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'Dolly!' still meddling to delight of all
Heraldnet.com
Written by: Patty Tackaberry
She's still glowin', she's still crowin', she's still goin' strong. "Hello, Dolly!" opened June 30 in Everett to a highly appreciative audience who clearly thought "it's so nice to have her back where she belongs" - on the Village Theatre stage. By the finale, those in attendance fairly leaped to their feet as Peggy O'Connell sang: "Find me an empty lap, fellas. Dolly'll never go away again."
Under the guiding hand of director and choreographer Steve Tomkins, Peggy O'Connell brings a winning Irish impishness to her interpretation of Dolly Gallagher Levi. At times she invoked the spirit of vaudeville. (In "So Long, Dearie," for example, there's an unmistakable nod to Jimmy Durante.)
Dolly is the grande dame of 14th Street, the belle of Harmonia Gardens. Her feathered hat casts a grand shadow as the Gold Austrian Curtain rises, she descends the staircase and a retinue of waiters look on adoringly.
The ever popular "Hello, Dolly!" (based on Thornton Wilder's play "The Matchmaker" and the book by Michael Stewart, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman) burst onto the scene in 1964 with Carol Channing's legendary Broadway run, followed by the Oscar-winning 1969 film directed by Gene Kelly, starring Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau.
Now the Village Theatre's musical director Bruce Monroe leads a spectacular orchestra through such familiar musical numbers as "It Takes a Woman" and "Put on Your Sunday Clothes."
Dolly's story opens in 1890s New York City. She's on her way to Yonkers to set up a romance for one Mr. Horace Vandergelder (John Patrick Lowrie), a well-to-do widower who runs a hay and feed business.
Dolly is the consummate busybody. "Some people paint, some sew, I meddle," she says. She's a woman who arranges things "like furniture and daffodils and lives."
Behind the musical bravado in this story are some bittersweet nuggets of reality that form the true attachment between the audience and the actors. One is Dolly's widowhood. Her poignant one-sided conversations with her dead husband Ephraim underscore her desire to step out and live again. The other is Horace's veneer of cynicism and the sadness at the heart of that curmudgeonly facade.
Seemingly crotchety and disaffected, Horace grumbles about all the fools in the world. It falls to Dolly to soften him up. Dolly might have hooked Mr. Vandergelder up with someone else had she not decided his fate should intertwine with hers. Some humorous behind-the-scenes manipulation and machinations get the job done.
Indeed, Dolly rearranges many a love triangle. She also has more philanthropic ends in mind for Horace's money. "Money is like manure," she says. "It isn't worth a thing unless you spread it around."
Bill Forrester offers inspired set design. A backdrop of New York seems to spring from Seurat and the pointillist movement. Dolly's trolley invokes the 1890s, as do the chandelier and pastel decor of Mrs. Molloy's millinery shop.
Karen Ledger has a lot of fun with the costumes: feathered hats and long skirts for the ladies; spats, straw hats and canes for the men. Dolly steps out in a series of frocks that span the color spectrum, from turquoise to yellow to fuchsia.
From the moment they pop up out of the cellar, store hands Cornelius Hackl (Greg Michael Allen) and Barnaby Tucker (Casey Craig) steal every scene they're in, as do the gals they're paired to romantically: Mrs. Irene Molloy (Billie Wildrick) and Minnie Fay (Shanna Marie Palmer).
These two pairs soar choreographically and vocally in "Dancing." And Wildrick's voice is a real stand-out. She gets some of the most heartfelt numbers in "Ribbons Down My Back" and "It Only Takes a Moment" (with Cornelius).
Some funny moments unfold with Cornelius' and Barnaby's high jinks as they try to hide from their boss when they go AWOL in New York.
Kudos also go to Greta Bloor as Horace's hysterical niece Emmengarde, Mo Brady as Ambrose, and especially Matt Wolfe as the dictatorial head waiter Rudolph.
The hands-down show stoppers are "Before the Parade Passes By" - with trombones, clowns, balloons, Uncle Sam on stilts and confetti - and "Hello, Dolly!" - featuring the "lightning service" of the waiters: meals delivered with a side of gymnastics and ballet. There's a waiter on a unicycle and much waving of towels. The high leg kicks make of these guys a sort of male version of the Rockettes.
Village Theatre caps year with 'Hello, Dolly!'
Village Theatre season-ending musical is a perfect summertime treat
EVENT HERALD
June 30, 2006
By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Writer
Village Theatre was smart to make their season closer "Hello, Dolly!" It's fun. It's hilarious. It's got a happy ending. It just sets the right mood to kick off summer. There's even a parade, complete with confetti and Uncle Sam on stilts. What a summertime treat. Village Theatre's "Dolly," which opens tonight in Everett, is among the classic musicals, with a cherished score that is as much a mainstay of Broadway as corn on the cob is to a July picnic.
But first a little reminder about the plot. Go back to the days before the Internet, when guys and gals hooked up through an intermediary. Not MySpace.com. A matchmaker. That matchmaker is Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi. It's the 1890s in New York City and Dolly is a well-known widowed matchmaker, on her way to Yonkers to attend to one of her clients, Horace Vandergelder, a successful miser in the hay and feed business.
As Dolly puts it, she arranges things: "Furniture, daffodils, lives." She arranges, against Horace's wishes, to have Horace's niece Emengarde and artist Ambrose Kemper prove their love to Uncle Horace. She arranges to find true love for Horace's employees, Cornelius and Barnaby. Finally, Dolly arranges for Horace to fall in love with her. Through all this arranging are some mad-cap scenes, romance and, yes, that toe-tapping score. Songs include "Put on Your Sunday Clothes," "Before the Parade Passes By," "It Only Takes a Moment," and the enduring "Hello, Dolly!"
The wild adventure of finding love reaches its high point at the famed Harmonia Gardens restaurant, where watching the waiters bring food, sort of, has never been so entertaining. Stars include Peggy O'Connell as Dolly Levi, John Patrick Lowrie as Horace Vandergelder and Greg Michael Allen as Cornelius. Allen has a voice like buttah, and in the number "Dancing," he was so animated and lithe it looked as if he were made of rubber. He's wonderful to watch.
Hello, Everett: Musical manages to seem original
By Diane Wright
Times Snohomish County Bureau
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Imagine this scenario: You're an actress facing your biggest scene in the show. You're at the top of a landing with about 10 steps to descend. It's a musical number, so you have to dance-kick your way down the steps without holding the banisters. You have to do all this in high heels and a heavy gown with a train.
Oh, and you can't look down.
What are you thinking at a time like that?
Let Peggy O'Connell tell you. She's played Dolly Gallagher Levi for 6½ weeks in the Village Theatre's Issaquah production of "Hello, Dolly." Sure-footed performances have made her insightful.
"I think that's a very important moment when she comes out on those steps," O'Connell said. "She's coming out of mourning [after her husband's death], where she starts to loosen the grip on the past and gets in the moment."
With strong work by the ensemble, and without the obeisance that usually dogged Carol Channing and other actresses in the role, the musical's structure and comic farce are much clearer. O'Connell, a Broadway and regional-theater veteran, brings a freshness to the role of Dolly, twinkling and smiling while plotting marriages.
"I think that she's someone who goes all over and mingles with everybody," said O'Connell. "She's got a touch of shanty Irish in her."
Dolly pursues Horace Vandergelder (John Patrick Lowrie), a prosperous but stingy merchant of Yonkers, N.Y. He's a widower looking for a wife, whose desired qualities (cleaning drains, dumping ashes, cleaning the stable and shoeing the mare) he espouses in "It Takes a Woman."
Billie Wildrick plays the widow Irene Molloy, a hard-working milliner who seems resigned to the role of Mrs. Vandergelder, even though she doesn't love the man.
Class distinctions are related to money or the lack of it: Greg Allen plays Horace's oppressed and quietly rebellious employee, Cornelius, who cuts his workday short to escape to the big city of New York with his sidekick Barnaby for some fun and romance. Running into Horace turns their fun into a nightmare; they "vanish" in full view of him in one hilarious scene.
Before the show is over, Dolly has put things right. To land Horace for herself, she not only slanders Irene but also runs an early version of speed dating, putting him together with such exotic birds as the vacant-eyed Ernestina (Bobbi Kotula). After all these heart tussles, is it any wonder that Horace winds up bewitched, bothered and bewildered?
These actors make the show refreshingly original — no small feat for a musical written more than 40 years ago.
"I was so lucky to have Peggy," said director-choreographer Steve Tomkins. "She's a woman who commands the stage. She's so open and vulnerable; she sings from her toes, opens up her body."
O'Connell, a Minneapolis native, had acted in many Seattle shows before meeting comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who helped her book her musical nightclub act into The Improv in New York. She was seen by casting people and got called for "My One and Only," going on the road with the show with Tommy Tune.
Tomkins had O'Connell in mind when he selected "Hello, Dolly" for the Village Theatre. The two go back more than 30 years to their days at the Empty Space Theatre in Seattle.
For O'Connell, singing "It's so nice to be back home where I belong" has a personal meaning.
When Peggy met Dolly
By Misha Berson
Seattle Times theater critic
Friday, June 2, 2006
If you don't have a lead actress with star quality, don't even think about messing with "Hello, Dolly!"
If ever a show depended on the charisma of one performer, this upbeat and nostalgic musical farce is it.
Fortunately, Village Theatre has the right person to fill the bill in Peggy O'Connell, who is Dolly to a fare-thee-well in the show's current stand in Issaquah.
The last time many of us saw the strawberry-blond, perky-voiced O'Connell on a local stage, she was the best thing in a soggy 1994 run of "South Pacific" at 5th Avenue Theatre.
O'Connell played the show's cockeyed optimist Nellie Forbush. And the Broadway-honed actress, who now resides in Minneapolis, imbues her twinkling busybody Dolly with some of the normal-as-blueberry-pie appeal that made her Nellie so winning.
Since the moment playwright Thornton Wilder dreamed up the entrepreneurial widow Dolly Gallagher Levi, she's been a star vehicle.
Everybody loves a good yenta, and Ruth Gordon was the first to take this one for a spin, when Dolly hit Broadway in "The Matchmaker," Wilder's bantering 1955 farce set in 1890s New York.
Later, Shirley Booth was Dolly in a 1958 movie based on the play. And in the 1970s, Dolly returned in the unique form of Carol Channing, in the musical smash "Hello, Dolly!"
Wearing feathered hats resembling small barges and singing Jerry Herman's anthemic showtunes ("When the Parade Passes By," "So Long, Dearie" and, of course, the title song), Channing won legend status in the role.
Her Broadway successors as Dolly, in a run of almost seven years, included Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman and others who knew a hot part for an aging diva when they saw one. (A younger diva, Barbra Streisand, seized on the part too, in the film version.)
With her crackling voice, Debbie Reynolds glow and Gracie Allen timing, O'Connell makes Dolly a more folksy meddler and charmer.
Rather than pity the rich, oafish Yonkers businessman Horace Vandergelder (solid John Patrick Lowrie) whom Dolly sets out to entrap and wed for his dough, you root for her.
Michael Stewart's book for "Hello, Dolly!" retains the plot essentials (and many clever lines) from Wilder's classically constructed play.
It also echoes Dolly's independent spirit, and her plucky avoidance of the fate of many a 19th-century hausfrau. As she notes wryly, "Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she's a householder."
Guided by director-choreographer Steve Tomkins, the Village's "Hello, Dolly!" sprints along nicely. And it culminates amusingly in a swish New York boite (The Harmonia Gardens) with the classic farce climax of dancing waiters, switched wallets, romantic schemes — and, of course, Dolly and the boys singing the title song on a grand staircase.
Not everything in the show rises to O'Connell's level. In the other main romantic couple, reliable Billie Wildrick plays shopkeeper Irene Molloy in lovely voice. But her natural beauty is hidden under a dowdy wig. And as Irene's paramour, Cornelius, Greg Michael Allen dances well but needs lessons in exuding sex appeal.
Finally, the set by Bill Forrester is disappointingly pallid. Those pastel tones are fine for Karen Ledger's delightful period costumes. But in the lightly painted backdrops they literally wash out.
No quibbles, though, with the music. Herman's foursquare tunes (and the pretty ballad, "It Only Takes a Moment") are rendered with flair by conductor Bruce Monroe and his able complement of horns, winds and strings.
SEATTLE REVIEW! HELLO DOLLY!
Broadway World
Thursday, May 25, 2006
A star performance needs strong support. Even the greatest of leading ladies can't save a production boggled by misguided choices. It is too bad that Village Theatre's wonky new production of Hello, Dolly! is never able to live up to its delightful star (in her return to Seattle) Peggy O'Connell. With a solidly tuneful Jerry Herman score, a tight book by Michael Stewart, and opportunities for multiple star turns, you would expect this local revival to be a triumph. Sadly, director Steve Tomkins' tendency to gravitate towards the superficial requires O'Connell to make a difficult uphill climb. Stars of her caliber should never be subjected to this chore.
One of the greatest musicals of the Golden Age, Hello, Dolly! is based on Thornton Wilder's equally classic play The Matchmaker. Widowed Dolly Gallagher Levi has a knack for making matches, but has yet to find one for herself since the death of her beloved husband. When Horace Vandergelder enlists her services, Dolly soon decides that she is his ideal match. Much hilarity ensues as a series of bright characters attempt to fit into a world full of changing ideas and expectations.
Though many consider Hello, Dolly! to be Carol Channing's vehicle, big stars like Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Pearl Bailey, Phyllis Diller, Betty Grable, and Ginger Rogers have also essayed the role. The underrated 1969 film features Barbra Streisand in a tour-de-force performance of the highest variety. Channing's farewell tour of Hello, Dolly! made a stop in Seattle with the husky voiced diva still in fine form.
Also in fine form is veteran actress Peggy O'Connell in a role she was born to play. O'Connell brings class, sophistication, and an exact knowledge of the ins-and-outs of musical theatre performance to the table. Her work here is a tribute to the past. She echoes the styles of Martin, Channing, Streisand, and even warbles a little Merman in her introductory, "I Put My Hand In". O'Connell's Dolly is an eclectic creation full of peculiar details that are a bright spot of this flat production. Her strong belt is on full display as she croons, scats, and shimmies her way through one of the trickiest roles in musical theatre history.
O'Connell shines despite Tompkin's cardboard approach. His cut and paste staging clearly divides the book scenes and musical numbers. He is never able to integrate things as seamlessly as the show's original director (and large reason for the original success of Hello, Dolly!) Gower Champion. Tomkin's awkward choreography frequently stops the action from advancing, and little of his work tries to build character. His detailed staging of "Motherhood", a hilarious hide-and-go seek number, is the only successful staging of the evening. But Tomkins' work in the big numbers of the show fails to pack much of a punch. Big showstoppers like "Before the Parade Passes By", "Dancing", and "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" are underwhelming dilemmas full of jazz squares, jazz hands, and repetitive steps galore. His work never seems specific to this particular show. His staging of the title number (and its preceeding "Waiters' Gallop) fails to produce the necessary goosebumps. There is little buildup to what should be a jaw-dropping entrance for O'Connell.
Tomkins never allows his company to gain ownership of the work he has assigned. Most of the ensemble dances with a fake grin that only serves to mock the material and make it look dustier than it actually is. Tomkins has misread the many audience addresses in Stewart's book, filling his production with a corny insincerity that strips most of the inherit warmth of the piece. O'Connell's love of musical theatre is apparent throughout, but Tomkins is unable to bring similar joy to the table. O'Connell finds better support in her leading man, John Patrick Lowrie, who gives a grumpy, goofy, lovable reading of Horace.
Even when Village's productions are less than stellar, you can almost always count on superb designs throughout. Unfortunately, Tomkin's cheesy approach has negatively influenced the physical layout. Bill Forrester's badly painted set is an absolute eyesore. It looks like it cost about a buck-and-a-half to build, with obvious nicks and botched paintjobs clearly visible. A false proscenium looks like it was made of butcher paper, the train for "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" echoes red cardboard, and an opening curtain closely resembles a golden Brillo pad. Karen Ledger's striking costumes manage to make Forrester's set look shoddier. Greg Sullivan's lighting battles Forrester's flat design too often.
Billie Wildrick brings layers of depth to hat shop owner (and Dolly's first match for Horace) Irene Malloy. Wildrick captures every delicate nuance of Mrs Malloy. She provides a surprisingly haunting "Ribbons
Down My Back", perfectly echoing a woman's plea for adventure. Wildrick's versatile voice and unrivaled acting skills make her a prime candidate to play Eva Peron in Village's upcoming Evita. After years of soubrette roles in Seattle, Wildrick is ready to take the lead.
Ms. Wildrick's precise acting skills look quite odd next to Greg Allen's one-dimensional Cornelius. He is barely believable as Horace's chief clerk, playing the book scenes like he's waiting for the next musical number. His shtick heavy delivery never convinces us to care about Cornelius' fate. Allen's performance unintentionally mocks the dignity of a frequently stereotyped genre. His work here seems more intent on impressing than conveying. Wildrick struggles to find some kind of spark with Allen, but his hollow take on things gives her an impossible wall to climb. They are never able to make the secondary love story sparkle. Also problematic are Casey Craig and Shanna Marie Palmer as their sidekicks Barnaby and Minnie Fay. They make the key mistake of acknowledging the dimness of their characters. They play ideas instead of intentions. Tompkins also avoids fleshing out their relationship (as Champion did) in "Dancing".
Tompkins' casting of the male chorus is also a chief problem of this Hello, Dolly!. When Dolly makes her triumphant return to the Harmonia Gardens restaurant, she is greeted by a swarm of youthful faces that seem to have been around during her glory days. This strips even more believability from this production. Bobbi Kotula is a hoot as Horace's second match Ernestina (though she never gets to use her stellar pipes), Mo Brady gives another strong performance as dancing painter Ambrose Kemper (his voice is wasted too), and Greta Bloor is annoying as Horace's niece Ermengarde.
Village's Hello, Dolly! often plays like a dinner theatre presentation. While you may often find yourself waiting for your entrée, O'Connell's truly magnificent Dolly Levi is a sight to behold.
Village Theatre's 'Hello, Dolly' full of good vibrations
by Deborah Stone
Woodinville Weekly
Monday, May 22, 2006
Village Theatre closes its 2005-06 Mainstage Season with the lively musical classic, "Hello, Dolly!" This is the first locally produced professional Equity production of the show in the Pacific Northwest in 10 years and under Steve Tomkins' deft direction with Peggy O'Connell's star power, it's a winner.
Based on a story by Thorton Wilder, "Hello, Dolly!" tells the tale of matchmaker extraordinaire Dolly Levi (Peggy O'Connell) and her reluctant beau Horace Vandergelder (John Patrick Lowrie), a miserly, curmudgeon feed store owner. As Dolly cunningly carries out her scheme to win Horace's heart, she also works her wily ways on all the other singletons she meets along the way. They include Cornelius (Michael Allen) and Barnaby (Casey Craig), a bumbling pair of clerks who work at Vandergelder's store, Vandergelder's plaintive niece Ermengarde (Greta Bloor) and her artist boyfriend Ambrose (Mo Brady), as well as hat shop owner Irene Molloy (Billie Wildrick) and her tittering assistant Minnie Fay (Shanna Marie Palmer). Love is in the air for all these folks, whose lives collide in New York City, where the adventure begins. The effervescent O'Connell is made for her role and commands the stage with an electrifying presence. She owns her character and rivals those great dames of Broadway who have played Dolly over the years, such as Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey and Ginger Rogers. O'Connell bubbles with enthusiasm and energy, belting out her numbers with pizzazz and passion. She wows audiences with her comedic and musical talent and sets the tone for the show from the moment she steps on stage. Every note she sings, every scene she's in is touched by her special brand of magic and charm.
Though O'Connell is surrounded by an able cast, they are a tad overshadowed by her strong, magnetic presence. Lowrie is appropriately grumpy and gruff, but he seems to have a bit of a problem connecting to the other performers. He's all bluster and mean-spirited for most of the show and it's hard to understand why Dolly falls for him. Allen and Craig make a fun comedy team, as the rubes from Yonkers, who seek adventure in the Big Apple. Wildrick, in the role of the widow Irene Molloy, is allbeauty and grace, with a lovely, sparkling voice to match. A tight ensemble of singers/dancers helps heat up the stage with Tomkins' high octane, creative choreography. The show hits its highest points with "Elegance," "The Waiters' Gallop" and the show-stopping favorite, "Hello, Dolly!" Karen Ledger's colorful period costumes complete the picture. The Village goes for the gusto with its revival production of this beloved musical and gives audiences a night of rousing, feel-good entertainment.
On Stage: Mating behavior drives two new productions
By JOE ADCOCK
SEATTLE P-I THEATER CRITIC
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
With "Hello, Dolly!" the important thing is friskiness. Which makes Issaquah our local friskiness power point right now.
The Village Theatre is staging a revival of the 1964 Broadway celebration of peppy nostalgia. Friskiness at the Village comes in contrasting styles: Radiantly cheery in the title role (Peggy O'Connell), ridiculously grumpy in Dolly's partner-to-be (John Patrick Lowrie), gawky and goofy for unsophisticated young people (Casey Craig, Greg Michael Allen, Breta Bloor, Mo Brady and Bobbi Katula) and calculating in the young widow (Billie Wildrick).
Though the Jerry Herman songs in "Dolly" are traditional Broadway tunes, the story is odd by musical comedy standards. Usually there's the romantic couple and the funny couple. In "Dolly," there are four funny couples, which ups the friskiness potential considerably. The story is derived from a 1938 play by Thornton Wilder, which was derived from a 1842 Austrian play that was derived from an 1835 English play.
In every case, two guys run off to the big city when their boss is otherwise occupied. Complications multiply. Everything looks bad. Then everything works out.
Village Theatre settings by Bill Forester and costumes by Karen Ledger go all out in the interest of 1890s nostalgia. Director/choreographer Steve Tomkins emphasizes prancing, kicking and leaping in his dance numbers. Energetic though it all is, at times the combination of gaudy visuals and the giddy movement becomes wearisome.
For all its exuberance, the Village show sometimes has an empty look. An allegedly fashionable restaurant is mostly deserted except for its galloping waiters. A general store seems even more vacant.
In addition, emptiness of a non-material sort is inherent in any production of "Dolly!" Two and a half hours of gentle sentiment and spirited antics are not sustaining.
Vivid Talents on Parade in Village Theatre's Hello, Dolly!
by David Edward Hughes
Talking Broadway
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Put on your Sunday clothes and dash on over to the Village Theatre, where a radiantly performed version of the sixties blockbuster musical Hello, Dolly! has taken up residence. The long running (2,844 performance) 1964 Michael Stewart/Jerry Herman adaptation of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker holds up as one of the best of its era, and offers a bevy of wonderful roles besides the ubiquitous meddler Dolly Gallagher Levi.
Director Steve Tompkins, who also has devised some lively and ebullient choreography for the production, fills the stage with vivid talents, uniformly well cast, dressed to the nines in Karen Ledger's dreamily attractive costumes. The familiar tale is centered around Dolly, a middle-aged widow who has her hands in everything from pairing up couples to dance instruction. She is not above manipulating a second marriage for herself to the gruff Yonkers half-a-millionaire Horace Vandergelder, and in the course of one wild and romantic day, she has not only secured a proposal from him, but cannily engineered three other happy couplings as well. Hello, Dolly! was the first of Jerry Herman's so-called "Big Lady" musicals (Mame, Dear World and, yes, La Cage Aux Folles were the others), dominated by a force of nature female role, and requiring a force of nature performer.
Peggy O'Connell, who has been as missed by Seattle audiences as Dolly was missed by the wait-staff at the Harmonia Gardens, is as good a Dolly as one could ever hope to see. Her clowning (and certain speech inflections) may remind you of the original Dolly, Carol Channing. Her honey of a voice is closer to the film Dolly, Barbra Streisand, with a dash of London Dolly, Mary Martin, thrown in. O'Connell's take on Dolly made me think of what the late great Madeline Kahn might have done with the role, but all of these comparisons, complimentary as I intend them, are only my way of expressing what a gem of a job she does. O'Connell can play it quietly touching yet with a twinkle in her eye, as she does in the monologue leading into her rousing act one closer, "Before the Parade Passes By." She conducts a full-on love fest as she personally relates to every waiter onstage in the show-stopping title song, and then breaks the fourth wall with gusto, greeting the patrons in the front rows of the house. And she scores an effortless TKO with her final solo "So Long Dearie." It is a credit to John Patrick Lowrie's own stage presence and grumpy yet likable performance as Horace Vandergelder that the character registers strongly, both in his featured number "It Takes A Woman," and in his Harmonia Gardens face-off with Dolly, where he begins to realize it is futile to resist her.
The subplot featuring Horace's clerks gangly Cornelius (the sprightly Greg Allen) and Barnaby (the diminutively delicious Casey Craig) stumbling into romances with milliner Irene Molloy (the warmly affecting Billie Wildrick) and her assistant Minnie Fay (quirkily comic Shanna Marie Palmer) is so dominant in act one particularly, that at times Dolly herself can fade into the background a bit (though O'Connell makes sure we remember her). Wildrick, who was just a delicious Eileen in Wonderful Town is even more splendid here, with a palpable comfort level in playing the role, and just the kind of creamy vocal richness that can make Irene's yearning solo, "Ribbons Down My Back," play like the Broadway cousin of an art song. The foursome kick off act two with a happy, snappy performance of the show's most comic number "Elegance," and later Allen and Wildrick wax romantic with ease on the show's best known ballad, "It Only Takes A Moment."
With less stage time and more broadly drawn characters, there is good work from Greta Bloor and Mo Brady as Horace's whiny niece Ermengarde and her beau Ambrose, Bobbi Kotula in a typically zany turn as faux heiress Ernestina Money (her costume is a comic riot in itself), and Matt Wolfe tickling the funny bone as German headwaiter Rudolph.
The ensemble executes Tompkins' energetic, athletic turn-of-the-century style moves with aplomb. Though the number of dancers in the big "Dancing" number seem a bit on the skimpy side, there is real fun and some amazingly agile movement in the show's celebrated "Waiter's Gallop." The cast and orchestra sounded super, under musical director Bruce Monroe's customarily accomplished guidance.
Bill Forrester's uncluttered and evocative set design transitions comfortably between its Yonkers and NYC settings, the Harmonia Gardens set is the expected showpiece of the production. Greg Sullivan's lighting design creates the perfect moods throughout. The show is paced so well that one can scarcely believe it's been nearly 2 ½ hours when the curtain rings down.
This season closer for Village Theatre seems a sure-bet for drawing large, appreciative audiences. And to paraphrase Jerry Herman, regarding the show's star, "Peggy, don't ever go away again." Seattle needs you.
