Summary
A one-night-only concert presentation of the classic musical about the meddlesome matchmaker Dolly Levi, featuring a star-studded cast and a full orchestra.
Monday, June 23, 2025 at 8:00 PM Jun 23, 2025, 8:00 PM
Special night; the kind of thing I hope I never take for granted about living here. It’s a lovely score to begin with and hearing it played by a 30-piece orchestra and sung by all this top-flight talent in this hall is sonically about as good as it can possibly get. I’m actually very glad I went, and I wasn’t confident that I would be.
I don’t have a lot of sentimental attachment to this show, but I still really appreciated how thoughtful the assemblage was, especially for a one-nighter: songs added in different productions (& the movie), resurrection of the original orchestrations & choreography, and making time for the surviving original cast, family & friends of the writing team, & performers with longtime connections to the show.
It didn’t all go off without a hitch, but that’s part of the charm, right? Beth Leavel called out with COVID day-of and we got emergency fill-in (who else?) Jennifer Simard on the title track, apologetic for missing a whole line & a step. The hosts and the audience were humorously out-of-sync about the rate of name drops—we were putting our hands together for about the first 20 minutes and later on got some “please clap.” 🤭 A couple of the ballads, while necessary for completion’s sake, were a bit sleepy absent story context. There were a few other minor flubs here and there. I digress.
Most of the performances were pretty great, but I’ll call out a few highlights. Kecia Lewis has such a distinct lower register and it was lovely to hear it on “World, Take Me Back.” “Dancing” was really fun—Grey Henson particularly brought the moves (and almost made me regret skipping “Elf”). 97-year-old Marilyn Maye closed Act 1 with an impressively spry “Before the Parade Passes By” which was a major crowd-pleaser. Loved the old choreography on “The Waiter’s Gallop.” I was waiting all evening to see when and how J. Harrison Ghee would be deployed and they didn’t disappoint in anchoring the show with “So Long, Dearie.” And, my god, could someone look at me the way Andrew Barth Feldman looks at Helen J. Shen? They were glowing.
All in all, a great time. Probably wouldn’t have regretted coughing up $200 for the signed poster. Oh well. ☺️
EDIT: Gosh darn it they had it for sale online and now I own it