Hello, Dolly! - London Palladium (2024)

I agree, she did seem a lot older, and it didn't help that he was very innocent and gosh-golly.

I saw this last night and actually really loved it. I didn't know anything about it and had only heard the title song at some point, but I was tempted by the front row for £20.

It's old fashioned, but that's perfectly OK. I enjoy old fashioned with big belting group numbers and the scale at the Palladium seemed perfect. Imelda was adorable as Dolly and I did feel a bit emotional for her when the title song was sung! Yes Jenna maybe felt older - but it didnt bother me because love strikes regardless of age, and I've liked her as a performer since Sister Sarah in Guys & Dolls.

The stage felt high, but in the front row I didn't feel like it was a problem, I've had far worse views in a seat which cost more before.

It might not affect the chemistry, if there’s meant to be zero, which is what I found. I’m a big fan of him, not seen her in anything else, but they didn’t work together in this.

Saw this today for the Matinee and it was a packed house and a well deserved standing ovation was given.

Imelda was a sensation and sparkles as Dolly. I enjoyed Andy Nyman as the moody Horace and Jenna Russell singing "Ribbons Down My Back" was beautiful.

I throughly enjoyed the classic musical and was impressed by the staging including a train!

When it comes to age, for me it was less about the age of the actors and more about the maturity level of the characters.

Hepple's Cornelius came across as very fresh and innocent with no experience with women. Russell's Irene came across as a mature widow who had seen a bit of life and now runs her own business. Quite opposite in many ways.

The age difference between Staunton and Nyman was not noticeable because the characters came across as being at the same point in their lives.

Got to see this today. I wasn't sure about seeing this, didn't have a clue what it was about, hadn't seen the film and only knew 2 or 3 of the songs.

After all that i gave it 4 out of 5, i actually really enjoyed, when things are described as musical comedies, i usually don't get it, but this had way more comedy than i was expecting. Audience seemed to love it, not ridiculously over the top love, but genuinely enjoying love.

I probably wouldn't need to see another production of it, but I enjoyed what i saw and was glad i went

Booked 2 stalls tickets with their lottery. £29.50 each midstalls. Great option and you can choose, unlike Rush tickets on the day. Think originally around £100 each.

First time seeing the whole show and it was an entertaining evening. Did find it chemistry free between the various couples and it seemed if they were in the same room they were matched, none gave me a they lived happy ever after feeling.
Had only seen clips of the normal powerhouse star singing the title song (Barbara, Carol, Danny la rue) but the lower key playing of Dolly worked fine until that number. If we are meant to belive the entire male staff of the restaurant are in drop everything awe of Dolly then she should have one hell of a charisma vibe. Instead they seem to wheel her around like the elderly aunt who wants a dance at the family party. Imelda was fine but hard to see her character any more commanding than any others in the show.
Overall certainly enjoyed more than kiss me kate and even discovered that we've got elegance is from this show.
Now need to finally watch the movie.
Was in row C and no issue with having to look up.

Finally saw this last night and enjoyed it, but was left frustrated that it doesn't ever quite "get there". Cards on the table, I was lucky enough to see the Broadway revival with Bette Midler in 2018 which was heavily based on the original production with Carol Channing. That was one of the best nights I've ever spent in the theatre. It was funny, big, colourful, camp, touching and unapologetically broadway. This is a very different production, but I couldn't help but feel the changes were usually to its detriment.

Thankfully, Imelda Staunton is wonderful as Dolly. As many others have mentioned, she injects real warmth to the character and this reworking makes her journey out of mourning the backbone of the narrative more explicitly than it has been before. Everything around her just never quite hit the heights it could have for me. It's not helped by some of the reordering/additions. The new opening scene means the show doesn't start sprinting straight out of the blocks, rather limping slowly into 'Call on Dolly', and the placement of "Love, Look in My Window" kills the pace and takes away from Dolly's original first second act entrance on the staircase. The choreography overall seems unfocused, with the narrative purpose of many dance numbers (Dancing, The Polka Contest) seemingly forgotten, or they've just become sloppy and broad during the run. The constant use of the conveyor belt is also frustrating. It's effective a few times, but then often used for the sake of it so takes away from scenes where characters could just be connecting with each other instead of walking.

It's enjoyable enough because the original material is just so good, and maybe I'm being picky due to the high expectations, but ultimately I'd choose the Midler version over this one any day.

Not long into this I realised I was enjoying it for the unique match of material and venue; ‘Hello Dolly!’ may not be my thing but… it’s the London Palladium!, and special to see a show sitting amongst the rich history of song and dance entertainment there. A great seat front row A18, with a fabulous orchestra in view too.

Admittedly, playing off that Palladium tradition, you might expect a higher wattage ‘I know I’m a star’ wink from the lead: that sort of knowingness between audience and performer that flips between serving the material ‘just enough’, and colluding in some indulgent gilding of legend and ego (‘camp’). Not playing that showbiz game, I’m glad to have seen Imelda Staunton playing it for real. The book is cartoonish at times, so there’s some mismatch if played real, but the line writing in the dialogue is great and Staunton savours every bit of it.

On where that reality level was pitched, I didn’t find this too different from the Anita Dobson tour where her spotlit monologues were just as grief tinged (perhaps more). I didn’t see anything new on that from Dominic Cooke at the Palladium. Dobson is a physical actress with her whole body - you can imagine the puncture of grief reading from the back row of the circle (it did, I sat there). Staunton’s timing and gestures were impeccable; though from the front row her facial expressions were so subtle I wondered how they’d read from the back. If recorded for screen she wouldn’t need to modify for camera purposes at all.

What a strange character Dolly is. Though “Here’s my hat fellas” seems always played figuratively (‘where I lay my hat is my home’), I’ve not heard any sayings about sitting on an “empty knee” or “empty lap”! Poor old Ephraim - perhaps that’s what killed him. It’s certainly invited a whole load of portrayals of Dolly as a desperate attention seeking vamp, sometimes barely human let alone a real woman.

On that score I liked Dominic Cooke’s inclusion and placement of ‘Love, Look In My Window’ just before ‘Hello Dolly!’, for some self-reflection before daring to go back to the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant. It still doesn’t quite do the job of making that title song make sense. A slight glimpse of the dress she’s about to wear, and her tentativeness to wear it, might do that (perhaps it was there and I couldn’t see it from my low angled viewpoint).

I looked at some Broadway bootlegs just to compare song list and placement, and stumbled across some staggeringly crude ‘comic business’ from Bernadette Peters in Dolly’s set-piece eating routine. Eating like a pig, drinking out of the gravy boat, dabbing gravy behind her ears, putting stupidly sized butter blocks on a piece of meat and dropping them down her front (Channing did the same). Midler’s version is less crude, though when she turns her back to the audience to peek into the dining booth she waggles her bottom repeatedly for…the audience….laughs?

I guess those are the two sides of the coin: play it real, or play the star - both leave something wanting. I finally saw what Dominic Cooke did and didn’t do in the London version - and I liked it.

Agreed. I think someone here has said that the 'manure...spread it around speech is from the play, so I'm guessing that a lot more of the excellent line writing from the musical comes from Wilder too.