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| " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." | |
| Posted by: RobertC (robertcollier930@gmail.com) 03:36 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
| In reply to: And Channing was amazing - Britannia 03:31 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
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| I know the character of Dolly Levi's age is specified in The Matchmaker. I am 90% sure that it is stated she is in her forties. I'm not sure what the script of Dolly! says, if anything. Maybe somebody who has a better memory can help us out. | |
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| Wilder makes a point of NOT stating her age | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:32 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
| In reply to: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." - RobertC 03:36 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
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| In both The Merchant of Yonkers and The Matchmaker, the first words describing Dolly are "Uncertain age." He wrote the role with Ruth Gordon in mind. It was first played by Jane Cowl when the play was called The Merchant of Yonkers. It's been suggested that Gordon did not create the role because Wilder and Jed Harris were on the outs, and Gordon was still Harris's unmarried partner. By the time Gordon played the role in Edinburgh, she was 57. She was 59 when she got to Broadway in the role. | |
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| RobertC, if you want to think about casting the role based on what Wilder says | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:15 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
| In reply to: Wilder makes a point of NOT stating her age - AlanScott 07:32 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
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| One thing in Wilder that's not in the musical is that Dolly was Vandergelder's wife's "oldest friend." This suggests that Dolly is probably close in age to Vandergelder. Wilder does give an age for Vandergelder: 60. Jane Cowl, who created the role in The Merchant of Yonkers, turned 55 two days after the first tryout performance in Boston. She had been 35 when she had a huge success playing Juliet on Broadway. |
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| re: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." | |
| Posted by: IThespis 06:14 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
| In reply to: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." - RobertC 03:36 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
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| Dolly Levi, born Gallagher, is old enough to have been married and widowed a while. That's it. Carol Channing was 43 when the show first went up. Little thought was given to Dolly"s age or that the show would become iconic and forever be on people's minds. Ethel Merman was 56 when she closed Dolly's first run. Between 1964 and 1970 just about every theater woman who could move played Dolly, no concern for age. More, since. No matter Dolly's age, the creater of stage Dolly, Ruth Gordon, was 59. Having created such an iconic role, Channing at 40 or 80 would be worth seeing doing it again. In a few years any big-time production with a star 40+, one a name-draw, will work | |
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| re: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 03:59 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
| In reply to: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." - RobertC 03:36 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
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| At the time the story is set, the late 19th Century, Dolly Levi probably would have realistically been in her early 40's (as was Carol Channing when she first played the role). Dolly would likely have married Ephraim in her teens and enjoyed a 20+ year marriage before widowhood and making the decision to seek out a third act to her life. I have no idea how old Jane Cowl or Ruth Gordon were when they played it, but Shirley Booth certainly appeared older than that. I think we've gradually come to accept the idea of actresses in their 60's and 70's playing the role, first because Channing kept returning to it, second because, as a society, we've come to look at aging in a different way (60's and 70's now is much different than 60's and 70's in prior generations, and third because the parade of actresses who followed Channing in the original production and the original tours were largely older. I wonder if an actress in her 40's would even be accepted in the role today. Would she appear way too young to our contemporary eyes? Or would someone in her 40's not have had the time to have the long, iconic career that we've come to expect from actresses playing this role in major productions. If Midler or Peters had played Dolly in the 1980's...would they have had the impact that they've had in the current production? |
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| re: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 07:47 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
| In reply to: re: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." - JereNYC 03:59 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
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| I also think an actress in her early 40s today might be seen as creating a confusion with Irene Molloy, also a widow. That Irene is a woman who has experienced love and sex and can be a loving guide to both for the innocent Cornelius is poignant and amusing at the same time. | |
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| re: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 07:22 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
| In reply to: re: " I don't know if Dolly's age is specified." - JereNYC 03:59 pm EDT 06/26/18 | |
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| Kristin and Sutton are in their 40s and I think they'd both be great as Dolly. | |
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