Nobody expected less from Imelda Staunton.
The Vera Drake star, fresh off an Emmy nomination for playing the Queen in The Crown, is once again simply stunning, this time as hardened matchmaker Dolly Levi in Dominic Cooke’s moving revival of Jerry Herman’s 1964 musical.
Standing just 1.40 metres tall and stockings high, Staunton has the musical power of a nuclear power plant.
If she didn’t hold back, she would surely blow the Palladium’s fuse box. In other words, she’s perfect for the role of Dolly: a single woman in a bustle and bustle making her way through 1890s New York.
Michael Stewart’s story, however, remains a hodgepodge: a Dolly-style mix of pastel-coloured goo with synthetic flavours. But, thanks to Imelda, who cares?
Like Widow Levi, she’s a control freak who talks nonstop so no one can say anything while she sets them up with their perfect match.
Imelda Staunton, fresh from an Emmy nomination for playing the Queen in The Crown, is once again simply dazzling, this time as inveterate matchmaker Dolly Levi in Dominic Cooke’s moving revival of Jerry Herman’s 1964 musical.
Hello, Dolly! theatre production at the London Palladium. Pictured: Emily Lane, Tyrone Huntley, Jenna Russell and Harry Hepple
Standing just 1.40 metres tall and stockings high, Staunton has the musical power of a nuclear power plant.
Only now, she has her own eyes set on Horace Vandergelder (Andy Nyman): a grumpy, tight-fisted, “half-millionaire” from the “country town” of Yonkers.
Full of jokes and simple truths, Dolly also aids in the romantic emancipation of Horace’s downtrodden employees, Barnaby and Cornelius (Tyrone Huntley and Harry Hepple).
They’re paired with a Manhattan seamstress (Jenna Russell) and her assistant (Emily Lane), making for a conglomeration of pleasantly spurious scenes.
Before the parade passes, Dolly’s quiet contemplation of her lonely existence culminates in a gigantic paper-ribbon parade.
Her beloved reputation is celebrated with the rollicking main act at the Harmonia Gardens restaurant (famously performed alongside Louis Armstrong and the spinning top waiters in the 1969 film starring Barbra Streisand as Dolly and Walter Matthau as Horace).
Imelda Staunton takes a bow at the end of her speech during the press night presentation of Hello, Dolly!
Tyrone Huntley, Andy Nyman, Imelda Staunton and Jenna Russell take a bow at the end of the press night presentation at the London Palladium on July 18.
Husband and wife Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton attend the press party following Thursday night’s performance.
But there are also moist-eyed sentimentalities, as when Horace’s now-lovelorn employee Cornelius sings “It Only Takes A Moment” to free his dressmaker girlfriend Irene from jail. Bill Deamer’s choreography could do with a tumbling or tap-dancing routine, while Rae Smith’s scenic design, which creates movement with a huge, swirling scroll of 19th-century New York architectural prints, often feels oddly vacant.
And Cooke could certainly make more use of the restaurant’s Art Deco staircase, flanked by two tables awkwardly enclosed in red velvet curtains.
Staunton is now 68, and while it makes sense that her Dolly would be an older, more reclusive matchmaker (unlike the film’s frisky 27-year-old Streisand), Nyman’s chirpy Horace could use some of Matthau’s jowly misanthropy.
Meanwhile, Russell’s 58-year-old divorcée Irene adds a touch of Oedipal jazz by sinking her tenacious claws into Hepple’s 33-year-old virgin, Cornelius.
But none of that dims Staunton’s five-star performance, nor diminishes her smoky, sunny voice, whether in her song Love, Look In My Window or in her glorious, show-stopping title number. And she can still do a bit of footwork in the dance routines.
Seemingly delighted to chat with actors and audiences alike, she takes an infectious, childlike delight in her role and ensures that this joyous Dolly mash-up is well worth the wait.
(tags to translate)dailymail
