Tami Tappan Damiano lights up the Musical Theatre West stage like nobody’s business as the one-and-only Dolly Levi in the record-breaking 10-Tony-Award-winning Best Musical of 1964, Hello, Dolly!, not only one of Broadway’s Golden Era’s greatest but one of MTW’s most spectacular productions in years.

 Taking the best of Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, Michael Stewart’s sparklingly funny book stirs in over a dozen now-classic Jerry Herman show tunes, a mix that gets seasoned with one toe-tapping, high-kicking production number after another, all of the above adding up to a musical that remains fresh and new more than six decades after Carol Channing sashayed down the Harmonia Gardens staircase, a restaurantful of red-jacketed waiters welcoming her back where she belonged.

Hello, Dolly!’s titular matchmaker is of course none other than Dolly Gallagher Levi, Yonkers’ most celebrated maker of romantic matches, tops among them the one she’s got planned for herself to half-a-millionaire hay-and-feed store proprietor Horace Vandergelder (Damiano’s longtime costar David Engel) if only she can get the miserly widower to see things her way, no easy task since the grumpy old man has set his sights on half-his-age milliner Irene Molloy (Anna Mintzer), whom he’s headed off to New York to visit.

Meanwhile, Vandergelder’s downtrodden, virginal 33-year-old head clerk Cornelius Hackl (Robert Pierranunzi) and his teenage helpmate Barnaby Tucker (Ben Raanan) have planned their own overnight escape to the Big Apple, vowing not to return to Yonkers “until we’ve kissed a girl.”

 As for the possibility of either clerk running into their boss in NYC, well honestly, how likely could that be in a city of a couple million residents?

 Playwright Wilder and book writer Stewart make sure that the unlikely happens quicker than Cornelius and Barnaby can say “Let’s hide in the closet before Mr. Vangergelder enters the hat shop where we’ve been chatting up both its owner and her assistant Minnie Fay (Natalie Holt MacDonald).”

 Later, in the musical’s most celebrated sequence, Wilder and Stewart reunite all concerned at the posh Harmonia Gardens restaurant, whose pair of curtained booths offer convenient cover, though for how long is anyone’s guess.

 Herman’s lyrics not only serve to propel the plot but his melodies remain among the catchiest ever written for a Broadway show, and when it’s the entire cast joining voices in sublime Herman harmonies, the result could hardly be more stunning.

All of this adds up to a musical that would probably be revived as often as its fellow mid-‘60s Best Musical Tony winners Fiddler On The Roof, Man Of La Mancha, and Cabaret if only it didn’t take a superstar like Damiano to make the role entirely and uniquely her own.

 From the moment Dolly proclaims her matchmaking intentions in “I Put My Hand In” to her declaration of liberation in “Before The Parade Passes By” to the goodbye-and-good-riddance gem “So Long Dearie,” the luminous Damiano, largely absent from our stages for the past twenty years, makes the role gloriously her own, investing Dolly with abundant warmth, zest for life, gorgeous mezzo vocals, and some nifty toe-tapping thrown in for good measure.

And speaking of dance, choreographer Cheryl Baxter delivers the goods again and again with the side-shuffling “I Put My Hand In,” the infectiously high-stepping “Put On Your Sunday Clothes,” and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day delights of “Before The Parade Passes By,” to name just three act-one showstoppers that are merely a prelude to the magnificent multiple wonders of “The Waiters’ Gallop.”

 Under Cynthia Ferrer’s deft direction, performances could not be more winning, from Engel’s deliciously curmudgeonly Horace to Pieranunzi’s song-and-dance-tastic Cornelius to Mintzer’s lovely, exquisitely voiced Irene to Raanan’s adorably spunky Barnaby to MacDonald’s perfectly perky Minnie Fay.

 Domonique Paton (Ermengarde), Landen Starkman (Ambrose Kemper), and Jane Papageorge (Ernestine Money) make the scene-stealing most of their featured roles, with Ricky Bulda (Judge), Roger Castellano (Rudolph), and Janna Cardia (Mrs. Rose) doing likewise with their cameos.

Last but not least, song-and-dance ensembles don’t get any more fabulous than Ryan Cody, Bar Daniel, Sydney DeMaria, Brandon Halvorsen, Camryn Hamm, Corinne Miller, Stefan Miller, Micah Nicholson, Rasha Willes Samaha, Michalis Schinas, Grace Simmons, Helen Tait, Matt Wiley, and Any Wissink.

 Music director Dennis Castellano elicits the very best from the Hello, Dolly! cast and the show’s Broadway-caliber fifteen-piece orchestra.

And speaking of Broadway-caliber, it’s been a long time since a Musical Theatre West production has looked this gorgeous, with Bruce Brockman’s sets and Dixon Reynolds’ costumes (courtesy of Music Theatre Wichita) looking pastel-hued picture perfect, particularly as lit to eye-dazzling effect by Paul Black, and sound designer Andrea Allmond makes everything sound just as spectacular.

Rachel Beard, Ryan Bohmholdt, Grace Catron, Savanna Cezus, Kacie Dillon, Jameson Hollar, Talia Landau, Drew Larsen, Sam Lelesi, and Zachary Veeh make up the student ensemble.

Hello, Dolly! is produced by Paul Garman and features props by Melanie Cavaness and Gretchenn Morales and wigs by Kaitlin Yagen. Bren Thor is associate producer. Julian Olive is production stage manager and Hannah Bailey and Maureen Beld are assistant stage managers. Howard Cast is technical director. Catt Fox-Uruburu is production manager.

From Carol Channing to Pearl Bailey to Betty Grable to Ethel Merman to Ginger Rogers (all of whom starred in the original Broadway Hello, Dolly!) to 2017 revival stars Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Donna Murphy and (on tour) Betty Buckley (not to mention a certain Barbra on screen), few roles have lent themselves to reinvention like Dolly Gallagher Levi, and Musical Theatre West’s Dolly is no exception.

Jerry Herman could have been singing the divine Tami Tappan Damiano’s praises when he wrote, “It’s so nice to have you back where you belong!” In this leading lady’s case, nice is an understatement.

Musical Theatre West, Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach.
www.musical.org

–Steven Stanley
October 18, 2025
Photos courtesy of Musical Theatre West

Tags: Jerry Herman, Los Angeles Theater Review, Michael Stewart, Musical Theatre West