About the Show
Production History
Hello, Dolly! Is based on the 1955 play The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder. The Matchmaker had been a solid hit in the 1955-56 Broadway season, directed by Tyrone Guthrie (who won a 1956 Tony for Best Director), and starring Ruth Gordon as Dolly Gallagher Levi.Producer David Merrick was eager to cash in on the popularity of the property, and hired playwright Michael Stewart, who had recently had a hit writing the book for Bye Bye Birdie, to adapt Wilder’s play. Though promising young composer Jerry Herman expressed immediate interesting in writing the songs, Merrick was skeptical, and made Herman audition for the job, by composing several songs.
Hello, Dolly! was written with Broadway legend Ethel Merman in mind to play Dolly. Merman, however, was still touring in post-Broadway engagements of her biggest Broadway hit, Gypsy, when Merrick offered her the job. She reportedly turned down the role without opening the script or the score. Ironically, Merman ended up being the final Dolly in the record-setting Broadway production, playing Dolly for nine months in 1970.
The original Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! opened on January 16, 1964, and ran for 2,844 performances, closing on December 27, 1970, making it one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history.
The original cast included Carol Channing as Dolly Gallagher Levi, Charles Nelson Reilly as Cornelius, and Eileen Brennan as Irene Molloy. The show won 1964 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical (Michael Stewart), Best Score (Jerry Herman), Best Actress in a Musical (Carol Channing as Dolly Gallagher Levi), Best Choreography (Gower Champion), Best Direction of a Musical (Gower Champion), Best Scenic Design, and Best Costume Design.
During the 1967-68 season, Merrick’s decision to cast an all-African-American company brought Pearl Bailey to the role of Dolly, opposite Cab Calloway as Horace Vandergelder, and an unknown actor named Morgan Freeman, making his Broadway debut as Rudolph. Mary Martin played Dolly in the national tour of Hello, Dolly!, as well as a tour of Vietnam, and in London’s West End. The show has been revived twice more on Broadway, each time starring Carol Channing as Dolly.
