Collins is perfect match for lead in ‘Hello, Dolly’

TRACEY D’ASTOLFO

Vindicator Correspondent

YOUNGSTOWN — Maureen Collins utterly shines in the title role of “Hello, Dolly.”

The classic musical opened Friday at Powers Auditorium, the first in the performing arts series presented by the Youngstown Symphony Society and Easy Street Productions.

In an interview last week, Collins told The Vindicator that she is at a similar stage in life that Carol Channing was when she played “Dolly” in the smash Broadway debut in the ’60s. It shows.

“I feel like I’m a lot [like] Dolly, helping form other people’s lives and finally deciding, ‘Hey, I want a life of my own,’” she said. “I’m at an age when maybe Carol Channing was when she first did the role on Broadway. The age when you feel you don’t want to live in the past, you want to move ahead and start living again.”

Director Todd Hancock puts on a “Dolly” that is true to the original, and Collins is superb in the outsized, memorable role. She sings with an authoritative and brassy edge, parades in her finery across a catwalk built around the orchestra pit, and always gets the job done with the flair of Dolly, the matchmaker of New York.

The musical, based on Thornton Wilder’s 1938 farce “The Merchant of Yonkers,” has become a piece of Americana that reflects its era, the early 1900s. But at least it makes no mention of war, financial crises or presidential politics. It also seems to prove the adage, “the more times change, the more people stay the same,” as can be witnessed in the popularity of computer matchmaking services today.

Dolly Levi is a widowed marriage broker (and lawyer, dance teacher and about a dozen other things) who knows how to make things happen for others. She decides to put her manipulative talents to work for herself and become a player in the love game.

The musical leans on the character like a keystone, and the pressure turns Collins into a diamond from the opening scene. You seldom see someone so right for a role.

Collins last played Dolly 25 years ago at the Youngstown Playhouse, sharing the stage with Kathy Shook in the role of Minnie Fay. Shook is back with Collins in the Easy Street version as Irene Molloy, which she illuminates with her sense of fun and beautiful singing voice.

The first-rate production components, which are typical to Easy Street, are all present: the orchestra, sets, grand costumes and the smooth staging. The layered, three-dimensional choreography is wonderful, especially the leaping waiters and chefs in the number “Hello Dolly.” And the other lead characters all give fine turns as the planets that revolve around Dolly, staying true to the manner of the era.

David Jendre is the gruff and money-loving Horace Vandergelder, the object of Dolly’s designs. James McClellan, one of the busiest actors in the area, is the humdrum clerk who finally takes a stab at life. Patrick Burgan is his hilarious young sidekick with a knack for physical comedy, and Emily Schrader plays the timid but eager Minnie Fay. There is also a chorus of 30.