This show has been a star vehicle for nearly every leading lady of Broadway, featuring as it does one of the most famous entrances in musical theater (the title song), and an exuberant score with infectious dance numbers. Based on the play The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, about a matchmaker who decides that her latest client (who of course takes a strong dislike to her at first) is just the right one for her, the musical also lets the performer exercise all her power to charm—of course wearing those elegant, sophisticated turn-of-the-century gowns. Set designers and costumers have also loved such moments as the parade and the restaurant scene.

The music is on the old-fashioned side, often with a slightly European feel from the frequent waltzes and polkas, fitting the time and place as well as the equally old-fashioned plot, but it also has a vibrant freshness that keeps plot and music from seeming too hackneyed. Hello Dolly ran for 2,844 performances, and briefly held the record for most durable show on Broadway, breaking the record held by My Fair Lady. But the record was broken again by Fiddler on the Roof. It won ten Tony Awards, a record that still stands unbroken. In 1969, Gene Kelly directed a film version with Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau for 20th-Century Fox.

© Anne Feeney, Rovi