Musical Review: Hello, Dolly!

I just got finished watching the old classic Hello, Dolly! which stars Ms. Barbara Streisand as Dolly Levi. The basis of the film is that Dolly is a widow that makes her living doing matchmaking services and other odd jobs. She becomes interested in a mean rich man name Horace Vandergelder, and decides to play matchmaker for him. (But we all know right up front that she is planning to marry him herself.) So throughout the movie, she causes all of this racket and puts on a real show in order to try to get Horace to propose to her. She even sings a goodbye song (telling him to go marry a cash register! ha ha) after the huge fiasco at an expensive restaurant in New York City.

When all is said and done, the old men Horace Vandergelder is surprise to find that no one is working and slaving under him anymore. He starts to understand that he can't just boss people around anymore because everyone has rebelled against him. However, everyone comes back and he thinks that he can order them around, but they demand the money he owes them instead, and so he finally gives in. While going up to the safe to get their money, Dolly is downstairs and asks for a sign from her dead husband to marry Horace. She repeats this crazy comment about money, which made me laugh a bit:

"Money is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread about, encouraging young things to grow."

And so when Horace gets back he ends up repeating the same quote, and Dolly takes that as a sign. The movie raps up with quick snippets of each of the big songs, and has Dolly and Horace getting married in a beautiful church.

If you would like a more detailed synopisis of the musical I recommend reading this Wikipedia page: Hello, Dolly! (film)

I would have to say the music and dancing fits into the time period pretty well...which is the 1890's. The dancing is phenominal and the music is pretty catchy, but much different then what is written today. During the scene after Dolly and the gang come out of the shop, I think the dancing is at its best. I was thinking to myself, "I wish there was more dance like that today!" Seriously, people just don't dance like that anymore. They used to have so much more energy then we have today.

My opinion is that more musicals need to take inspiration from this one!

The musical selections include:

• "Call On Dolly"
• "Just Leave Everything To Me"
• "Main Titles (Overture)"
• "It Takes a Woman"
• "It Takes a Woman (Reprise)"
• "Put on Your Sunday Clothes"
• "Ribbons Down My Back"
• "Dancing"
• "Before the Parade Passes By"

• "Intermission"
• "Elegance"
• "Love Is Only Love" •
• "Hello, Dolly!"
• "It Only Takes a Moment"
• "So Long, Dearie"
• "Finale"
• "End Credits"

To your right are a few of my favorite tunes in Hello, Dolly! Also, a great website to listen to full songs for free is www.playlist.com!

I give this musical 4 out of 5 stars!