Hello, late bedtime. And Dolly. Especially Dolly.
Last night I went to the city's community-theatre rendition of Hello Dolly!. It only lasted two hours and twenty minutes, which was a miracle on the order of any large miracle you can think of. It was frivilous and fun, didn't have a blatant interpersonal message like last year's production of South Pacific, and did not at any point seem as interminable as the year before that's interminable version of Oklahoma!. The choreography in Oklahoma! was better (I remember men-- real men!-- dancing in a triangle with real dance steps) but I feel that it's far better to go to a two-and-a-third hour production.
One thing I didn't understand, however, was how the title role of Dolly actually contributed to the hijinks that went on in the play. She flitted in and out of scenes, and she (spoiler warning!) gets hitched at the end (end spoiler warning! This play is so old it's like giving spoiler warnings for Shakespeare) and generally caused some mayhem, but that mayhem, it seemed to me, could have been started with a vicious weather pattern or a falling bowling ball. But all in all, a very good show.
One thing I didn't understand, however, was how the title role of Dolly actually contributed to the hijinks that went on in the play. She flitted in and out of scenes, and she (spoiler warning!) gets hitched at the end (end spoiler warning! This play is so old it's like giving spoiler warnings for Shakespeare) and generally caused some mayhem, but that mayhem, it seemed to me, could have been started with a vicious weather pattern or a falling bowling ball. But all in all, a very good show.