Hello, Dolly!

Musical (1964)
Music and lyrics by by Jerry Herman
Book by Michael Stewart
Director: Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Music Director: Dan Rodriguez
Choreographer: Ilyse Robbins
Lyric Stage Company of Boston
Copley Square area, Boston
May 16 – June 22, 2025

Scenic Design: Janie E. Howland; Costume Design: Kelly Baker; Lighting Design: Karen Perlow; Sound Design: Alex Berg

With Aimee Doherty (Dolly Gallagher Levi), Joshua Wolf Coleman (Horace Vandergelder), Kristian Espiritu (Irene Molloy), Michael Jennings Mahoney (Cornelius Hackl), Max Connor (Barnaby Tucker), Temma Beaudreau (Minnie Fay), Stephen Caliskan (Ambrose), Joy Clark (Ernestina/Mrs. Rose), Jackson Jirard (Stanley/Policeman), Mark Linehan (Rudolph), Sophie Shaw (Ermengarde); Ensemble: Miki Grubic, Sean Keim, Alex LeBlanc, Hannah Shihdanian, Tader Shipley

Dolly Gallagher Levi (Aimee Doherty) is a fairly recent widow and in business for herself in many trades: matchmaker, dance instructor, and mandolin teacher, among other things. Because of her charisma and joie de vivre, she arrives in New York, her old stomping ground, with some fanfare from the locals. Soon she is employed by the stiff and grumpy demi-millionaire, Horace Vandergelder (Joshua Wolf Coleman), from the close suburb of Yonkers, to find a wife. But Dolly, in need of a bit more security, has her own aim on marrying him, so she embarks on a variety of ruses to get his attentions.

Horace intends to go to New York to propose to a widow, Irene Molloy (Kristian Espiritu). Part of Dolly’s ploy involves suggesting to Horace that Irene may have not been totally uninvolved in her late husband’s passing, and she sets Horace up with a presumed heiress, Ernestina Money (Joy Clark). In fact, Ernestina is far from an heiress, but so much the better. So Horace and Dolly embark for New York. Horace leaves his business in the hands of two assistants, Cornelius (Michael Jennings Mahoney) and Barnaby (Max Connor), but they decide that life is too short and they want to go have some fun as well.

As part of her plot, Dolly suggests to them that they look in on Irene Molloy and her shop assistant Minnie (Temma Beaudreau). Irene has no interest in Horace, but when Cornelius and Barnaby arrive, she and Cornelius take a sudden liking to one another. Naturally, as the farce develops, Horace shows up at Irene’s shop when Cornelius and Barnaby are there and they have to scramble to hide. They all wind up at the same expensive restaurant which Cornelius and Barnaby cannot afford but at which they want to impress Irene and Minnie. And Horace is there with Ernestina. In a classic move, Cornelius and Horace drop their wallets, simultaneously and accidentally exchange them, suddenly giving Cornelius and Barnaby the capacity to show Irene and Minnie a great time. And then when Horace is both penniless suddenly and sees who Dolly has set him up with – the uncouth Ernestina – it all turns out to be a bust for him. A scuffle ensues, everyone gets arrested and only Horace is found guilty. Love wins out, and, of course, Dolly succeeds in the end.

What a terrific production this is, with a wonderful star and top notch production values.

Aimee Doherty sinks into the role of Dolly with incredible ease and both conveys her character’s great sass and savoir-faire with adeptness and poise, and belts it out vocally with a commanding presence. Her gestural repertoire is extensive and wonderful and she puts on the style with great force and to great effect. And she makes her voice just slightly hoarse and gravelly enough to call into being some of the great inhabitants of this iconic role. And she is very commandingly funny. It’s a top-notch performance.

The choreography by Ilyse Robbins – no doubt inspired by the original by Gower Champion but superbly inventive in its own right – is distinctively good. At every moment, it’s a sheer wonder how, on the modestly-scaled stage of the Lyric, that she enables this very active and capable cast to do such extensive, varied and wonderful moves. There is a huge variety of genres employed here, but done so in an artful way and seeming like an entertaining collage. Ballet, ballroom, gymnastics and tap-dancing all enter into the fray, filling out some of the more traditional moves with zest and pizzazz. Almost every line is accompanied by gestural choreography and it is all done persuasively and deftly.

All the cast does very well, a tribute to the abundant talents of director Maurice Emmanuel Parent.

As Horace, Joshua Wolf Coleman has a sturdy and dour demeanor that has enough grace and charm built into it to make Dolly’s interest in him believable. When he has the opportunity to sing, Coleman puts out a lovely tone, though his main number, It Takes A Woman, an appeal essentially for a domestic servant, is not exactly an appealing lyric. As Cornelius, Michael Jennings Mahoney has a graceful and appealingly youthful charm that makes the love affair with Irene palpable, and croons with equivalent appeal; one wonders whether he might be too young for Irene, but such is the domain of fantasy and farce. As his sidekick, Barnaby, Max Connor completes a great duo, with wonderful moves and full of verve. As Irene, Kristian Espiritu has a lovely and warm presence and a voice to boot; and, as Minnie, Temma Beaudreau makes a wonderfully energetic sidekick to Irene. As Rudolph, the Maître D’ of the restaurant, Mark Linehan has a great turn, full of fabulous hauteur and frenzy; he’s hilarious.

Though the score by Jerry Herman is not one of the greatest ever written for the Broadway stage, it has some really winning numbers. Obviously the title song has gone into the historic archives as one of the greatly memorable musical numbers. Seen onstage, it’s clear that it makes its entrance with Dolly saying hello to all the people in New York with whom she’s reuniting – Hello, Harry, Well, Hello Louie, It’s so nice to be back home where I belong, You’re looking swell, Manny, I can tell, Danny – and it gives a good sense of her as a warmly outgoing personality; Doherty pulls it off warmly and with finesse. In the reprise, it becomes Hello, Dolly and a collective greeting to her, which complements the original and gives extra significance to it. Put On Your Sunday Clothes is also a great number, done beautifully by the ensemble here. Ribbons Down My Back, a testament by Irene to her seductiveness, is given lovely voice by Kristina Espiritu.

One must, once again, credit the ensemble with superb acting, singing and dancing throughout, and again note the magnanimous talents of Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Ilyse Robbins in leading them through the paces. And, of course, one must mention the superb musical leadership of Dan Rodriguez whose band of percussion, reeds, brass and keyboard does a terrific job and who supported these talented vocalists in the production of a highly satisfying account of an older musical which might just as easily have come off as quaint to recall, but otherwise not entrancing, in other, lesser hands.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)