Last Updated on June 16, 2026
All Dolled Up!
With the turbulent politics of recent times, it is maybe not unreasonable to suggest that the slew of revivals that we have seen of some of the greatest American musicals of the 20th century are a desire for a return to a more innocent and stable past. There was the terrific hillbilly/bluegrass reshaping of Oklahoma! at Whyndam’s Theatre and an immersive Guys and Dolls at the Bridge. But now it’s the turn of Hello, Dolly!, starring Imelda Staunton as the matchmaker Dolly Levi, in a new production at The London Palladium.
The show, originally staged in 1964, was based on Thornton Wilder’s 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers and features the dynamic songs of Jerry Herman and a cleverly constructed Michael Stewart book that crackles with humour. Then of course there was the 1969 movie starring Barbra Streisand – too young for the role – Walter Matthau and a fresh-faced Michael Crawford. The new production at the Palladium brings Staunton back together with the director Dominic Cooke, the winning formula behind the National Theatre’s hit production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies.
Hello, Dolly! follows the adventures of Dolly Levi, a charismatic and meddlesome matchmaker cum fixer. Dolly has been hired by the ‘half-a-millionaire’ Horace Vandergelder to find him a wife. However, she has secretly set her sights on marrying him herself. Imelda Staunton as Dolly is a pint-size dynamo with a business card for every occasion, orchestrating everything around her and manipulating all and sundry to achieve her ends. Imelda is a little sedate in the role – she is an older Dolly – but surrounded by some fabulous dancing boys bringing to life Bill Deamer’s scintillating choreography – she has the charisma as well as the acting and singing chops to deliver the role with aplomb. She brings a mittel-European charm to the part that contrasts with another Dolly, Bette Midler’s Broadway brassiness.
From the elegiac pathos of ‘Love, Look in My Window’ to her showstopping entrance at the top of the gorgeous Art Nouveau staircase of the Harmonia Gardens restaurant for ‘Hello, Dolly!’, there is no denying her star quality. The figure of ‘the matchmaker’ is still important in the Jewish Orthodox community and of course, both Herman and Stewart were Jews. There are plenty of cultural expressions that amplify the role – the song ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker’ in Fiddler on the Roof (also from 1964) and more recently the role of Rose, the mother of Mrs Maisel in the eponymous TV series. The racially ambiguous character of Dolly is presumed to be an Irish woman whose husband Ephraim Levi was a Jew but really the show is a Jewish fable hiding in plain sight, but with enough ‘goyish’ elements to blur the edges.
Andy Nyman does a sterling job playing the curmudgeonly Horace Vandergelder. He brings to life the character’s unsympathetic meanness without slipping into caricature and his paean to the American capitalist dream ‘Penny in my Pocket’ is a standout moment that contrasts with Dolly’s anti-capitalist message – ‘Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow.’ Through witty dialogue, elaborate schemes, and memorable musical numbers, Dolly gradually softens Horace’s stubborn exterior and in his moment of realisation that Dolly is the woman for him, there is no slipping into sentimentality. Emily Langham as Ermengarde– Vandergelder’s niece –does a fine line in teenage hysteria Michael Lin as her fiancé the artist Ambrose had a pleasingly camp sensibility.
Set in New York City at the turn of the 20th century, Cooke’s production is full of hustle and bustle and is rich in period detail. There is no attempt at reinvention, it is a classic take on the show that happily references earlier productions as well as the movie. The huge Palladium stage allows for projected backdrops, two rows of tracks with scenery shifting in and out including a steam train and a trolleybus, and a moving walkway that creates a lateral kinetic energy that brings New York to life. The show’s opening evocatively highlights Dolly’s emotional isolation with Imelda standing on her own, her back to the audience, illuminated by the light from a window like a Vermeer interior.
As the story unfolds, Dolly visits Yonkers, where Horace’s Grain & Feed shop is located. She encourages Horace’s employees Cornelius and Barnaby to rebel (‘There’s a world outside of Yonkers’) and have an adventure in New York City. Harry Hepple is a bundle of frustrated, gangly romantic energy as Cornelius and his rendition of ‘It Only Takes a Moment’ features the best singing of the production. Tyrone Huntley as the innocent younger Barnaby also has a fine singing voice and is a great dancer.
The two clerks meet the feisty milliner Irene Molloy – Jenna Russell who charms with her signature song ‘Ribbons Down My Back’ – and her adorably adenoidal assistant Minnie Fay, played by Emily Lane. With the chaps pretending to be well-off men about town, this meeting leads to plenty of hilarious comic business as well as romantic entanglements. The show highlights the new trend of the ‘independent’ woman represented in fashion through the ‘Gibson Girl’ dress silhouette, a less restrictive fashion than that of the Victorian era that presaged the rise of the flappers in the 1920s.
The band were consistently fabulous from the opening timpani roll. With every instrument amplified, the sound balancing was excellent without being overwhelming and the vocals and lyrics cut through effectively. Hello, Dolly! is the perfect vehicle for Imelda Staunton and will delight her legions of fans; it’s a show that oozes charm, good humour and ideas set within a Rolls-Royce of a production that guarantees a smooth ride.
Hello, Dolly!
The London Palladium
8 Argyll Street,
London W1F 7TF
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