Hello, Dolly! - London Palladium (2024)

You may dare say whatever you like. 😁 I’d quite happily let Jane McDonald have a crack at it. Over 50. Sold out (1 night at) Leeds Arena with her Christmas Show. My son worked the bar and said it was carnage and that he’d never felt so sexually threatened in his life; mostly from middle aged divorcees looking to finish off their evening with a bang, but a fair few gruffer advances too. Hilarious.

Jane I'm sure would have a good go at it. She could certainly cope with the vocals and humour. She is a national star now due to tv. She did perform in the west end in Romeo and Juliet some years ago and in Cats in Blackpool so has some theatre experience as well as her extensive concert experience. I am sure in the future we will see Jane in the theatre in a musical of some sort.

Jane's an interesting one. She's done so so well for herself and surely far surpassed any expectations. I like her. She does feel a bit end of the pier though and I'm not sure I can ever see her being a West End leading lady. She's a perfect Dolly, but a touring one rather than a West End one, at this stage.

I remember seeing her in Romeo & Juliet and not being very impressed but that was a long time ago, and the show itself was a bit of a dog.

I'm not totally convinced she's British.

She's lived in Britain for almost 2/3rds of her life, I'd say that makes her pretty British at this point x

Depends if Take That are touring 😂

Both the pink and grey pounds would lap it up, and the casual theatregoer would at least see a name they know. Get some telly support and quality MT back up and it’d fly.

It would be a very different Dolly to anything we've seen before, but I'd still like to see it!

What about Gemma Craven? She may have retired, I'm not sure what she's doing nowadays but she always had glorious warmth, killer comic timing and a lovely voice. She could fill The Shaftesbury and The Prince of Wales in the 80s it would be lovely to have her back.

Meghan Markle!!!!

I'd go to see Sharon in ANYTHING, that would be amazing!
Love the Jane Mcdonald suggestion too, she's so funny. I went to see her on tour last year, she's a wonderful entertainer.

I mean, it would be fun, but I think they'd need to get an actual professional drag queen if they did. An older, known UK drag artist.

It's unlikely to happen. I remember there being a slight backlash over Craig Revel Horwood playing Miss Hannigan in Annie a while back.

All this being said, I still think Imelda Staunton will be wonderful, but it is a big fun role to speculate on alternative casting while we're all here in lockdown.