Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

   Stage and screen star Bette Midler has announced that she will play Dolly Gallagher Levi in a Broadway revival of the blockbuster 1964 musical, Hello Dolly! Four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks has been tapped as the director, and Tony-winner Warren Carlyle will choreograph the production, which will begin Broadway previews March 13th, 2017, and open April 20th at a theater to be announced.

                  BETTE MIDLER

   The title role, one of the greatest leading lady roles in musical theatre, was written for Ethel Merman, but ultimately originated by Carol Channing (right), who won the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical, and also starred in the most recent Broadway revival of the musical in 1995. During its original run the role was played by Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Phyllis Diller, Pearl Bailey, and at last, Merman. Barbra Streisand starred in the film version.

   Produced by Scott Rudin, the show was originally written by Michael Stewart, based on The Matchmaker by Thorton Wilder. It won a then-record 11 Tony Awards in 1964, including Best Musical, and ran 2,844 performances, making it briefly the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

   No other casting was announced. Tickets won’t go on sale until a theater is selected.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2016 at 1:25 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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