late husband sends her a sign. Vandergelder spontaneously repeats a saying of Ephraim's: "Money is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread about, encouraging young things to grow." Horace tells Dolly life would be dull without her, and she promises in return that she'll "never go away again" ("Hello, Dolly" (reprise)).

Musical numbers

Act I

• Overture – Orchestra
• "Call On Dolly" – Ensemble
• "I Put My Hand In" — Dolly
• "It Takes a Woman" — Horace, Men
• "It Takes a Woman (Reprise)" – Dolly
• "World, Take Me Back" – Dolly (added for Ethel Merman's run)
• "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" — Cornelius, Barnaby, Dolly, Ambrose, Ermengarde, and Ensemble
• "Ribbons Down My Back" — Irene
• "Ribbons Down My Back (Reprise)" – Irene
• "Motherhood March"— Dolly, Irene, and Minnie Fay
• "Dancing" — Dolly, Cornelius, Barnaby, Irene, Minnie Fay, and Ensemble
• "Love, Look in My Window" – Dolly (added for Ethel Merman's run)
• "Before the Parade Passes By" — Dolly and the Company
• "Finale Act I: Before the Parade Passes By" – Dolly

Act II

• Entr'acte – Orchestra
• "Penny in My Pocket" – Vandergelder (cut before the Broadway opening; restored 2017)
• "Elegance" – Cornelius, Barnaby, Irene, and Minnie Fay
• "The Waiters' Gallop" – Rudolph and the Waiters
• "Hello, Dolly!" – Dolly, Rudolph, Waiters, Cooks
• "The Waiters' Gallop (Reprise)" – Rudolph and Waiters
• "The Polka Contest" – Ambrose, Ermengarde, Irene, Cornelius, Minnie Fay, Barnaby, and the Contestants
• "It Only Takes a Moment" – Cornelius, Irene, Ensemble
• "So Long Dearie" – Dolly
• "Hello, Dolly!" (Reprise) – Dolly and Vandergelder
• "Finale Act II: Hello, Dolly! / Dancing / It Only Takes a Moment / Put On Your Sunday Clothes / Hello, Dolly!" — The Company

During the pre-Broadway tryout the score was substantially reworked. Two numbers for Vandergelder were dropped: "Penny in My Pocket", which had closed the first act, and "You're a Damned Exasperating Woman", which had opened the second. As a result, the first-act finale shifted from Horace to Dolly, whose new "Before the Parade Passes By" took its place; "Elegance" and "Motherhood" were added, and "So Long, Dearie" was briefly titled "The Goodbye Song". Herman set "Put on Your Sunday Clothes", the first song he wrote for the show, to a melody he had written some years earlier, whose original opening line ran "The spirit of the chase is what it's all about".

Characters

• Dolly Gallagher Levi: A widow in her middle years who has decided to begin her life again. She is a matchmaker, meddler, opportunist, and a life-loving woman.
• Horace Vandergelder: The proprietor of a Hay & Feed store and a client of Dolly Gallagher Levi's. A well-known half-a-millionaire and widower, he is gruff, authoritative, and set in his ways.
• Cornelius Hackl: Vandergelder's chief clerk who yearns for one exciting day in New York City. Energetic, enthusiastic, and adventurous young man who has a sweet innocence about him.
• Barnaby Tucker: An assistant to Cornelius at Vandergelder's Hay & Feed store. He is sweet, naïve, energetic, and a follower.
• Irene Molloy: A widow and a beautiful, smart, fun-loving milliner with a hat shop in New York City. Dolly has introduced her to Horace Vandergelder but she yearns for romance.
• Minnie Fay: A young girl who works in Irene's hat shop. Irene's assistant, she is naïve, strait-laced, fresh, and a follower.
• Ambrose Kemper: A young and explosive struggling artist seeking to marry Ermengarde.
• Ermengarde: The young niece of Horace Vandergelder. She cries often and wants her independence and to marry Ambrose.
• Ernestina Money: An eccentric-looking girl in need of Dolly's matchmaking services.
• Rudolph Reisenweber: Maître d'hôtel of the Harmonia Gardens restaurant.
• Judge: A white-whiskered night court judge. Easily moved to tears by romance.
• Mrs. Rose: An old friend of Dolly's.

Casts

Character	Broadway	West End	Film	Broadway Revival	Broadway Revival	West End Revival	West End Revival	Broadway Revival	Off-West End Revival	Broadway Revival	US National Tour	West End Revival
	1964	1965	1969	1975	1978	1979	1983	1995	2009	2017	2018	2024
Dolly Gallagher Levi	Carol Channing	Mary Martin	Barbra Streisand	Pearl Bailey	Carol Channing		Danny La Rue	Carol Channing	Samantha Spiro	Bette Midler	Betty Buckley	Imelda Staunton
Horace Vandergelder	David Burns	Loring Smith	Walter Matthau	Billy Daniels	Eddie Bracken		Lionel Jeffries	Jay Garner	Allan Corduner	David Hyde Pierce	Lewis J. Stadlen	Andy Nyman
Cornelius Hackl	Charles Nelson Reilly	Garrett Lewis	Michael Crawford	Terrence Emanuel	Lee Roy Reams	Tudor Davies	Michael Sadler	Michael DeVries	Daniel Crossley	Gavin Creel	Nic Rouleau	Harry Hepple
Irene Molloy	Eileen Brennan	Marilynn Lovell	Marianne McAndrew	Mary Louise	Florence Lacey	Maureen Scott	Lorna Dallas	Florence Lacey	Josefina Gabrielle	Kate Baldwin	Analisa Leaming	Jenna Russell
Barnaby Tucker	Jerry Dodge	Johnny Beecher	Danny Lockin	Grenoldo Frazier	Robert Lydiard	Richard Drabble	Mark Haddigan	Cory English	Oliver Brenin	Taylor Trensch	Jess LeProtto	Tyrone Huntley
Minnie Fay	Sondra Lee	Coco Ramirez	E. J. Peaker	Chip Fields	Alexandra Korey	Mandy More	Pollyann Tanner	Lori Ann Mahl	Akiya Henry	Beanie Feldstein	Kristen Hahn	Emily Lane
Ermengarde	Alice Playten	Beverlee Weir	Joyce Ames	Karen Hubbard	K. T. Baumann	Angela Curran	Sue Latimer	Christine DeVito	Clare Louise Connolly	Melanie Moore	Morgan Kirner	Emily Langham
Ambrose Kemper	Igors Gavon	Mark Alden	Tommy Tune	Howard Porter	Michael C. Booker	Mike Fields	David Ellen	James Darrah	Mark Anderson	Will Burton	Garrett Hawe	Michael Lin
Ernestina	Mary Jo Catlett	Judith Drake	Judy Knaiz	Bessye Ruth Scott	P. J. Nelson	Veronica Clifford	Carol Kaye	Monica M. Wemitt	Annalisa Rossi	Jennifer Simard	Jessica Sheridan	Jodie Jacobs
Rudolph	David Hartman	Robert Hocknell	David Hurst	Jonathan Wynne	John Anania	Ian Burford	Jeremy Hawk	Steve Pudenz	Andy Hockley	Kevin Ligon	Wally Dunn	Paul Kemble

Broadway cast replacements

Broadway 1964

Source:

• Dolly Gallagher Levi: Pearl Bailey, Marie Bryant (standby), Thelma Carpenter, Ethel Merman, Novella Nelson (understudy), Phyllis Diller, Bibi Osterwald, Betty Grable, Martha Raye, Ginger Rogers
• Horace Vandergelder: Cab Calloway, Richard Deacon, Max Showalter
• Cornelius Hackl: Will Mackenzie, Russell Nype
• Barnaby Tucker: Danny Lockin (Who would reprise the role in the 1969 film)
• Irene Molloy: Ernestine Jackson
• Minnie Fay: Georgia Engel, Leland Palmer
• Ernestina: Mabel King

Broadway 2017

• Dolly Gallagher Levi: Bernadette Peters, Donna Murphy (alternate)
• Horace Vandergelder: Victor Garber
• Cornelius Hackl: Santino Fontana
• Barnaby Tucker: Charlie Stemp
• Ernestina: Alli Mauzey

U.S. Tour 2019

• Dolly Gallagher Levi: Carolee Carmello
• Horace Vandergelder: John Bolton

Productions

Original Broadway production

The musical, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick, opened on January 16, 1964, at the St. James Theatre and closed on December 27, 1970, after 2,844 performances. Carol Channing starred as Dolly, with a supporting cast that included David Burns as Horace, Charles Nelson Reilly as Cornelius, Eileen Brennan as Irene, Jerry Dodge as Barnaby, Sondra Lee as Minnie Fay, Mary Jo Catlett as Ermengarde, and Igors Gavon as Ambrose. Although facing competition from Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand, Hello, Dolly! swept the Tony Awards in 1964, winning awards in ten categories (out of eleven nominations), matching the ten-Tony record set by South Pacific in 1950, a record that remained unbroken for 37 years until The Producers won twelve Tonys in 2001. Shepard Coleman, who won the Tony Award as the production's conductor and musical director, was later replaced as conductor by Peter Howard.

Pearl Bailey as Dolly, 1968.

After Channing left the show, Merrick employed prominent actresses to play Dolly, including Ginger Rogers, from August 9, 1965, to February 25, 1967; Martha Raye, from February 27, 1967, to June 10, 1967; Betty Grable, from June 12, 1967, to November 4, 1967; Pearl Bailey (in an all-black version with Cab Calloway as Horace) from November 12, 1967 (with Thelma Carpenter as her alternate); Phyllis Diller, from December 26, 1969, to March 24, 1970; and Ethel Merman (after having turned down the lead at the show's inception) from March 28, 1970, to December 27, 1970. Merman, the seventh and last actress to headline the original Broadway run, had been offered the role in 1961 while starring in Gypsy but declined; Merrick courted her for years before she agreed to a limited run in 1970, which helped the show overtake My Fair Lady as Broadway's longest-running musical. Over the run, Bette Davis and Jack Benny were also among those considered for Dolly, Benny reportedly proposed in drag opposite George Burns.

Two songs cut prior to the opening – typical belt style songs "World, Take Me Back" and "Love, Look in My Window" – were restored for Merman's run. Merman's belated debut in March 1970 drew three standing ovations; she was joined by Russell Nype as Cornelius and Jack Goode as Horace, and, with Gower Champion sidelined by illness, his wife Marge Champion and his assistant Lucia Victor readied the staging. Jo Anne Worley was Channing's original standby but she never went on. She later played Dolly in regional and summer stock productions. Bibi Osterwald was the standby for Dolly following Channing's and Worley's departures, subbing for all the stars, including Bailey, though Osterwald was white. Marie Bryant and Novella Nelson also covered for the role of Dolly. Bailey received a Special Tony Award in 1968.

The show received rave reviews, with "praise for Carol Channing and particularly Gower Champion." In June 1969, the show passed Oklahoma!, which had also played its entire run at the St. James Theatre, to become the second-longest-running musical in Broadway history. The original production then became the longest-running musical (and third longest-running show) in Broadway history up to that time on September 9, 1970, surpassing My Fair Lady; it held that distinction only until July 21, 1971, when it was overtaken by Fiddler on the Roof. At the record-breaking matinee, the mayor of Yonkers, where the musical is set, named Merman and her six predecessors in the role honorary residents. The run was not continuous, unlike My Fair Lady, with several week-long breaks, including a week where the production moved to St. Louis.

The original production was a major commercial success. It was capitalized at $350,000 and by August 1970 had returned a profit of about $8.5 million; estimates of its gross vary, from roughly $27 million in New York and $60 million worldwide to about $30 million in New York and a further $30 million on tour. By the show's first anniversary in January 1965, about 624,000 people had seen the Broadway company, returning more than $4.1 million to Merrick. Carol Channing negotiated unusually favorable terms: she held a 5 percent ownership stake, and a January 1965 extension through June 1967 raised her fee to 10 percent of receipts, from 7.5 percent, when the show was grossing about $73,000 a week; the deal also let Merrick recall her to New York for three months and permitted her up to two films. A 1970 account instead gave her rate as 10 percent on tour and 5 percent in New York and reported $29,500 earned for thirteen performances in January 1966. Her own three-and-a-half-year engagement across the Broadway run and tour grossed about $17 million, with a peak week of $310,000 for ten performances at Oklahoma City's 5,000-seat Municipal Auditorium.

All-Black company (1967)

Bailey and Calloway headed an all-Black tour in 1967 prior to their Broadway run, which was given a second cast album.

The all-Black company that opened on November 12, 1967, re-staged by Lucia Victor, featured Morgan Freeman, in his Broadway debut, as Rudolph, with Jack Crowder (later Thalmus Rasulala) as Cornelius Hackl, Emily Yancy as Irene Molloy, Winston DeWitt Hemsley as Barnaby Tucker, Chris Calloway as Minnie Fay, and Mabel King as Ernestina. Merrick recast the production entirely with Black performers, leaving the book and score unchanged, and it revitalized the show commercially; the all-Black staging drew mixed reactions on racial grounds, faulted by some critics and civil-rights figures as a throwback to segregated revues but praised by others, including Jackie Robinson. Bailey went on to play the role for just over two years, longer than any other star of the original Broadway run, giving 716 performances; her arrival with Calloway restored the show's sagging box office, and the production grossed more in its fifth year than in its first. The Times critic Walter Kerr, revisiting the company, found Bailey remarkable and Calloway "precise and penetrating ... splendid". Bailey missed many performances over the run, and her standby Thelma Carpenter went on in the role some eighty times. After the all-Black company left Broadway, it headed a national tour from January 1970, again led by Bailey; the tour was briefly forced to suspend that May when Bailey fell ill in Houston, though it drew strong business, including a $140,000 advance sale in Milwaukee, the largest of the tour.

Original tours

Mary Martin, who had turned down the role at the show's inception, starred in a US tour that opened in April 1965 and played 11 cities before continuing to Tokyo under State Department sponsorship. At the Tokyo premiere Martin sang a Japanese-language version of the title song as an encore. A planned engagement in Moscow and Leningrad was cancelled by Soviet authorities over the Vietnam War, and Merrick instead sent the company to South Vietnam, where its Southeast Asian premiere played to about 4,000 American and allied servicemen in an aircraft hangar at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon, the orchestra playing along to a pre-recorded track; the tour, which also played Korea, was the subject of Hello, Dolly! 'Round the World, an NBC News television special narrated by Martin that recounted the company's tour of Japan and Vietnam. Martin brought a warmer, more naturalistic interpretation to the role, modeling Dolly on her own vivacious sister rather than on Channing's larger-than-life creation. President Johnson had personally asked Merrick to take the company to Vietnam, and on its Pacific itinerary it also played five days for United States service personnel at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. In 1967, Martha Raye, who had played Dolly on Broadway earlier that year, led a separate USO tour of the musical to Vietnam, joined by Sondra Lee, the show's original Minnie Fay. Raye, a trained nurse widely honored for her work with the troops, took an abridged version to Vietnam with the clearance of President Johnson, General William Westmoreland, and Merrick.

After Channing left the Broadway show, she headed a second US tour beginning in September 1965; she gave 1,273 consecutive performances as Dolly across the Broadway run and tour, the last on June 13, 1967, in Houston. That touring production ran for two years and nine months; Ginger Rogers joined it about eighteen months into the run, and Eve Arden and Dorothy Lamour were among its later replacements, while Betty Grable headed a separate touring company before her own Broadway run. Across Broadway runs and national tours over the following decades, Channing played Dolly for the rest of her career; by one scholarly count she gave 3,201 performances of the role through 1996, though the total is often reported as more than 5,000, an unofficial record surpassing Yul Brynner's tenure in The King and I.

Many other performers have played Dolly on tour and in regional theatre. Carole Cook (the second actress in the role, in Australia and New Zealand), Dorothy Lamour, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, Michele Lee, Edie Adams, and Yvonne De Carlo all toured in the part during the 1960s and 1970s. The national touring companies generated a number of labor claims filed with Actors' Equity Association in the late 1960s, among them a commission claim Equity pursued on Lamour's behalf against her agency, Korman-Larner Associates, and salary and program-error claims involving the Ginger Rogers and Betty Grable companies. Molly Picon played Dolly in a 1971 production at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts, and Betty White appeared with the Kenley Players in the summer of 1979. Lainie Kazan later starred at the Claridge Atlantic City, and Marilyn Maye headlined several regional productions. Vicki Lawrence played the role twice in 1991, for Sacramento Music Circus and Glendale Music Theatre. Betsy Palmer and Tovah Feldshuh each played Dolly at the Paper Mill Playhouse; for the 2006 staging Feldshuh, drawing on the character's maiden name Gallagher, played Dolly with an Irish accent and restored the Merman number "Love, Look in My Window". More recently, Andrea McArdle starred at the Media Theatre in Media, Pennsylvania, in 2015; Jennifer Simard led a 2023 production at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield, Ohio; and Beth Leavel starred at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine in 2026.

Original Australian production

The Australian production was produced by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd. and opened at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney on 27 March 1965. Carole Cook was imported to star, making her the second woman to play the role of Dolly Levi. Jack Goode played Horace, alongside Bill Millican as Cornelius, Jill Perryman as Irene, Tikki Taylor as Minnie Fay, and Brian Hannan as Barnaby.

Australian choreographer Betty Pounder was employed to stage the musical numbers. Jill Perryman served as understudy to Carole Cook. Nancye Hayes was featured in the ensemble as well as understudying the part of Irene Molloy.

After a successful season in Sydney, the show went on to play Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, and His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland in 1966.

Original London production

Hello, Dolly! premiered in the West End at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on December 2, 1965, and ran for 794 performances. Champion directed and choreographed, and the cast starred Mary Martin as Dolly and Loring Smith as Horace Vandergelder, with Garrett Lewis as Cornelius, Johnny Beecher as Barnaby, Mark Alden as Ambrose Kemper, and Marilynn Lovell as Irene Molloy. Smith had created the role of Horace in the original Broadway production of The Matchmaker. Dora Bryan replaced Martin from May 1966 until the show closed in October 1967. As late as March 1965, Channing had been expected to open the London company once Camelot ended its run at the Theatre Royal; the role instead went to Mary Martin. Members of the British royal family attended charity performances at the Theatre Royal: Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother saw a November 30, 1965 preview that raised about $56,000 for the Combined Theatrical Charities Appeal and the Jerusalem Baby Home, Queen Elizabeth II attended a December 6 benefit for the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, and Princess Margaret attended on December 8.

Broadway revivals

The first Broadway revival opened at the Minskoff Theatre on November 6, 1975, and ran for 42 performances, closing on December 28. Conceived as a limited return engagement built around Pearl Bailey's celebrated Dolly, it retained Black principals but set them within an integrated ensemble, distinguishing it from the all-Black company of 1967; Billy Daniels played Horace Vandergelder. Reviewing it for The New York Times, Clive Barnes found Bailey "exultant, triumphant and as relaxed as if she were on a swing in her own backyard", and noted that each performance closed with an added coda in which Daniels sang "That Old Black Magic" and Bailey answered with "Manhattan".

Carol Channing returned to the title role for the first time since the original run in a 1978 revival at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, which ran from March 5 to July 9 (147 performances), directed by Lucia Victor and co-starring Eddie Bracken as Horace; Bracken was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. The revival reached Broadway after a national tour begun in mid-1977 and retained Freddy Wittop's original costumes and Oliver Smith's scenery while adding an overture; Channing said Jerry Herman had urged the return after the two saw Annie, convinced that audiences again wanted an optimistic show.

Channing played Dolly on Broadway a final time from October 19, 1995, to January 28, 1996 (116 performances), opposite Jay Garner, in a production directed by Lee Roy Reams that restaged Champion's original choreography. Reviewing it for The New York Times, Vincent Canby titled his notice "It's Just One Role, But It's Channing's". For both her 1978 and 1995 Broadway returns, Channing's signature bouffant wigs were designed by Paul Huntley. During the tour surrounding the run she received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1995, flying from San Diego to accept it in what she said was the only performance she had missed since 1949.

A revival announced around 2011 to star Patti LuPone under the direction of Jack O'Brien, developed by Nederlander Presentations, did not proceed after Herman objected to the proposed new staging.

2017 Broadway revival/national tour

2017 Broadway revival at the Shubert Theatre.

Bette Midler performing the title song on Broadway, 2017

On January 19, 2016, it was announced that Bette Midler would play the title role in a Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!. Previews began March 15, 2017, officially opening on April 20, 2017, at the Shubert Theatre.

The production was produced by Scott Rudin, directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. David Hyde Pierce played Horace Vandergelder. Other principal casting for this revival included Kate Baldwin as Irene Molloy, Gavin Creel as Cornelius Hackl, Jennifer Simard as Ernestina Money, Taylor Trensch as Barnaby Tucker, Will Burton as Ambrose Kemper, Melanie Moore as Ermengarde, and Beanie Feldstein as Minnie Fay. Donna Murphy played the role of Dolly at Tuesday evening performances beginning in June 2017, as well as covering Midler's holiday dates. She played her final performance on January 7, 2018. Midler won the Tony for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, and Creel for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, at the 71st Tony Awards in 2017. A major commercial success, the revival set a record for a non-holiday Broadway performance in late 2017 by charging $998 for premium front-row seats.

Midler, Pierce, Trensch, and Feldstein left the production on January 14, 2018. Bernadette Peters took over the role of Dolly on January 20, 2018, and Victor Garber took over the role of Horace Vandergelder. Charlie Stemp assumed the role of Barnaby Tucker on January 20, 2018. Santino Fontana temporarily played the role of Cornelius Hackl from March 2018 to May 6 while Gavin Creel recovered from back surgery. Creel returned to the role on May 8, 2018. Before Fontana's temporary engagement, understudy Christian Dante White played the role of Cornelius. The production closed on August 25, 2018, with Midler and Hyde Pierce returning to play Dolly and Horace (respectively) from July 17, 2018, to closing.

Betty Buckley played the title role in the first national tour of the 2017 Broadway revival, which began performances in Cleveland, Ohio, in October 2018 at the Connor Palace in Playhouse Square, after a tryout in Utica, New York, in September 2018. The touring cast featured Lewis J. Stadlen as Horace Vandergelder, Nic Rouleau as Cornelius, Analisa Leaming as Irene Molloy, Jess LeProtto as Barnaby, Kristen Hahn as Minnie Fay, Garret Hawe as Ambrose Kemper, Morgan Kirner as Ermengarde, and Jessica Sheridan as Ernestina. Buckley ended her run on August 25, 2019, and Carolee Carmello took over as Dolly on September 24, 2019, in Kansas City, Missouri, with John Bolton joining as Horace.

West End revivals

The show has been revived three times in the West End, in 1979, 1984, and 2024. Carol Channing made her West End debut as Dolly in the 1979 production, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on September 25, 1979 (previews from September 21) and transferred to the Shaftesbury Theatre on February 2, 1980; Eddie Bracken again played Horace and Angela Curran played Ermengarde, with Lucia Victor directing. Channing was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the run.

In 1984, the drag entertainer Danny La Rue became the first man to play the title role in a major production, headlining at the Prince of Wales Theatre from January 3 to April 27 in a staging directed by Peter Coe, with Lionel Jeffries as Horace, Mark Haddigan as Barnaby, and Jeremy Hawk as Rudolph.

Separately, a one-night all-star benefit concert was staged at the London Palladium on June 10, 1990, in aid of the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Fund. Produced by Barry J. Mishon and directed by David Toguri, it starred Carol Channing with Kaye Ballard, Chita Rivera, Tommy Tune, Lee Roy Reams, Leslie Uggams, and the show's composer-lyricist Jerry Herman; the concert restored "Come and Be My Butterfly", a number that had been cut from the original production in 1965.

Musical "Hello, Dolly!" starring Imelda Staunton in the London Palladium, August 2024

A third West End revival, headlined by Imelda Staunton under the direction of Dominic Cooke, played a limited ten-week season at the London Palladium from July 6 to September 14, 2024, with a July 18 press night. The production's cast included Andy Nyman (Horace), Jenna Russell (Irene), Harry Hepple (Cornelius) and Tyrone Huntley (Barnaby). Cooke's staging interpolated numbers from the 1969 film, opening with "Just Leave Everything to Me" in place of "I Put My Hand In" and including "Love, Look in My Window". This production had been scheduled to premiere on August 11, 2020 for a limited season at the Adelphi Theatre, its four-year postponement being due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2009 Open Air Theatre revival

The 2009 Regent's Park Open Air Theatre revival of Hello, Dolly, headlined by Samantha Spiro under the direction of Timothy Sheader, ran from July 30 to September 12, 2009, with other cast members including Allan Corduner (Horace), Josefina Gabrielle (Irene), and Akiya Henry (Minnie Fay). The production was honored with the Olivier Award as the best London-area stage musical revival of 2009, also earning Olivier awards for leading lady Samantha Spiro and for choreographer Stephen Mear.

International productions

• The Israeli production in 1968–1970 starred Hanna Maron as Dolly Levi, one of the most famous actress on the Israel theater, on the "Alhambra" theater, produced by Giora Godik, also starring Shraga Friedman as Horace Vandergelder, Gadi Yagil as Cornelius Hackl and Tzipi Shavit as Minnie Fay. The musical was a huge success and Dolly remains one of Maron's lovable roles. The musical was translated to Hebrew by Haim Hefer, a well-known songwriter and poet.
• In 1967, the Argentine singer and actress Libertad Lamarque starred the first Spanish language version of the musical in the Teatro Manolo Fabregas of Mexico City. Lamarque also starred the musical in Argentina the same year.
• In 1985, Cuban diva Rosita Fornés played Dolly in a Cuban production of Hello, Dolly by the Teatro Karl Marx in Havana, Cuba. She also played the role in Camaguey City and in a television production under director Manolo Rifat.
• In 1989, Canadian theatre actress Nonnie Griffin played Dolly in a 10-month run of Hello Dolly in Toronto.
• In Australia, a 1995 national tour produced by Gordon Frost starred Jill Perryman (the 1965 Irene Molloy) as Dolly; The Production Company later staged the musical at Melbourne's State Theatre in 2002, with Amanda Muggleton, and in 2017, with Marina Prior.
• In 1996, Mexican cinema star Silvia Pinal starred in a new version of the musical opposite Ignacio Lopez Tarso in the Teatro Silvia Pinal, in Mexico City.
• In 2018, the Mexican actress and singer Daniela Romo starred in a new Mexican version of the musical in the Teatro de los Insurgentes in Mexico City.
• In 2020, Lucía Galán (half of the Pimpinela singing duo) starred in the Argentinian version of the musical in the Teatro Opera in Buenos Aires.
• In 2024, Caroline O’Connor starred in a new English language production commemorating 60 years of Hello, Dolly! at Lido 2 Paris, directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear.

Later tours

A 1989 UK tour of Hello, Dolly!, directed and choreographed by Paul Kerryson, was headlined by Dora Bryan, reprising her 1965–66 West End role, with Norman Rossington as Horace and Kathryn Evans as Irene. Kerryson later directed a 2014 production at the Curve in Leicester, headlined by Janie Dee, with Laura Pitt-Pulford as Irene and Michael Xavier as Cornelius.

In the early 1990s, the comedian Mimi Hines headlined a United States tour of the show, traveling with her former husband and comedy partner Phil Ford.

From February 2008, Anita Dobson headlined a six-month British tour that played 19 venues, among them the New Wimbledon Theatre and the Jersey Opera House in St Helier, Jersey, with Darren Day as Cornelius and Louise English as Irene. She had earlier headlined a 2006 staging at the New Theatre Royal Lincoln, opposite Rolf Saxon as Horace.

Sally Struthers played Dolly in the show's 50th-anniversary national tour, which opened in October 2013; she had earlier headlined a 2006 staging at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine.

Critical reception

Original production

Opening night reviews of the original production were generally positive, and Carol Channing's performance as Dolly Gallagher Levi was greatly acclaimed; however, some reviewers criticized the score and the libretto, implying that Channing's performance was responsible for the efficacy of the show. In his review of the opening night performance, The New York Times theatre critic Howard Taubman wrote

Hello, Dolly! ... has qualities of freshness and imagination that are rare in the run of our machine-made musicals. It transmutes the broadly stylized mood of a mettlesome farce into the gusto and colors of the musical stage. ... Mr. Herman's songs are brisk and pointed and always tuneful ... a shrewdly mischievous performance by Carol Channing. ... Making the necessary reservations for the unnecessary vulgar and frenzied touches, one is glad to welcome Hello, Dolly! for its warmth, color and high spirits.

John Chapman of the New York Daily News lauded Carol Channing's performance, declaring her "the most outgoing woman on the musical stage today – big and warm, all eyes and smiles, in love with everybody in the theatre and possessing a unique voice ranging somewhat upward from a basso profundo." He also wrote, "I wouldn't say that Jerry Herman's score is memorable." New York Post critic Richard Watts, Jr., wrote,

The fact that [Hello, Dolly!] seems to me short on charm, warmth, and the intangible quality of distinction in no way alters my conviction that it will be an enormous popular success. Herman has composed a score that is always pleasant and agreeably tuneful, although the only number that comes to mind at the moment is the lively title song. His lyrics could be called serviceable.

In the New York Herald Tribune, Walter Kerr wrote,

Hello, Dolly! is a musical comedy dream, with Carol Channing the girl of it. ... Channing opens wide her big-as-millstone eyes, spreads her white-gloved arms in ecstatic abandon, trots out on a circular runway that surrounds the orchestra, and proceeds to dance rings around the conductor. ... With hair like orange sea foam, a contralto like a horse's neighing, and a confidential swagger, [she is] a musical comedy performer with all the blowzy glamor of the girls on the sheet music of 1916.

Kerr perceived deficiencies in the libretto, though, stating that the "lines are not always as funny as Miss Channing makes them". John McClain of the New York Journal American particularly praised the staging of the musical, saying that

Gower Champion deserves the big gong for performance beyond the call of duty. Seldom has a corps of dancers brought so much style and excitement to a production which could easily have been pedestrian. ... It is difficult to describe the emotion [the song "Hello, Dolly!"] produces. Last night the audience nearly tore up the seats as she led the parade of waiters in a series of encores over the semi-circular runway that extends around the orchestra pit out into the audience, ... a tribute to the personal appeal of Miss Channing and the magical inventiveness of Mr. Champion's staging.

Revivals

The show's major revivals were also widely reviewed. Reviewing Channing's 1978 return for the Times, Richard Eder called it "not a revival but a return", admiring Champion's choreography but finding the meticulous re-creation reverent and Channing's own performance drained of vitality. When Carol Channing returned to Broadway in 1995, The New York Times's Vincent Canby confessed himself "helpless with pleasure", calling Channing and the production "the real thing"; even so, Frank Rich observed that the warmly received engagement drew only modest houses and closed after about 14 weeks. The 2017 revival starring Bette Midler was a critical and commercial sensation; Ben Brantley of the Times pronounced it "exceedingly bright and brassy" and "all Bette", and it won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Reviewing Bernadette Peters's 2018 takeover, the Times critic Jesse Green described "a darker Dolly", praising the "even darker underlay" Peters brought to the role. The 2009 Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production and the 2024 London Palladium revival led by Imelda Staunton were likewise acclaimed; the Times's Matt Wolf called the Staunton revival "the musical theater event of the West End summer", and Variety judged Staunton "marvelous" in a "strikingly sincere" staging.

Music and themes

Herman's score consists largely of simple, tuneful, march-tempo showtunes in the idiom of turn-of-the-century popular song; commentators have noted how many of the numbers, from "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" to the title song, are built as high-stepping marches. Several numbers grew directly from Wilder's text, and Herman drew on earlier material: he cited "Shine On, Harvest Moon" as a model for the title song, and the melody of "Ribbons Down My Back" had first been written for his 1961 show Milk and Honey.

At the show's heart is Dolly Gallagher Levi's decision to "rejoin the human race" after years of mourning her husband Ephraim, a theme drawn from Thornton Wilder and given its fullest expression in "Before the Parade Passes By"; Carol Channing identified that resolve as the spine of the piece. Channing recalled that the show began as an ensemble farce and grew into Dolly's story as more of the character was written in, a shift she linked to the addition of that song. At the production's 1970 closing she described the crucial out-of-town change as swinging it "over from being the story of Horace Vandergelder to make it Dolly's story". Champion described the musical as "a cartoon" and said he had directed it with that word in mind.

Hello, Dolly! is often grouped with Herman's later "big lady" musicals, such as Mame, that are built around a larger-than-life middle-aged heroine, and its title number is widely regarded as an archetypal Broadway showstopper.

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
1964	New York Drama Critics' Circle Award	Best Musical	Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart	Won
	Tony Award	Best Musical		Won
		Best Book of a Musical	Michael Stewart	Won
		Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical	Carol Channing	Won
		Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical	Charles Nelson Reilly	Nominated
		Best Original Score	Jerry Herman	Won
		Best Producer of a Musical	David Merrick	Won
		Best Direction of a Musical	Gower Champion	Won
		Best Choreography		Won
		Best Conductor and Musical Director	Shepard Coleman	Won
		Best Scenic Design	Oliver Smith	Won
		Best Costume Design	Freddy Wittop	Won
1968	Special Tony Award	Special Award	Pearl Bailey	Won
1970	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Performance	Ethel Merman	Won

1978 Broadway revival

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
1978	Tony Award	Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical	Eddie Bracken	Nominated

1979 West End revival

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
1979	Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Musical	Carol Channing	Nominated

1995 Broadway revival

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
1996	Tony Award	Best Revival of a Musical		Nominated

2009 Open Air Theatre revival

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2009	Evening Standard Theatre Awards	Best Musical		Won
2010	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Musical Revival		Won
		Best Actress in a Musical	Samantha Spiro	Won
		Best Theatre Choreographer	Stephen Mear	Won

2017 Broadway revival

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2017	Tony Award	Best Revival of a Musical		Won
		Best Actor in a Musical	David Hyde Pierce	Nominated
		Best Actress in a Musical	Bette Midler	Won
		Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical	Gavin Creel	Won
		Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical	Kate Baldwin	Nominated
		Best Direction of a Musical	Jerry Zaks	Nominated
		Best Scenic Design of a Musical	Santo Loquasto	Nominated
		Best Costume Design of a Musical		Won
		Best Lighting Design of a Musical	Natasha Katz	Nominated
		Best Orchestrations	Larry Hochman	Nominated
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Revival of a Musical		Won
		Outstanding Actress in a Musical	Bette Midler	Won
		Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical	Gavin Creel	Won
		Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical	Kate Baldwin	Nominated
		Outstanding Director of a Musical	Jerry Zaks	Nominated
		Outstanding Choreographer	Warren Carlyle	Nominated
		Outstanding Set Design	Santo Loquasto	Nominated
		Outstanding Costume Design	Santo Loquasto	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Design	Scott Lehrer	Nominated
		Outstanding Wig and Hair Design	Campbell Young Associates	Nominated
	Drama League Award	Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical		Won
		Distinguished Performance	David Hyde Pierce	Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Revival of a Broadway Musical		Won
		Outstanding Actor in a Musical	David Hyde Pierce	Nominated
		Outstanding Actress in a Musical	Bette Midler	Won
		Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical	Gavin Creel	Won
		Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical	Kate Baldwin	Nominated
		Outstanding Director of a Musical	Jerry Zaks	Nominated
		Outstanding Choreographer	Warren Carlyle	Won
		Outstanding Costume Design	Santo Loquasto	Nominated
		Outstanding Lighting Design	Natasha Katz	Nominated
		Outstanding Orchestrations	Larry Hochman	Won
	Chita Rivera Awards	Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show		Nominated
		Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show	Warren Carlyle	Nominated
2018	Grammy Awards	Best Musical Theater Album	Bette Midler (principal soloist); Steven Epstein (producer)	Nominated

2024 West End revival

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2025	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Musical Revival		Nominated
		Best Actress in a Musical	Imelda Staunton	Won
		Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Andy Nyman	Nominated

Film adaptation

Main article: Hello, Dolly! (film)

A film adaptation was released by 20th Century Fox in 1969. Directed by Gene Kelly, it starred Barbra Streisand as Dolly and Walter Matthau as Horace Vandergelder, with Michael Crawford as Cornelius Hackl and a guest appearance by Louis Armstrong. The film won three Academy Awards and was nominated for others, including Best Picture, at the 42nd Academy Awards.

Recordings

Further information: Hello, Dolly! (original Broadway cast recording)

The original Broadway cast album, starring Carol Channing, was released by RCA Victor in 1964 and became a major hit: it reached number one on the Billboard pop-albums chart, spent 58 weeks on the chart, was the top album of the year on the year-end chart, and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. A promotional studio demo of the score, sung by Herman with Rose Marie Jun and Bernie Knee, had been recorded on October 9, 1963, before the show reached Broadway; it later appeared on the 2000 compilation Broadway First Take, Vol. 1.

RCA Victor also recorded the show's later companies. The 1965 original London cast album featured Mary Martin, though it actually documents the international touring company she headed; in 1967 the label recorded the all-Black Broadway company led by Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway, a version the cast-album critic Michael Portantiere has called the finest recording of the score. After Ethel Merman joined the Broadway run in 1970, she produced a single, Ethel Merman Sings the New Songs from Hello, Dolly!, pairing the two numbers restored for her, "World, Take Me Back" and "Love, Look in My Window".

The 1969 film soundtrack starred Barbra Streisand, with a guest vocal by Louis Armstrong on the title song. Marilyn Maye recorded a solo studio album of the complete score in 1986, with liner notes by Herman, and a cast album of the 1994 touring revival, again headed by Carol Channing, appeared in November 1994. The 2017 Broadway revival cast recording, led by Bette Midler with David Hyde Pierce, Kate Baldwin, and Gavin Creel, was released on May 12, 2017.

Legacy and cultural influence

• Armstrong's 1964 recording of the song "Hello, Dolly!" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ending the Beatles' 14-week run atop the chart and making Armstrong the oldest artist to reach number one on the Hot 100.
• Within a year of the show's opening, the title song had become a recording-industry staple; by early 1965 The New York Times reported that it had been recorded 72 times by American companies, with dozens of further versions abroad.
• The song became the subject of a copyright-infringement suit by songwriter Mack David, whose 1948 song "Sunflower" shares the first four bars of "Hello, Dolly!"; Herman, who said he had never heard "Sunflower", settled out of court rather than delay the show and its planned film.
• In 1965, the show's authors addressed apartheid in licensing a South African production. Michael Stewart, Jerry Herman, and Thornton Wilder agreed to turn over one-fourth of their royalties, matched by the producer, to the Union Artists, a Black producing and acting group; the staging was to be mounted by African Consolidated Theaters, of which 20th Century-Fox was the majority stockholder. Contemporary reports characterized the arrangement differently: a March 23, 1965 account said the show would play before segregated audiences with the royalties donated to the Black group, while a report a few days later was headlined that the show barred apartheid.
• The show became closely associated with the Kennedy family and the mood of late 1963. Its pre-Broadway tryout opened at Washington's National Theatre on December 18, 1963, less than a month after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and Gower Champion's biographer records that the grieving capital greeted it with "unprecedented enthusiasm", embracing it as a way of "dissipating the grief still keenly felt in the aftermath of the President's assassination". The New York Times later observed that the Broadway production's exuberance "helped dispel the shadow of John F. Kennedy's assassination the year before". The critic Frank Rich, who saw the Washington tryout as a teenager, recalled that the audience roared at the newly added first-act finale "Before the Parade Passes By" only weeks after Kennedy's funeral cortege had passed the same theater, describing Channing as "our own irrational incitement to throw off grief and start living again".
• Jacqueline Kennedy later brought her children, Caroline and John Jr., to a matinee of the Broadway production; afterward John rode the onstage train and Caroline was given Dolly's oversized purple handbag. By Channing's account, Caroline took to parading through the family's apartment building, ringing doorbells and announcing, "My name is Dolly Levi, old corsets reboned".
• Carol Channing became so identified with Dolly Gallagher Levi that The New York Times recalled the show "seemed to have infiltrated the oxygen of the entire United States" in 1964, and in 1995 Vincent Canby wrote that no American performer had been so lastingly linked to a single role since Joseph Jefferson made a career of Rip Van Winkle in the 19th century.
• The tune was adapted as "Hello, Lyndon!" for Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign in the 1964 presidential election; Merrick blocked supporters of Barry Goldwater from using a rival parody and gave the song to the Democrats, and Carol Channing performed it at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Johnson chose Channing to serve as master of ceremonies at his January 1965 inaugural gala. In January 1967, Channing brought a touring troupe to a White House dinner to perform excerpts for Johnson, who kissed her onstage. Later in 1967, Johnson joined the cast onstage at Washington's National Theatre to sing the title song during the pre-Broadway tryout of the all-Black company.
• The title song was sung in the 1999 film Dick by actor Dan Hedaya, playing President Richard Nixon.
• Following the thirtieth anniversary tour of the show, the Smithsonian accepted a donation from Channing and theatrical producer Manny Kladitis of the red satin, sequin-bedecked costume designed by Freddy Wittop. Worn by Channing during the climactic title song at the Harmonia Gardens, the red gown has been displayed at the National Museum of American History. The remainder of the original Wittop costumes are part of the Broadway Collection at Costume World, a theatrical museum located in Pompano Beach, Florida.

References

• Bloom, Ken; Frank Vlastnik (1 October 2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time. New York, New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. pp. 152–155. ISBN 1-57912-390-2.
• Botto, Louis; Mitchell, Brian Stokes (2002). At This Theatre: 100 Years of Broadway Shows, Stories and Stars. New York; Milwaukee, WI: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books/Playbill. ISBN 978-1-55783-566-6.
• Bovsun, Mara. From 'Hello, Dolly!': Dolly Gallagher Levi. barbra-archives.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
• Kantor, Michael; Laurence Maslon (2004). Broadway: the American musical. New York, New York: Bulfinch Press. ISBN 0-8212-2905-2.
• Hello, Dolly! imagi-nation.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
• Suskin, Steven (1 January 1999). Show Tunes. New York: Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-512599-1.

External links

• Internet Broadway Database listing for all productions
• "Long Runs on Broadway as of February 2017"
• TUTS study guide
• 1964 New York Times review of the original production