ethel merman originated the role of dolly levi on broadway.
ethel merman originated the role of dolly levi on broadway.
who originated the role of dolly levi on broadway?
ethel merman
he replaced jerry dodge in the role of barnaby tucker in "hello, dolly!" in the winter of 1965, and went across the united states on six traveling productions with several actresses playing dolly levi, including betty grable, ginger rogers, eve arden, dorothy lamour and anne russell. he remained in the role for the movie version of "hello, dolly!", and when filming for that ended, continued the role in the broadway version of "hello, dolly!", where he worked with both ethel merman and phyllis diller until it closed on december 27, 1970. he had mixed feelings about carol channing as dolly, about whom he once said: "carol channing is rather disconcerting. you'll notice her looking at you with those big baby-stare eyes. then eventually it dawns on you that the person behind those eyes is, in show business terms, about 200 years old." he also later expressed unhappiness with the way audiences reacted to merman in the role of dolly levi, and how this changed the show. "she wasn't dolly up there, she was ethel merman in dolly clothes. ... the audiences came, of course; they came to see the ethel merman version. but it wasn't "hello, dolly!" any more, it was "her" show. ... channing or streisand, they were part of a cast, trying to act out a character. but with ethel merman—and not just her fault, with the "audience", she was such an institution—the rest of us felt like just her chorus boys or her chorus line."
danny lockin
in 1890, all of new york city is excited because widowed and brassy dolly levi (barbra streisand) is in town ("call on dolly"). dolly makes a living through matchmaking and numerous sidelines ("just leave everything to me"). she is currently seeking a wife for grumpy horace vandergelder (walter matthau), the well-known "half-a-millionaire", but it becomes clear that dolly intends to marry horace herself. dolly travels to yonkers, new york to visit horace. ambrose kemper (tommy tune), a young artist, wants to marry horace's weepy niece, ermengarde (joyce ames), but horace opposes this because ambrose's vocation does not guarantee a steady living. horace, who is the owner of vandergelder's hay and feed, explains to his two clerks, cornelius hackl (michael crawford) and barnaby tucker (danny lockin), that he is going to get married because "it takes a woman" to cheerfully do all the household chores. he plans to travel to new york city to propose to irene molloy (marianne mcandrew), who owns a hat shop there. dolly arrives in yonkers and sends horace ahead to the city. before leaving, he tells cornelius and barnaby to mind the store.
hello, dolly! (film)