Hello, Dolly! - London Palladium (2024)

I do wonder what this is gonna be like, and I'm intrigued that Staunton had personally sought permission to replace a few of the numbers with songs written for the movie (e.g. "Just Leave Everything To Me"). I hope that doesn't mean they'll be straying too far from the traditional staging of the show. We could use a camp, large scale, uplifting version of this - and what made the Bette Midler revival so successful on Broadway was that it wasn't apologetic in how little had changed and much it just bathed itself in the nostalgia of the Carol Channing original.

This will be a darker version

Hands up everyone… who wants a “darker” version of Hello Dolly? 

I'd like a semi serious take with a fully formed character on stage, not the camp star vehicle it often is (e.g. the Bette show). But I definitely don't want a dark minimalist show.

Interesting that some of the original score is being replaced by songs from the film version. Personally, I think ‘I Put My Hand In’ is a far better song than ‘Leave Everything to Me.’ Which others are they thinking of including/replacing?

Who said anything about museum theatre? If a production can be exciting, entertaining and successful by replicating the scale, grandeur and campness of what made it a success the first time 'round why shouldn't a new generation of theatregoers get to experience it?

The Bette Midler revival certainly wasn't a museum piece - it just knew what made the original so enjoyable and leant into that, subsequently giving the audience exactly what they expected and making a success of it. Nothing wrong with that. I saw it, it was brilliant.


I'm not saying there isn't room for revisions and reinterpretations, and some shows certainly shouldn't just be wheeled out without change; but there's also room for great big broadway shows to be revived as they were originally intended, and I personally think it's misplaced and unfair to brand something like that "museum theatre" when it can be just as vibrant and exciting now as it was in the 1960s.

In what way do people want it to be darker?

Am intrigued to know how they think the show would be improved.

You can find darkness in the show without it being dark. In fact Bernadette already did this (shout out to a great performance from Charlie Stemp too)

www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/theater/hello-dolly-review-bernadette-peters.html?unlocked_article_code=1.70w.jBFG.vnfmcCgioHYL&smid=url-share

I was having a chat with the guy sitting by my side at Old friends a couple of weeks ago. We talked about how we thought Imelda Stauton was miscast in Follies (and how Joanna Riding was much better later on).

I saw IS in Gypsy, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Follies and she was playing the three roles exactly the same: angry and unsympathetic.

I hope she changes gears for this or instead of Hello, Dolly! it will be more like f*** off, Dolly!

Mine came too! So the sign up worked. I’ll check out what’s on offer, and see if I’m tempted, but must admit I’m a bit reluctant to commit to too much if there’s still likely to be hassle with trains.

Maybe the “parade” will be a Dia De Los Muertos parade.