Hello Dolly 2024

 

Review by Paul Towers, 17/7/24

Hello Dolly book by Michael Stewart, music 7 lyrics by Jerry Herman

Directed by Dominic Cooke

Produced by Michael Harrison

At London Palladium until 14^th September 2024

OMG what a show!

I originally booked tickets for Imelda Staunton’s Hello Dolly way back in 2020. Sadly Covid put paid to that and the production was further delayed because Ms Staunton was giving her regal best as HM in The Crown. Thankfully, four years on, I have had my dreams realised and I sat expectantly in a full house matinée in London’s Palladium theatre waiting for the curtain to rise.

The orchestra started the overture, a great traditional run through of all the tunes from the show. Then the curtain rose to the tiny figure of Dolly Levi sat at her dressing table readying herself for the tasks ahead. As the opening number of Just Leave Everything To Me builds the tabs fly back and the full spectacle of the production is unveiled.

Dolly Levi is a force of nature, she is a fixer. It doesn’t matter what you want or need fixing Dolly knows a man who can. But her main talent is matchmaking in the days long before dating apps.

Imelda Staunton’s Dolly Levi is a whirlwind of meddling as she seems to be everywhere and everything to everyone. She has her sights set on remarriage and the object of her attention is grumpy misogynist Horace Vandergelder (Andy Nyman) half millionaire owner of a Hay & Feed Store. As part of her plan to ‘force’ Horace to fall in love with her she is off to New York and the Harmonia Gardens to woo him, the best place to be seen in the city.

Meanwhile Horace’s clerks, Cornelius (Harry Hepple) and Barnaby (Tyrone Huntly - I last saw as Che in Curve’s Evita) are desperate to find girlfriends and are encouraged by Dolly to skive off to New York as well. Along the way the boys do indeed find girlfriends, Irene Molly (Jenna Russell) and Minnie Fay (Emily Lane) respectively.

This is a big, lavish production as only the London Palladium can do. A huge live orchestra of 22 is hidden under the stage and gives a full sound to the show. Choreographer Bill Deamer has the good luck to work with a very talented ensemble of dancers while Comedy Director Toby Park finds laughs right from the start.

Amazingly the show doesn’t officially open until 18^th July but the previews were sold out.

This production of such a well loved show will not disappoint. While the film version was overpowered by Streisand’s grandstanding performance this is a well balanced staging with Ms Staunton, while giving a stella performance, not overwhelming the overall show.

This is a limited run so get tickets while you can.

https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/hello-dolly/

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/ 

 

The Darling Buds of May

 

Review by Paul Towers, 1/7/24

The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates

Directed by Mary Jones

Produced by Leicester Drama Society

At The Little Theatre until Saturday 6^th July 2024

When I first left school I worked on a farm in Kent as a labourer. As I lived on-site in a caravan there was very little to occupy me in the evening. However one of my pleasures was to immerse myself in H E Bates’ bucolic stories of Kentish farm life. While my day-to-day struggles against the weather were nothing like the eternal summer of the Lakins, the stories did resonate with me.

The Darling Buds of May (the title taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18) was written in 1958 after author HE Bates saw a large family emerging from an ice cream shop while on holiday. Their rumbustious joy in each others company inspired him to create the Larkin family. Ma, Pop and their six children live in an idyllic rural world that most of us could only dream of.

Darling Buds tells the story of how the family inveigle junior Tax Inspector, Cedric Charlton (new member of LDS, Harry Wheeler) to ditch his stressful office job and embrace the freewheeling countryside way of life. Of course it is a much easier decision when he falls in love with the eldest Larkin girl, Mariette (Laura Heybrock), whose sultry flirting captures him as surely as a spider ensnares a fly.

Pop (Andy Longley-Brown) is a loveable rogue operating way under the radar of the tax man while Ma (another new member of LDS, Zara Cain) is the larger-than-life matriarch of the clan and definitely the wearer of the Larkin trousers. As head of the family there is great chemistry between the parents as they look after their brood.

The set by Jake Smart is both the family dining room and the garden gate leading to the wonders of the bluebell wood.

If you want to escape from the current less than summery weather you can do no better than escaping to the Larkin’s Garden of England at The Little Theatre until Saturday 6 July.

Pics: Dave Morris Photography

https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/