Review Copyright (c) 1995 by TheatreNet Enterprises
This won't be a very long or detailed review because, really, there's not much to say about "Hello, Dolly!" and its Jerry Herman score that hasn't been said. And in its way, the new album says it all again for you.
The question is: how well?
Theatre album maven though I am, "Dolly" was never one of the scores I memorized. I've had a healthy respect for it, always, seen it at least three times, dutifully listened to each album and then filed them neatly, with no raging impulse toward nostalgia. Awed as I am by Mr. Herman's prodigious talent and distinctive style -- and I am -- the only one of his albums with which I ever developed an "intimate" relationship was the Australian recording of "La Cage Aux Folles" because -- and this is a purely subjective reaction -- it always struck me that the stars of that record, Jon Ewing and Keith Michell, were giving the most deeply felt performance of Herman's most personal score.
So, unusually for me -- a fellow who believes, and has said before in these "pages" that revival and concert albums can't be judged in a vacuum -- I opted, with the new "Dolly!" album ... to judge it in a vacuum. I opted not to pull out the original cast album, or the subsequent Pearl Bailey revisit. I opted not to compare. Why? Partially because I'm juggling several other deadlines and looking at limited time. But mostly because the "street" word on the new album was disappointing -- at best. However, I was noting that no one who discussed the album did so without referring to how much better the original was. So for the sake of experiment, I decided to judge the thing solely on its own terms.
They naysayers, alas, are not wrong. Even on its own terms, without vivid echoes of the original bouncing around in one's memory, this new "Dolly!" album seems a little like a tired novelty act. From the opening strains of the overture, it's clear you're listening to a tour -- the orchestra, at times, has that kind of cheesy, not-quite-together feel of some 1960s British cast albums. And the supporting cast seems uninspired: you don't feel as if you're listening to roles newly created, but rather to the latest in the dozens of lines of dozens of replacements. Even Herman's protegé Florence Lacey, one of the most striking belters in the theatre (and the best "Evita" ever; check out the world tour album on the German Polygram label), sounds throaty and tired.
The biggest shock, though, is Carol Channing herself. It shouldn't be a shock, of course. She created the role, what, thirty odd years ago, and she wasn't precisely a spring chicken then, so of course she has aged and of course she would sound it. But you expect her to sound older ... not old. Happily, Ms. Channing's boundless enthusiasm is still palpably in place ... but the vibrato has widened into self parody, and the signature drawl has become a kind of growl.
I don't know what the tour, when it hits town, will be like. I assume it will be a faithful recreation of the original Gower Champion staging and that, like the last time Ms. Channing had at Ms. Levi, it will be great fun. Anyway, I hope so.
But the album is not great fun. On its own terms, I'm not even sure it was necessary. Oh, it's not a disaster, really. In many respects, it's even perfectly competent. But competent isn't nearly enough, for a Broadway album. And the disaster is that the album isn't doing the show, or anyone connected with it, any great favors.
Jameson Baker is a free-lance theatre journalist. He has written CD liner notes and articles for several magazines and newspapers, among them Vanity Fair.