Bucks County Playhouse takes on this Broadway classic.
By: Stuart Duncan
If you had read The New York Times for Feb. 19, 1967, you might have run across an interview with Gower Champion discussing Hello Dolly!, a show he had directed a few years earlier. It was, of course, a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, but by the time the production got to Detroit on its tour before Broadway, in Champion’s words, "It was a disaster."
Producer David Merrick "had not been pleased" and Champion, book writer Michael Stewart and composer Jerry Herman went to work rewriting. Musical numbers were cut and replaced; almost every section of the script was revised and rewritten.
By the time the show reached Broadway, all had been polished to a fine sheen, and Hello Dolly! became one of the legends of Broadway. Not only did Hello Dolly! bust all sorts of Broadway records it won an extraordinary 10 Tony Awards but it turned out to be a huge winner on the road as well.
It’s still popular and the current production at Bucks County Playhouse may well add to its shine. In the right hands, this show can still bring down the house. The right hands in this case are director/choreographer Stephen Casey, a super-talented, energetic company and a knockout pair at the top of the cast list. Colleen Zenk Pinter, who plays Dolly Levi, brings a considerable soap opera background, but sings real pretty and moves with grace and, more importantly, is having a ball on stage. Her husband, Mark Pinter, is a perfect Horace Vandergelder, long-suffering but dignified in a role often played for yuks and little else. Both have good singing voices and strong stage personalities. As important, they have the confidence of the entire company and it shows.
There are also wonderful performances from Tressa McCallister as Irene Molloy; Jill Palena as the cute-as-a-button Minnie Fay; Patrick Ludt as Cornelius; and Eddie Rabon, as Barnaby Tucker. And don’t overlook the contributions of the ensemble the waiter’s gavotte, for example, is as exciting as it gets and is followed immediately by the title song, ad infinitum, mounting in excitement.
Too bad Merrick didn’t live to see Ms. Zenk Pinter; he would have liked her.
Hello Dolly! continues at Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope, Pa., through Nov. 6. Performances: Wed.-Thurs. 2, 8 p.m.; Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 4, 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $17-$24. For information, call (215) 862-2041. On the Web: www.buckscountyplayhouse.com

