Page 7 - Hello, Dolly! Playbill

Director’s note

“Isn’t the world full of wonderful things?”

Hello, Dolly! has been convincing audiences of just that since it premiered on
Broadway in 1964. Adapted from Thornton Wilder’s play The Matchmaker, Hello,
Dolly! featured irresistibly catchy tunes, lovable characters, and a hilarious book.
It was an instant hit, winning a record-setting ten Tony Awards, including Best
Musical. Five years later, Gene Kelly directed the incomparable Barbara Streisand
in the Academy Award winning film adaptation, which also featured Louis
Armstrong. In 2017, after fifty years off Broadway, Dolly made a triumphant
return in a revival which won four more Tony Awards. “It’s so nice to have you
back where you belong,” indeed.

Of all the musicals that I love, Hello, Dolly! holds a special place in my heart. My
parents started dating while performing in their own high school’s production of
Hello, Dolly! Pictures of them in their ‘Sunday Clothes’ are floating around their
house somewhere. The theater bug bit me at the age of nine when I joined a
production of Dolly that was directed by Grace Hart. We rehearsed in the MHA
lunchroom. Talk about history repeating itself!

Beyond my personal affinity for Dolly, however, the story’s warmth and heart
have made and continue to make an impact on millions of theatergoers. Central
to the story are Dolly and Irene, both widows who grieve their late husbands. In
spite of their grief, both women show that, even in the midst of great sorrow,
there is still joy. Specifically, they find comfort in community, both new and old.
Is that not what we, as members of the body of Christ, are called to as well?
What a beautiful example of brotherly love! As we seek to carry one another’s
burdens, let us also find that the world—though full of the thorns and thistles of
life—is also full of wonderful things.

Abbie Patrick, Director