Hello Dolly greets enthusiastic but underpopulated house

You’ve still got two more chances to catch something rare in Youngstown: quality, family entertainment. Saturday night and Sunday afternoon you can see Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly! performed by Youngstown’s only professional theater company, Easy Street Productions.

The production features the best pit band in Youngstown, the Easy Street Big Band, led by guitarist Jeff Sanders. The lighting was imaginative, including some nice touches with street lamps on a scrim that were lit very realistically. Local theater legend Bob Kozar memorably played Rudolph, the Harmonia Gardens’ head waiter–with hair!–and a fine Prussian accent.

Maureen Collins was ravishing and solid gold from start to finish. Though she could have found a bit more nuance and depth to the character, she was her lovable self and sang brilliantly. When she sang of coming out of her “personal haze,” it was hard not to equate with her incredible weight loss this year, and it was especially nice for there not to be any unintentional irony in the scene where she eats during the transition from the restaurant to the courtroom.

Back in my days at the Youngstown Playhouse, I was the musical director for a production of this show, and Jimmy McClellan sang Cornelius Hackl, as he does in this production. I looked forward, therefore, the entire show, to a reunion with Jimmy’s beautiful voice and “It Only Takes a Moment,” which for me is the finest tune in the show.

Renee Rogers also does the best choreography in town, and “Dancing” is the number where this is, appropriately, in evidence. Also the dependable stage manager, Rogers gets the most out of a cast and chorus of about thirty, and makes the most of the Powers stage, showing off Broadway-style pinwheels and kicklines that prompted the audience to pepper the dance numbers with appreciative applause.

The same audience, however, showed an incredible lack of grace after intermission by conversing boisterously through the entr’acte. They fought to be heard over the orchestra, and when the music came down in volume suddenly as it shifted from one melody to the next, an embarrassing roar of voices filled the hall. Folks: the overtures are as integral to the entertainment as the dialog; when the music starts, the show has begun, and it’s time to stop your talking and direct your attention to the performers (which include those men and women in black with the instruments down there in the pit).

Though the first-level orchestra section was well sold, the balcony was only filled for a couple of rows in the front of the loge. What a shame! This was first-rate family-friendly entertainment. My wife and I often discuss the paucity of family entertainment in Youngstown, and I thought Hello Dolly! was an even better show for the kids than High School Musical. Certainly more enjoyable for the parents, and my kids like the tunes better. And you can’t compare the stories–please!

So, go see the show at Powers Auditorium at the DeYor, along with the rest of the Easy Street/Youngstown Symphony Society season.

Photos by Jaci Clark Photography.

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