Winter 1964. You’re seeing the new smash hit musical Hello, Dolly!. The production skips the overture and opens immediately on a chorus on 1880s New Yorkers instructing the audience to call on the local matchmaker before Carol Channing revealing herself as Dolly from behind a newspaper. The briskly paced farce centers on this singular creation, a widow who makes ends meet as a matchmaker (but also has a business card in her pocket offering her services for any occasion that may come up, no matter how niche or bizarre.) Quick-witted and resourceful, Dolly takes her assignment (finding a bride for Horace Vandergelder, an irracable Yonkers shop-owner), and completely subverts it, setting up machinations that will land Horace for herself while leading to love for two of his clerks and a pair of milliners. Channing is so endearing as Dolly that you are completely on her side for all of these schemes, which are set converge at The Harmonia Gardens, a restaurant Dolly frequented with her late husband. The head waiter hears that Dolly will be in attendance and instructs the waitstaff to speed up service, launching a dazzling comedic display of leaps and gags. But all comes to a standstill when Dolly arrives standing atop a grand staircase in a stunning red gown beginning the most spectacular production number you’ve ever seen. (“Hello, Dolly”)

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