[NEohioPAL] Review of "Hello, Dolly!" at Porthouse Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

'Hello, Dolly!' is a summer excursion worth taking

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald 8/5/11

 

So many of this summer's theater offerings are built to inspire serious reflection, somber reassessment, and solemn rumination.  Porthouse Theatre's Hello, Dolly! isn't one of them.  This delightful slice of seasonal theater bursts with the kind of contagious care-free exuberance that only a good, old-fashioned musical done well can muster.  

 

Some of the credit for this lies in the simple story by Michael Stewart, which is based on Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker.  

 

It's the 1890s and the endlessly resourceful matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi has set her sights and her own affections on the wealthy and curmudgeonly widower Horace Vandergelder.  Caught in the web of romance in this lighthearted tale are Vandergelder's two unworldly clerks, his niece, and just about everyone else who crosses Dolly's path.

 

Of course, all this romance has been put to Jerry Herman's light and tuneful music with lyrics that don't so much progress the storyline as offer congenial commentary about it, such as "It Only Takes a Moment" and "Put on Your Sunday Clothes."  Every song is memorable, hummable and beautifully presented by Jonathan Swoboda's off-stage eleven-piece orchestra.

 

Most of the credit for the feel-good afterglow from this production is attributable to director Victoria Bussert's imaginative staging and John Crawford's lighter-than-air choreography.  Both capture the broadly stylized nature of the material and imbue it with the same joyful musical theater sensibilities that won Hello, Dolly! the 1964 Tony Award for Best Musical.  

 

Every choice in this production seems to be the right one.

  

Complementing all of this is extravagant, colorful period costuming and scenic design by Judith Picard Cronk and Nolan O'Dell, respectively.  They create a vivid sense of time and place, establish just the right tone and temperament, and facilitate the breezy fluidity that defines this production.  

 

Collectively, the efforts of these and other production artists create a thoroughly inviting world, which is populated by lovable characters as created by a talented core of performers.

  

First and foremost are the sixteen members of the ensemble.  These young performers burst onto the stage in a delightful, overture-less opening number and, as the production progresses, masterfully execute complicated patterns of choreography as a corps of waiters, eloquently promenade, waltz, polka and gallop as well-heeled locals, and freeze in tableaux.  

 

This is one of the finest ensemble performances seen on this or any other local stages.  When given the opportunity to showcase their talents, they shine, but they are dedicated and disciplined enough to blend into each musical number in order to accommodate the featured performers.  

 

The most featured is Terri Kent as the shrewd, fast-talking Dolly.  Kent is returning to the stage after a 13 year hiatus, most of which has been spent as Artistic Director of the Porthouse Theatre.  

 

The response to her performance by her many admirers in attendance is a love-fest, but more neutral patrons are clearly less enthralled.  

 

Kent's singing is woefully strained, particularly when it is needed most during the dramatic "Before the Parade Passes By" that ends the first act and the otherwise stellar "Hello, Dolly" number in the second act.  Her presence on stage, while interesting at all times, is neither commanding nor particularly beguiling.  The role calls for both.

 

Chuck Richie as Vandergelder, the lone killjoy in an overtly optimistic world, is appropriately caricaturist.  The hard shell we see at the start of the play nicely gives way to the soft underbelly required at the end, although Richie never quite develops more than an amiable rapport with Kent.

Porthouse regular Eric van Baars and Jason Leupold as Vandergelder's clerks, Cornelius and Barnaby, nicely muster most the show's comedy and are absolutely charming while doing so.  Their characters' wide-eyed innocence makes the pretense of their chance meeting and immediate infatuation with shop owner Irene Molloy and her assistant Minnie Fay plausible and enchanting.

Both Jessica Cope as the widow Molloy and Rebecca Wolfe as her young assistant light up the stage.  Cope does so with her superb singing and captivating stage presence; Wolfe with her adorable demeanor and comic timing.

Theater doesn't get more delightful than this.  If serious, somber and solemn are not a part of your summer plans, catch Hello, Dolly! before the parade passes by.

 

Hello, Dolly! continues through August 14 at Porthouse Theatre, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cuyahoga Falls.  For tickets, $13 to $36, call 330-929-4416 or visit http://dept.kent.edu/theatre/porthouse/TicketInfo.htm.
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