| re: 50th anniversary showing of the Hello, Dolly! film | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:21 pm EDT 08/13/19 | |
| In reply to: re: 50th anniversary showing of the Hello, Dolly! film - JereNYC 10:00 am EDT 08/13/19 | |
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| Well, one of the things I miss in the stage musical is that Dolly's situation doesn't seem desperate, unlike in Wilder, where she is on the verge of being homeless. In the musical, she may be lonely, but she doesn’t seem in desperate financial circumstances. Rather, she seems to be the most successful matchmaker in New York. This may be a bit less true in the movie. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. Does the “Call on Dolly” lyric show up in any way? You wrote, ”I get the whole serendipity thing, but it's always just strained credibility for me that, in all of New York, Cornelius and Barnaby just happen to wander into this particular shop." Of course it strains credibility. It’s supposed to strain credibility. It’s the point. It's farce. If your objection is that it strains credibility, then the it sounds like you don’t especially like the basis of the piece. That's OK, but crazy coincidence and chance is part of the essence of the source material and I think also the musical. You write, “And I find it very in character for the scheming Dolly to have had the idea, when she overhears them making plans to close the store for the day and go play in New York,” Just a reminder that she doesn’t overhear them in the stage musical and in Wilder, although in the stage musical it seems that she perhaps sees them at the station or on the train. That’s left unclear. You wrote, “We know that she's pointed out to him, on their approach, that there are two men in the shop. Again, this is in the movie but not in the stage musical or in Wilder. They do not arrive at the shop together in the stage musical and in Wilder. So I guess you find all these changes to be improvements. I see why you say that Dolly is mercenary, but I don’t think she’s meant to be in Wilder and the stage musical. In Wilder especially, she’s truly in desperate straits so of course she’s doing what she can to not be homeless in a few days. But everything she’s doing has a spirit of generosity to it, which is the essence of the woman. She is a better match for Vandergelder, Irene would be miserable married to Vandergelder, and she is trying to help the young lovers, Ermengarde and Ambrose, find happiness. I think she’s not especially scheming in Wilder or even in the stage musical. She just believes that by the end of the day, after dinner with her at a fancy restaurant and once everything is set with Ermengarde and Ambrose, he will come to his senses and realize that she’s the right woman for him, they belong together. I’m not the biggest fan of the stage musical, either, especially that “Hello, Dolly!” song. I appreciate the staging but I really have never gotten the joy of the song, even when I was very young. Later I learned that in the source material the song would make no sense. I prefer that about the source material, that this is a woman who has never been someplace like the Harmonia Gardens. But I do like most of the score and most of what’s left from Wilder. |
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