Hello Dolly Proves Timely Still
Dolly (Jenifer Lewis) shows she knows how to make an entrance, flanked by the sharpest waiters in town in the 5th Avenue's current production of Hello, Dolly! playing now through March 29. Photo: Chris Bennion
Hello Dolly's earliest seeds of existence were planted in 1938, while the stock market crash of a near-decade prior was still fresh in the collective American memory. The story of a clever woman who manipulated relationships and played cupid (among other things) for money, all the while really yearning for an opportunity to find her own true love, resurrects that depression-era vigor at the 5th Avenue Theater through this month.
Seattlest became familiar with this tale as portrayed by Barbra Streisand in the 1969 film version, so it was a treat to see it on the stage starring the inimitable, undeniable Jenifer Lewis. The 5th's entire production has been well-cast, with many players who frequently appear on the 5th Avenue stage. The songs are still as purposeful and catchy as ever, and the choreography as athletic. There's a reason plays like Hello Dolly survive decades and cultural shifts. In this case, it's mainly because the theme of finding true love—more specifically of love not being all accessible and rosy and easy and perfect all the time—are timeless.
But there's the added piece that speaks to the current state of our economy. When Cornelius (Greg McCormick Allen) and Barnaby (Mo Brady) sang, "J.P. Morgan scrapes and bows to us," while trying to appear elegant, the sputtering laughter portrayed an audience who could imagine seeing the financial giant, in reality, turn up more broke than this pair of starry-eyed sidekicks. Folks who head to the 5th before March 29 to catch this production will find that they are not only entertained by an exquisitely well-cast show, but also that they are given an opportunity to laugh at the kind of unexpected, un-prepared-for poverty in which we're all beginning to find ourselves. There's a certain hilarity to the necessity-as-the-mother-of-invention theme in this show and the somewhat realistic truth that one has to be in an enterprising venture for something more than money in order to pull it off.
We already alluded to this two paragraphs ago, but it bears repeating: Jenifer Lewis does a tremendous job in the lead role. As the larger-than-life character you come close to loving to hate, without crossing the line too far from loving her, Lewis makes the whole thing look effortless. At one point, she led her chorus line of "handsome men" three times through the final spell of the play's title song for full fabulous effect because, let's face it, that's the one song everybody (at least every musical theater nerd/gay) knows by heart. Like AIG with the government bailout, may as well milk it for all it's worth.
Mar. 7-29 // 5th Avenue Theater // $29-91
