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QuarryWorks has mounted
a community production of "Hello Dolly!" that is lavish,
colorful and charming - and takes on a whole different meaning in
such intimate quarters.
QuarryWorks is a now-veteran community theater sponsored by the
Adamant Cultural Foundation and housed at its own professionally
equipped playhouse overseeing the old Adamant quarry. Admission
is free, but the hall usually "sells out" early so patrons
are invited to visit the theater two hours prior to the performance
to pick up tickets. (Picnicking is allowed on the grounds, and rest
rooms are available.)
"Hello Dolly!" with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman,
book by Michael Stewart, has been a hit with community theaters
ever since it hit Broadway. Part of its success is the infectious
and memorable music, but much of it is its very American tale of
overcoming seemingly insermountable obstacles by Thornton Wilder.
Mrs. Dolly Levi-Gallagher makes her living as a match-maker, but
decides she has been a widow long enough and it's her turn to be
matched. She sets her
machinations on Horace Vandergelder, a Yonkers hardware store owner
who has already hired her to wife a match for him.
Dolly had offered him Mrs. Irene Molloy, another widow and owner
of a New York women's hat shop. In side plots, Vandergelder's daughter
Ermengarde wants to marry, much against her father's wishes, the
penniless artist Ambrose Kemper.
The real action begins when Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker,
Vandergleder's overworked and underpaid clerks, decide to go to
New York for a night on the town. They find themselves in Mrs. Molloy's
hat shop, attracted by the owner and her lovely clerk, Minnie Fay.
However, no sooner do the young gentelemen make the ladies' acquaintance,
Mr. Vandergelder arrives to court Mrs. Molloy.
Not quite to save the day, but to turn things in her favor, Dolly
arrives and sets a course of action that will take them all to New
York's most expensive restaurant and nightclub, criminal court and,
finally back to Yonkers. But it's the carastrophes along the way
that makes "Hello Dolly!" so much fun.
The Quarryworks production, directed by Michael John Suchomel, with
musical direction by Mark Violette, is big and colorful, and the
acting and music is quite
good. The production benefits from some excellent casting, but the
intimate quarters made some of the acting seem like overacting.
At Friday's performance,
Karen Machia was real and convincing as Dolly, and she sang effectively.
This wasn't the big brash Dolly of Broadway, but a strong woman
who knew where she was going. Jonathan Herz as Horace Vandergelder
sang particularly well and, despite too much posturing, was largely
convincing.
Sheila Collins was more than convincing as Irene Molloy and sang
particularly well and expressively. Another fine singer was Susan
Evans, whose Minny Fay was
charmingly ditzy. Brickett Bailey and Phil Gosselin were a wonderful
comic duo as Cornelius and Barnaby. Baily proved quite a good singer,
and Gosselin a fine dancer.
Two delightful characterizations were Martha Jo Walton's outrageously
offensive Ernestina Money, and Soon Chaussé's elegant and
autocratic headwaiter Rudolph
Reisenweber. Trace Barrett and Kristin Kelley were convincing as
Ermengarde and Ambrose, and Kelly proved quite a delicious screamer.
Julie Mueller was also effective as The Muse, the story's narrator.
Because of the intimate quarters, some of the actors' performances
seemed inconsistent with others'. While Dolly and Mrs. Molloy were
played realistically, most of the other characters were played as
caricatures, and larger-than-life. Much of the caricaturing was
excellent, but larger-than-life acting is appropriate on
a big stage at a distance from the audience but tended to overpower
here. A little lightening up and variation of intensity would make
all the difference in the world.
The singing was largely of a good quality, save for a few minor
pitch problems at Friday's performance. Choreography by Machia and
Violette's piano accompaniement were just fine.
QuarryWorks is compressing Broadway into a small space - and it's
delightful.
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