Hello Dolly! Delights at Ford’s Theatre

You know all of the songs, now be 100% sure of the story.

Hello, Dolly!, the Tony-winning musical, is now on stage at Ford’s Theatre, co-presented by the Ford’s Theatre Society and Signature Theatre.  But though Dolly may tell you she’ll never go away again, this run’s only on stage through May 18th.  So get going!

There’s singing.  There’s dancing.  Big sets and fancy costumes.  And there’s the monied, but miserly, “half-a-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder (Edward Gero) who has hired matchmaker Dolly Levi (Broadway’s Nancy Opel) to find him a wife.

Now Dolly — who has her hands in everything, including joining hands in marriage — has a personality that’s larger than life, and a voice to match (especially when she’s singing in her lower ranges…’So long, Dearie’ was one of Opel’s best, even if the iconic ‘Hello Dolly’ was the one to which everyone wanted to sing along).

She soon decides to throw-over the would-be Vandergelder Bride and win over the curmudgeonly entrepreneur for herself.

The musical romantic comedy follows Dolly and follies as she hatches a plan for her own proposal, while simultaneously marrying off Vandergelder’s niece, his clerks and two of Manhattan’s most eligible shop girls.

Says Director Eric Schaeffer, “Our production reinterprets the classic show with new orchestrations, character-driven staging for a 16-member cast and inventive dance numbers. It is a thrill to direct, at Ford’s Theatre, such an iconic show that had its pre-Broadway beginnings in Washington, D.C.”

*Photos by Scott Suchman