Girls, You Have Got To See Bernadette As 'Dolly!!!!!!!!!!!!'

                                    The first thing I want to say is, I was disappointed that Gavin Creel was out.
From what I understand he is about to undergo back surgery, and I wonder if doing this show, plus all those nights dragging Jane Krakowski across the stage in "She Loves Me," had something to do with it.

                                     So, I am willing to cut him some slack.  Get well, Gavin.

                                     When I first heard Bernadette Peters was replacing Bette Midler in "Hello, Dolly!," I said, "Hmmm...."  Maybe she will surprise me, but then the last time that happened was 33 years ago, as Dot, in "Sunday In The Park With George."  And I had seen the show twice, in revival, with those two definitive, Carol Channing and Pearl Bailey.

                                       Bernadette did the nigh impossible.  She surprised me.  Her Dolly, while still a hustling matchmaker, is deeply reflective, and filled with a widowed loneliness that makes one feel for her.  Some of her speeches brought tears to my eyes, and I have never heard a more moving, impassioned, rendition of "Before The Parade Passes By."   Bernadette goes for the jugular with this rejuvenating performance.

                                           The show was stopped three times.  First, when the overture segued into the title tune, applause shook the theater.  Second, during "Put On Your Sunday Clothes," whose infectious melody and gasp for breath costumes and staging are enough.  But, when that train is hauled out on stage, the crowd goes wild, darlings.

                                             And then......and then.  The curtains part, Bernadette is atop the Harmonia Gardens in that red dress, looking like it could have been borrowed from Diana Vreeland, and begins descending those stairs to the vamp of the title tune,,..and the audience just wouldn't stop.   They did the entire number, and then an encore of the last part.  This iconic moment got a standing ovation from its audience.  I cannot recall the last time a musical number got a standing ovation.

                                              But it is not all Bernadette' show.  Santo Loquasto's sets, and those costumes makes this the most sumptuous "Hello, Dolly!" I have ever seen!  There is a marvelous, simple 3-D effect in a scene where Minnie Fay pursues Barnaby, and it took my breath away.

                                              When I heard Victor Garber was going to play Vandergelder, I was so happy.  I know I will be shot in some quarters for this, but who cares?   I am The Raving Queen, after all.

                                                Victor Garber is better than David Hyde Pierce.  The number assigned to him, which Pierce mangled on the TONYS last year, Garber delivers with an aplomb that makes it interesting.  Still not a world beater of a song, compared to the feast of songs, elsewhere here, but in Garber's hands--he has been an actor's actor for over four decades, now!!!!!!!!--it becomes something more than filler for the real show to go on.

                                                   I only have one criticism.  During "Dancing," one of my favorite numbers in the show, Warren Carlyle should have staged it so the women's dresses would swirl more widely.  Maybe some lifts and turns.

                                                   Do you know Bernadette turns 70 this coming week?  Her energy and stamina are amazing.  What a marvelous gift she has received.

                                                     And she gives it back to the audience, in droves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                     Get thee to a ticket booth, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!