ARTS & CULTURE theater
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Isabelle de Borchgrave, Marie de’ Medici, 2006, based on a 1595 portrait by Pietro Facchetti in the collection of the Palazzo Lancellotti, Rome. Photo: Andreas von Einsiedel.
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George Dvorsky stars as Horace Vandergelder in Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma’s production of Hello, Dolly! | Photo K.O. Rinearson of Oklahoma / provided
ate the olds c h o o l Broadway grandeur of the original production. “I wanted to recreate that so that the younger generation now that’s never seen Hello, Dolly! can see how a classical mu sic a l was written and how it’s performed today,” Wells said. “It is so much fun to work on because a lot of the musicals that are being produced aren’t produced the way that these were. You can change Dolly! and you can make it more modern, but I’ll be honest, when [Lyric artistic director] Michael Baron asked me to do this, I said, ‘Michael, I don’t want to change it. It’s just such a perfectly written musical. So if you don’t want the classic, then don’t have me direct it.’” Even if they don’t quite make musicals like they used to, Wells said Dolly! is still relevant to today’s audiences. “When you get down to the root of this story, it’s about a woman who is trying to find her life again,” Wells said, “which we all go through still nowadays, whether it’s in a divorce or a death or just trying to find your first love. … Dolly’s been a widow for awhile and she’s finally decided, as she says, to ‘Join the human race’ and to get back out there and try to live life instead of just sitting at home and watching TV and playing Xbox, if you want to bring it into the real world.” Theater purists should note that no video game consoles or otherwise modern references have been slipped into the script, which Wells said stands on its own. “Hello, Dolly! is probably one of the best-written musicals, especially for a woman’s role, and how the show is crafted, both the book and the music,” Wells said. The woman’s role is explored and discussed throughout the musical, which includes “It Takes a Woman,” a song sung by Dolly’s unsuspecting love interest Horace Vandergelder (George Dvorsky) praising women who “work into infinity” unclogging drains, shoeing horses and cleaning the stable. Wells said that Dolly is a more feminist
character than might be obvious on first examination. “Dolly goes into it knowing exactly what she’s doing from the very beginning, meaning she knows what type of man Horace is,” Wells said. “She knows that she wants to marry him, and she even tells us she doesn’t want to marry him for love. She wants to marry him for money because what she wants to do is spread his money throughout the world, helping young people.”
Woman’s perspective
Though the musical remains unchanged in substance, Wells said the performances of the characters and the audience’s perception of them might have evolved with modern attitudes. The fact that Wells is directing Dolly! from a woman’s perspective might also shape the way Hoty plays the title role. “She and I can be one-on-one in a room and just really talk,” Wells said. “I don’t think she feels like she has to put on any airs to prove herself, and we can just really look at the text and dive into it. And I can look at it from a female perspective instead of a male perspective and I can say, ‘I think this is what she’s feeling. This is what Dolly’s feeling at this point. This is what she’s talking about. This is where she’s coming from.’ A male director would probably say completely different things from what I’m saying. … We certainly have different conversations. There are many times when I’m like, ‘OK, you can just totally let the audience know that this guy is being ridiculous and you are in charge of this whole situation. In the original, you probably didn’t see it that way as much; you just thought, ‘Oh, wow! Look; here’s this woman. She’s going to sing these songs and she’s going to end up marrying him.’ Whereas now we do see it as women empowerment, we see it as she’s taking control and in charge of her life. Back then when it first came out, we might have seen it as, ‘Oh, this is the only thing she could do.’” Classical musical theater continues to remain relevant in any case, if for no other reason than it’s enjoyable. “So I do think modern audiences can find something in it for them,” Wells said, “and at the same time, isn’t it just fun to go to the theater and see just a good old show of happiness, light and love?” Hello, Dolly! runs Tuesday-July 15 at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave. Tickets are $47-$93.Visit okcciviccenter.com.
Hello, Dolly! Tuesday-July 15 Civic Center Music Hall 201 N. Walker Ave. | lyrictheatreokc.com $47-$93