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11/06/2019 11:01 PMCarolee Carmello has some high heels to fill in the touring production of Hello, Dolly!
The actress will be starring in an iconic role that has been played by—just to name a few—Carol Channing, Bette Midler, Ethel Merman, Bernadette Peters, Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, and yes, Phyllis Diller.
Carmello, a three-time Tony Award-nominee, is taking over in the title role of the touring production of Hello, Dolly!, which plays The Bushnell in Hartford Tuesday through Sunday, Nov. 12 to 17. John Bolton, a frequent Connecticut actor last seen in Hartford Stage’s Anastasia, plays Horace Vandergelder. Carmello succeeds Betty Buckley, who toured with the show for its first year of the Broadway revival’s tour.
And what was Carmello’s first recollection of the popular musical, which bowed on Broadway in 1964, running with a series off stars through 1971?
“The first time was the movie with Barbra Streisand, and I guess I’ve seen some regional or summer stock productions over the years, but I didn’t see this production until I saw Betty Buckley do it in Washington D.C. earlier this year,” Carmello says. “I didn’t see it in New York.”
The musical is welcoming to wide variety of actresses because, she says, “the writing is so good.” (Michael Stewart did the musical adaptation of The Matchmaker by Hamden’s Thornton Wilder.)
What does Carmello bring to the role?
“I hope I bring a sense of playfulness. Dolly enjoys what she does so much and she has so much fun in her meddling. But she’s also vulnerable, which I think is the wondrous part of the show. You see her public face, but you also get to see her private moments when she’s speaking alone to the spirit to her late husband Ephram,” Carmello says. “I love those moments when you get to see the person behind the mask.
“The writing allows her to be smart because she’s so quick on her feet. She adjusts her tactics so quickly when things go wrong,” Carmello says. “I hope I can communicate all of that to the audience.”
Are there other grand dame roles in her future? Perhaps Mame, which also features a score by Dolly’s composer Jerry Herman?
“I don’t have any plans, but last summer I got to do Mama Rose in California. And I did Mrs. Lovett in New York,” Carmello says. “But Mame is on the list. But right now I have this giant red staircase to deal with, so it’s hard to think of anything else or what’s next.”
Ah, the iconic moment when Dolly enters Harmonia Gardens in the second act for the title song number—“That’s when you suddenly feel theater history on your shoulders,” she says.
Michael Price Honored
It’s one of the great honors in American theater, up there with getting a Tony Award or having a theater named after you.
On Monday, Nov. 18, Michael Price, who was executive director of Goodspeed Musicals for 46 years, will be entered into the Theater Hall of Fame.
It’s a rare honor for someone from outside the New York circle to achieve the recognition, but Price transformed Goodspeed from a quaint theatrical venue to a theatrical complex that includes the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, the Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, scene shops, rehearsal hall, the Gelston House restaurant, and an village of artist housing. Besides nurturing new artists, Goodspeed has also developed new shows and revivals, many of then which transferred to New York, including Man of La Mancha, Shenandoah, By Jeeves, Oh, Kay!, and the blockbuster Annie, whose financial fortunes secured Goodspeed’s future for decades.
“I started getting texts of congratulations, but I didn’t know what it was all about,” says Price, 81, who ended his Goodspeed run at the end of 2014. “[Goodspeed Executive Director] Michael Gennaro called and said there was a letter at the theater for me and I told him to open it up and that’s when I got the official news.”
Introducing Price at the event is commercial Broadway producer Sue Frost (Come From Away, Memphis, who was associate producer at Goodspeed for 20 years. Price points out that he also has connections with several of his fellow inductees.
“I went to Yale with [critic] Michael Feingold and Thomas Meehan [who died in 2017] who wrote the book to Annie helped make Goodspeed what it is today,” he says.
Other inductees are Tony Award winner Andre De Shields, lighting designer Natasha Katz, Donna McKechnie, Ann Reinking and director-playwright Emily Mann.
“Its kind of a neat thing to be recognized by your community,” says Price. “Gee, it’s such a warm and gratifying feeling. It makes me feel alive and relevant.”