Hello, Dolly! (1969)

Hello, Dolly!

[box] Dolly Levi: And on those cold winter nights, Horace, you can snuggle up to your cash register. It’s a little lumpy, but it rings![/box]

Not my favorite musical but cheerful enough for the Lockdown.

The setting is 1890’s New York.  Widow Dolly Levi (Barbra Streisand) is an expert at arranging things, particularly marriages.  She has been working on the case of the wealthy confirmed old bachelor Horace Vandergelder (Walter Matthau).  As the story begins, she has been given charge of his niece Ermengarde, who wants marry a painter (Tommy Tune), while Horace travels to New York City to propose to milliner Irene Malloy.

Following Horace’s departure, his clerks Cornelius (Michael Crawford) and Barnaby decide to play hooky and follow their boss to New York.  Dolly aids and abets all this mischief by encouraging Ermengarde to elope and suggesting that Cornelius and Barnaby play a call on Irene Malloy.  By the end of the story, Dolly has made several matches including for herself.

This is a musical that takes choreography to levels unseen since “Oliver!”, i.e. with a cast of thousands joining almost every single number.  In addition, Streisand seems entirely too young to play this part.  The songs are good though and it is certainly better than watching existential terror during a Lockdown.