‘Hello, Dolly!’ at the Academy of Music is a crowd-pleaser, and then some

At the end of the national tour of Hello, Dolly!, playing through March 1 at the Academy of Music, a very happy packed house stood and applauded and roared.

As well they should have: This rollicking, eye-popping production does this show proud. If you have never seen Dolly!, this is a chance to see a mighty accomplished version, played for every laugh and pratfall.

They stood and clapped for the tremendous supporting ensemble. As of 2020, everybody these days can dance like a dream and jump through the roof, and this bunch did.

They applauded for John Bolton as eligible bachelor Horace Vandergelder. In Bolton's hands, Horace grows crankier and more clueless, until, well, you know he's going to give in, and that it's not going to make too much sense, and he does, and it doesn't, and it's very funny.

But they applauded hardest of all for Carolee Carmello, a true force of nature as Dolly Gallagher Levi. From her first moment onstage through the final bows, she had her strong arms around us, taking us all along on her adventure. Carmello channels all the great Dollys before her — you can’t get away from them, so you might as well embrace them — yet she creates a lovable Dolly of her own.

This is the national tour of the celebrated 2017 Broadway revival that began with Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce in the lead roles. That Tony-winner closed in August 2018 and missed nary a step, hitting the road that very September. It’s been on the road ever since and is scheduled to close in March in upstate New York.

And almost all its creative team is involved here — another reason to go. Jerry Zaks directs, with emphasis on energy, continuity, and timing. That’s crucial, when you have lines like “Some paint, some sew, I meddle” or “Money is manure — it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow.”

Santo Loquasto's fabulous costumes range from Dolly's outrageous getups to hot pastel suits and dresses for courting couples on the streets of Yonkers and New York.

David Chase supercharges the dance; his amazing troupe seem to be having a great time. Standouts include Steffany Pratt, Scott Shedenhelm, and Brandon L. Whitmore. Chase mixes the ragtime/cakewalk/fox-trot feel of the original with crazily funny shtick. This is broad humor, generous with the slapstick.

The high point is the athletic staff at the Harmonia Gardens restaurant, with waiters flying through the air, clanging tureens and chafing dishes, flourishing napkins — it’s worth the price of admission. Amid their derring-do comes the show’s one great tune, wisely saved for three-quarters through, when Dolly returns to the Harmonia and the adoring staff says, well, hello.

It’s going to be Dolly’s show, and Carmello really leans into it, confiding in us as she goes, conversing (in the show’s brilliant through line) with her departed spouse Ephraim, asking his blessing as she targets Horace for his money. Carmello embraces both her character’s silliness and her pathos.

As written, it’s a very silly show. The scene in the hat shop of Irene Molloy (played and beautifully sung by Analisa Leaming, the strongest voice) is the kind of postwar bang-around laugh-fest that is all but gone from our entertainment vocabulary now, itself a holdover from vaudeville and the wacky films of the 1930s and 1940s. And Carmello does it all very well.

It's what the crowd wanted, and they got it. There's an innocence to it all.

There's also business to be done. The musical was based on Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker, which has much tart commentary on bourgeois materialism. Dolly is the most energetic entrepreneur in musical history, handing around her cards, for hire for everything: "Financial Consultation, Instruction on the Guitar and Mandolin, Short Distance Hauling, and National Monuments Restored!" And she makes no bones about being a digger for "pleasure and the profit it derives."

But Carmello is most believable when most lovable, especially in the show's other best tune, "Before the Parade Passes By," when she reveals her other big motivation: that, now in middle age, she wants a chance to live again.

Hello, Dolly! should be lovable, with a hustle equal to Dolly's and a heart that, while it is after gold, is made of gold itself. That's what's on at the Academy right how. It's nice to have you back.

Hello, Dolly!

Through March 1 at the Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St.

Tickets: $20-$129.

Information: 215-893-1999, kimmelcenter.org