Hello Dolly!, Brunton Theatre

Published on Tuesday 31 March 2009 09:44

Hello Dolly! **** Brunton Theatre IT must be heartening for those involved with this new production of Hello Dolly! to know that in 700 years' time people (or at least robots) will still be enjoying songs from the show, even if there aren't likely to be too many of the cast around to savour the experience.

These aren't the insane ramblings of a reviewer overcome by the sheer enthusiasm on show at the Brunton Theatre last night, but rather a reference to the main character in 2008's animated smash-hit WALL-E, whose favourite film was the 1969 movie version of Hello Dolly!

With WALL-E's opening and closing credits played under two of the musical's most memorable songs, Put On Your Sunday Clothes and It Only Takes A Moment respectively, the almost nave optimism of the former seems the perfect choice to highlight the near-hopelessness of the robot's existence on an otherwise barren Earth.

Optimism is at the heart of Hello Dolly! In 1890 New York, renowned matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi (Audrey Dixon) has arrived to try and find a wife for "half-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder (Jim Lavery). Unbeknown to Horace, the widowed Dolly hopes to marry him herself.

At the same time, two of Vandergelder's employees, Cornelius (Mark Becher) and Barnaby (Ali MacDougall), are also planning a trip to the Big Apple, to "have a good meal, spend all their money, see the stuffed whale in the museum, get arrested, and each kiss a girl!"

First performed on Broadway in 1964 and based on a 1938 farce, Hello Dolly! is nothing if not resilient. With its exuberant songs and an incident-packed plot, any theatre company deciding to mount a revival is helped in the first instance by its proven popularity and sassy script.

Taking centre stage throughout the show is Audrey Dixon as Dolly: buxom and ballsy, her Dolly is a woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to use all her charms to get it. Wrapping her vocal chords around each song like she does Vandergelder round her little finger, Dixon is a revelation, focusing all attention on Dolly whether it's her line or not.

Elsewhere, Jim Lavery nails Vandergelder's bluff and bravado in just a few lines. While Lavery's singing voice may falter a few times, he's a worthy rival for Dixon in the show-stealing stakes. Mark Becher and Ali MacDougall also impress and make an engaging double act, even if Becher's Yonkers accent vanishes in the opening scene, never to be heard again.

For a show bereft of a large budget, it's clear that director Eleanor Brown has made every penny count – costumes and sets bringing an expensive aura to the stage that Dolly would surely approve of.

With a strong supporting cast and note-perfect ten-piece orchestra, this is the type of old- fashioned theatre that will never go out of fashion. If all versions of the musical are as impressive as this one, here's betting that in 700 years audiences will still be shouting Hello Dolly! rather than Hello WALL-E!