Hello, Dolly! Open Air Theatre - review
Samantha Spiro might have made an excellent Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing but she flops as the lead in the Open Air Theatre's otherwise glorious production of Hello Dolly!, immortalised by Barbra Streisand in the 1969 movie
11 August 2009
Rating: 3/5
IMMORTALISED by Barbra Streisand on film in 1969, the story of irrepressible New York matchmaker Dolly Levi and her attempts to land a rich husband while meddling in as many lives as possible is a witty force of nature.
And this beautifully staged production is nothing less - despite a leading lady who makes even diva Babs look subtle.
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Samantha Spiro's Dolly is so irritatingly hammy she'd be better off clapped between two bits of bread than let on stage, all wiggling eyebrows and wide-mouthed winks.
An excellent Beatrice in the Open Air's recent Much Ado About Nothing , here she's so mortifyingly unlikeable that Dolly's own happy ending feels like the bad guys won.
Mercifully the supporting cast are superb: Josefina Gabrielle as one of Dolly's romantic projects and Akiya Henry as her sidekick doling out female charm in spades, while a po-faced chorus line of tap-dancing waiters nearly brings the show to a standstill. Allan Corduner as 'half a millionaire' Horace Vandergelder lends much-needed grumpiness as Dolly's meal ticket, balancing out the joyously air-headed proceedings.
Leagues away from the harrowed moralising of many modern musicals, nothing bad happens to Dolly and her farcical band of romantic puppets. Hello, Dolly! is shallow as a puddle, and glories in it, with some of the most bombastic and enjoyable song-and-dance routines you'll see this summer.
Hello, Dolly!, to 12 September, The Open Air Theatre, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, NW1 4NU, 0844 826 4242
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