Love affairs in the theater take different forms — between characters onstage, of course, but also between a performer and the public.
In a new London revival of “Hello, Dolly!,” the leading lady, Imelda Staunton, grips the audience from the beginning and holds them in a shared embrace throughout. Ths show is the musical theater event of the West End summer, running at the London Palladium, through Sept. 14.
“Hello, Dolly!” has always been a star vehicle. Carol Channing first played the matchmaking Dolly Gallagher Levi on Broadway in 1964 and made it her signature part, returning to the role of the deliciously meddlesome widow throughout her storied career. The others to take it on have included Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, Bette Midler and, on film, Barbra Streisand. This production, indeed, owes quite a bit to the 1969 movie, the choice of opening song (“Just Leave Everything to Me”) included.
But Staunton — who on Wednesday received an Emmy nomination for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown” — is probably the only English performer who can command as much respect in the role as those American ladies. She occupies a special place in British playgoers’ hearts, which this production, directed by Dominic Cooke’, taps into directly. Her acquaintance with the classics — Albee, Chekhov, Sondheim — lends a gravity to the performance, so that we understand Dolly as a fully realized person, pain and all, and not just a figure of fun.
Seen at the start hanging up the black dress she has worn while mourning her much-loved husband Ephraim, this Dolly knows a thing or two about grief, but is determined to find joy in her life again.
And so she sets out for Yonkers, N.Y., ostensibly to sort out a wife for the curmudgeonly “well-known half-a-millionaire,” Horace Vandergelder (Andy Nyman), on whom she actually has her own marital designs. What ensues is a sometimes farcical study in romance gone askew that nonetheless results in multiple weddings, much like the Shakespeare comedies in which Cooke has also excelled. The ending, with its multiple partnerings, could have come from Cooke’s staging of “As You Like It.”
Staunton never loses sight of Dolly’s psychological arc, and finds a reflectiveness in material that can often devolve into camp.
The title number, for instance, departs from the expected sight of Dolly sashaying in triumph down the staircase of the Harmonia Gardens restaurant in a red dress. Costumed by Rae Smith in luxuriant green, Dolly enters tentatively, as if unsure how it feels to be back returning to the social whirl of Manhattan after her bereavement-prompted absence.
Buoyed by the sight of the waiters she has known for years — who leap and pirouette to choreography by Bill Deamer — she gathers confidence until she is leading the song to a roaring conclusion that brought much of the audience to its feet at Wednesday’s final preview. (Dolly, incidentally, does appear in red in the final sequence — perhaps suggesting her newly beating heart.)
If Staunton’s approach sounds more introspective than a musical can bear, fret not: She can land a laugh with the best of them.
“There’s no use arguing, I have made up your mind,” she tells Horace, who softens in her presence. Dolly’s final number, “So Long, Dearie,” builds to another crescendo as she realizes that the best way to ensnare Horace is to pretend to be done with him.
The supporting cast pales somewhat in the presence of their star, but Sondheim regular Jenna Russell is in winning form as Irene Molloy, the milliner who doesn’t actually like hats. Harry Hepple and Tyrone Huntley are in high spirits — sometimes to the point of caricature — as Horace’s insouciant employees, Cornelius and Barnaby, themselves on the lookout for female company of their own. (Cornelius, poor soul, is a 33-year-old virgin.)
At times, the visuals are surprisingly austere: A plaintive Staunton performs “Love, Look in My Window,” at a dimly lit dressing table, like something out of Ibsen. But it isn’t long before the high spirits prevail, and the production’s knockabout energy sends the soul soaring.
“Wow, wow, wow, fellas!” Dolly sings near the finish, and you can all but feel the crowd nodding in response.
Hello, Dolly! Through Sept. 14 at the London Palladium; lwtheatres.co.uk.
Read More: ‘Hello, Dolly!’ Review: Imelda Staunton Has the Wow, Wow, Wow Factor
