I was cast in the Chorus of Hello, Dolly! at Naples Dinner Theatre in the Spring 1991. My best moment was as the Waiter trying to get Rudy’s (the Maitre’ d’s) attention when Dolly Levi has arrived (just before she descends the staircase). I played him as a young, awkward kid in school. I yelled 3 times to get Rudy’s attention. He couldn’t hear me over the cacophony of everyone getting the restaurant ready for her arrival. On the 3rd and final time of yelling his name (each time getting louder), all action stopped and everyone looked at me. It was dead silent. I cocked my legs in (like I was peeing myself) and squeaked out in a tiny, pubescent, cracking voice, “She’s here.” It brought the HOUSE down every single night!
Title
Role
Supporting – Chorus
Director
On Stage Photos
All these images were taken in 1990 (before cellphones) so the quality is not the best. I cut them up and put into a 3 ring binder. They are so old, I couldn’t remove them from the binder because they would start to tear. Sorry for the poor quality. Click on below images for larger version.
Cast Offstage
Trailer
Here is the trailer for the popular 1969 movie adaptation starring Barbra Streisand.
Synopsis
Hello, Dolly! is a 1964 musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder‘s 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York to find a match for the miserly “well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder.
Hello, Dolly! first debuted at the Fisher Theater in Detroit on November 18, 1963[1], directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick, and moved to Broadway in 1964, winning 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This set a record which the play held for 37 years. The show album Hello, Dolly! An Original Cast Recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.[2] The album reached number one on the Billboard album chart on June 6, 1964, and was replaced the next week by Louis Armstrong‘s album Hello, Dolly![3] Louis Armstrong also was featured in the film version of the show, performing a small part of the song “Hello, Dolly!”.
The show has become one of the most enduring musical theater hits, with four Broadway revivals and international success. It was also made into the 1969 film Hello Dolly! by 20th Century Fox, which won three Academy Awards, including Best Score of a Musical Picture and was nominated in four other categories, including Best Picture at the 42nd Academy Awards.
Thank Yous
Thank you to Jim Fargo and Julian Fisk for giving me a year contract at the Naples Dinner Theatre. Thank you to the Cast and Crew. I look forward to working with you all again SOON!
For more examples of my acting, click here.
