Hello Dolly

I have heard many people say Hello Dolly is a “one woman show”, well I disagree, true it calls for a strong female actor who also has a good strong singing voice but there are also many other characters in this show which also require good strong actors and singers.

I can tell you Buttershaw St Paul’s AODS made an outstanding choice in giving Anne Tonks the leading role of Dolly Levi, she was perfect, in fact she was more than perfect, Anne was outstanding, managing to combine her acting skills with her fine singing voice to create a superb character. Dolly has some long sections of dialogue plus some extremely wordy songs but she coped with both facets of the character like a true professional.

There was a good pace to this show, never dragging in either the action or scene changes and another strong character in this piece is of course that of Horace Vandergelder who eventually becomes the husband of Dolly, again a wise choice was made in giving this part to Ian Moorhouse; Ian was able to make this part his own to become a worthy partner to Dolly as well as showing off his brilliant acting and superb voice.

As we all know Horace has two young men working in his Hay and Feed Store, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker who to say they are quite hapless is an understatement, however Richard Armstrong and Elliott Matthews as Cornelius and Barnaby could never be described as being hapless, they were perfect in these roles and were able to bring them to life and create a great deal of humour as well as delivering some great songs such as Put on your Sunday Clothes with the whole company which was very deserving of the applause it received.

When Cornelius and Barnaby go to New York we all know they meet Mrs Irene Molloy and her assistant Minnie Fay played by Kathryn Mitchell and Christa D’Apolito exquisitely, again these two ladies were able to deliver the goods to enhance this superb production, I particularly enjoyed Ribbons down my Back and Motherhood March which had Cornelius and Barnaby hilariously hiding under tables and diving in and out of cupboards.

The other couple in this piece is that of Ermengarde and Ambrose Kemper and here we had Katie-Mae Ramsey, who I could not believe was only 11 years old, Katie-Mae showed a maturity which someone of greater years would not have been able to demonstrate to make this a very believable part. Ambrose was also played with ease by Aiden McAndrew, again a younger member of the company but never the less one who had the ability to deliver the goods with Katie-Mae to make a perfect double act.

Also worth a mention are Helen Lever as Ernestina, Peter McDonnell as Rudolph, who had to take over the role at very short notice due to illness and Paul Rae as the Judge who added to the humour of the show in the court scene.

All these characters were backed up by a fine chorus and excellent dancers especially when it came to the Waiter’s Gallop which was outstanding, I have seen this show many times and I don’t think I have seen a better gallop than the one included in this production. Added to this we had a fine orchestra, great scenery and costume all of which combined to make a first rate production.

Many congratulations must go to Judith Smith as Director, Christopher Pelly as Musical Director and Cathryn Laban as the Chorographer.

 

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