Emily Lane, Tyrone Huntley, Jenna Russell, and Harry Hepple in Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium (Credit Manuel Harlan)First off, let’s dispense with the ‘Streisand factor’. No one is, (or was ever), likely to match or exceed the extraordinary vitality of the young diva who assumed the role of Dolly Levi on screen. She was a mere 25 years old playing the much older, middle-aged meddlesome matchmaker, a role which Carol Channing had made her own on Broadway. In later life, Ginger Rogers attempted the part, but proved too WASP-ish for most tastes. In more recent years Bette Midler was due to transfer to the West End after packing-out Broadway’s Schubert theatre, wowing critics and winning the Tony Award (as Channing had done, decades before) but COVID put paid to that. With such natural, Jewish-comedienne, musical theatre titans looming large, this was always going to be a mountainous (or poisoned chalice?) undertaking for any actress. It’s with this backdrop and through such a lens, that we should properly assess this evening’s opening night, which has been one of the most hotly anticipated of this year.
Although rather more understated, Imelda Staunton has carved-out something of a niche for herself in major female musical leads roles in recent years. Back in 1997 (playing Miss Adelaide at the National in Richard Eyre’s Guys and Dolls)she dazzled London audiences with her comic delivery. More recently, having generated quite a belter of a voice, la Staunton appeared in Follies, (at the National in 2017), Sondheim’s theatrical ensemble piece which afforded fewer opportunities to shine individually. So it was her stand-out turns as Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd (Adelphi 2012) and the even more breathtaking Mama Rose in Gypsy (Savoy, 2015), which had audiences and critics in a perpetual flutter and scrambling for superlatives.
Let’s be crystal clear, the diminutive Dame Imelda has every right to find her own truth and deliver her own Dolly, with her own sass, and (if she so chooses), deploy her own markedly understated, conversational flashpoints with Horace Vandergelder (Andy Nyman) in her iteration. But in doing so, she runs the risk of unfavourable comparison with her predecessors just as anyone who exclaims A handbag! (in a production of “The Importance of Being Earnest”) will do, if they don’t follow Edith Evans’ exact, albeit hammy, intonation). Having said that, in the main, Staunton’s less showy and slightly more vulnerable incarnation works extremely well. The rapacious hogging and twisting of conversation in her kindly, last ditch and slightly desperate manner, often adds hitherto unnoticed vulnerability to a woman who is otherwise confidence personified when advising others. Based on Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, the stage book for the musical is by Michael Stewart and boasts near perfect romanticised music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Sharing the stage with Staunton and Nyman, are Harry Hepple (as the quirky and gangling Cornelius Hackl), Emily Lane (as a delightfully naive Minnie Fay), Jenna Russell (as Irene Molloy) and Tyrone Huntley (as Barnaby Tucker) in a cast just shy of 40 players.
The set by Rae Smith, relies upon a flat-packed train, a travelator and the jazzed-up MDF grand staircase entrance to the Harmonia Garden’s Restaurant, to add visual oomph. Tagged onto this mix, are the cut-and pasted projected buildings (which look borrowed from a touring production of The Sound of Music) courtesy of the once Teflon-coated Finn Ross who won 2 Oliviers and a Tony award early in his career but has produced infinitely more compelling and interesting work than this, for the considerably smaller and presumably much lower budget productions at the Almeida Theatre.
Direction is by Dominic Cooke and perhaps more noteworthy, choreography comes courtesy of Bill Deamer. Musical direction is under the control of Nicholas Slilbeck who uses his near full-sized orchestra to create a lush and luxurious sound which fills the auditorium and the hearts of the entire audience.
