Broadway Revisited
 (9/30/08) 08-40; October 4, 2008

Seven of them.

Gypsy overture-- 1; fades under)

Hi, this is Art Hilgart and this is Broadway Revisited, a weekly exploration of the songs and shows, composers and lyricists, and performers who created the American musical theater.

(Music up, then fade)

1. Hello, Dolly! Channing 5:40

As you may have guessed from Carol Channing and the title song of the 1964 Broadway show with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, Hello, Dolly! is our subject for today. The title character, a widow named Dolly Gallagher Levi, is a matchmaker.

The original production set a record run of seven years. After Carol Channing left halfway though the run, producer David Merrick kept it going with star replacements, including Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable, Phyllis Diller, and Martha Raye. During most of the post-Channing years, the show had an all-black cast, led by Cab Calloway and Pearl Bailey. Here is Pearl Bailey, as the matchmaker.

2. I Put My Hand In 5:49

There was also a Paris production of Hello, Dolly!, and after we heard Pearl Bailey in the Broadway staging, we heard Annie Cordy in the Paris production.

The show is set in New York State in1880, and the plot involves a storekeeper in then-rural Yonkers who has hired the matchmaker to find him a wife, and when they go to Manhattan to meet the prospective bride, his two young employees decide to close the store and go to the city themselves. In late 1969, a year before Hello, Dolly! closed on Broadway, there was a film starring Barbra Streisand. Cornelius, the elder of the two clerks was played by Michael Crawford, when he was a squeaky-voiced kid, long before he played the suave Phantom of the Opera. The matchmaker helped the boys' getaway.

3. Put On Your Sunday Clothes 5:28

From the film version of Hello, Dolly!, we heard Michael Crawford and Barbra Streisand.

Hello, Dolly! began in 1835, when John Oxenford, an English economist, wrote a farce called A Day Well Spent. His sources may have included Moliere's The Miser and Plautus's Aulularia. In 1842, Johann Nestroy, an Austrian, adapted the Oxenford play as Einen Jux Will Er Sich Machen-- He Will Go on a Spree. In 1891, it became a New York musical, A Trip to Chinatown. Then, in 1938, Thornton Wilder adapted the Austrian version as The Merchant of Yonkers. The play failed, but in 1956, he rewrote it, making the minor character of a matchmaker the principal one. Retitled The Matchmaker, and with Ruth Gordon as Dolly Levi, it was a hit, and this text was the basis of Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! And by the way, Tom Stoppard has written a faithful English adaptation of the Austrian play, in which there is no matchmaker, and called it On the Razzle.

The action shifts to Manhattan, where all the characters interact in a classic farce. Dolly encounters Cornelius, and gives him a dancing lesson. From the London cast, we'll hear Mary Martin as the matchmaker.

4. Dancing 4:34

After playing Dolly in London for two years, Martin toured with the show all over Europe and Asia. The Victor lp recording of Mary Martin and the 1965 London cast of Hello, Dolly! is now available on compact disc, but only from ArkivMusic.com, spelled arkivmusic. That's ArkivMusic.com, spelled arkivmusic.

Having gained confidence-- and found girls, Cornelius and Barnaby play a couple of swells.

5. Elegance 2.23

From the original Broadway cast, we heard Charles Nelson Reilly as Cornelius and Eileen Brennan as the girl of his dreams.

The Yonkers matchmaker has been a mourning widow for years, but back in New York, she admits it's been long enough, and decides she'll keep her shopkeeper client for herself. Here again is the original Dolly, Carol Channing.

6. Before the Parade Passes By 3:17

There's a Jerry Herman song of affirmation like that one in all of his shows.

David Merrick did not intend Carol Channing to star as Dolly-- it was to be Ethel Merman. But after Merman saw where it was going, she declined. For most of 1970, though, she did play Dolly, the last of them in its record Broadway run.

In late 1963, when she was to have the part, a couple of the songs were tailored for her, but then not used until she took over the role in 1970. Here's her recording of the song of affirmation that had been replaced by the one we just heard Carol Channing  sing.

7. World, Take Me Back 3:42

That was Ethel Merman, with a song that was cut from the score until she played Dolly in 1970.

The original title of the musical was to be Dolly, A Damned Exasperating Woman, but before the opening, Louis Armstrong recorded the song Hello, Dolly, and producer David Merrick decided to make that the title of show. The Armstrong record became the nation's number one single every week for more than three months, beating the previous record set by the Beatles. Here's Louis's record.

8. Hello Dolly 2:23

In the show, the title song is set in Manhattan's Harmonia Gardens, an elegant restaurant and a favorite of Dolly's and her husband's. This is her first visit after his death. In the movie, Louis Armstrong is the orchestra leader, and he gets a duet with Barbra Streisand,

9. Hello, Dolly! 7:46

All the characters show up at the restaurant, provoking riotous encounters. Here again is Mary Martin, the London Dolly. In part of her scheme to land the merchant, she plays hard to get.

10. So Long Dearie / Lebwohl, Liebling 5:31

After Mary Martin's London recording, we heard Louise Martini, from a German production.

Today we've heard selections from David Merrick's Broadway production of Hello, Dolly, which was directed and choreographed by Gower Campion, and the film version directed by Gene Kelly and choreographed by Michael Kidd. Both had the lyrics and music of Jerry Herman. Along the way we heard seven Dollies, along with Louis Armstrong.

In the finale, we're back where we started, in Yonkers. Of course, Dolly lands her merchant. We'll hear the original Dolly, Carol Channing, along with her Broadway co-star, David Burns.

11. Finale 4:10

(Gypsy overture-- 2; to end)

Join us again next week for another Broadway Revisited. National distribution is funded by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it's produced with the assistance of Martin Klemm, in the WMUK studios of Western Michigan University. Our website with playlists, program schedules and stuff is broadwayrevisited.com. Our website with program schedules and stuff is broadwayrevisited.com. "broadwayrevisited" is all one word. My e-mail address is Art@broadwayrevisited.com. And I'm Art Hilgart.

Total music: 50:43; Estimated talking: 7:35; Intro/outro: :30; Estimated total: 58:48

Promo (12) : This week Broadway Revisited revisits Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!, with Carol Channing, the original star, and six other Dollies who've played the role, along with Louis Armstrong. Hello Dollies, this week on Broadway Revisited.