Mary Martin did not originate the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi in the 1964 Broadway musical "Hello, Dolly!", but her impact on that part is greatly felt in this outstanding documentary that features footage from her on stage, traveling from San Francisco to Vietnam and finally to London where she was acclaimed for her warm portrayal of the feisty matchmaker. This could be called a publicity stunt for the show, already a huge hit on Broadway with Carol Channing, and preparing for a long life with many greats of the stage and screen. Dolly has never gone away again, and as I write, she's back on Broadway in a boisterous new revival that shows that certain aspects of the past cannot be lost. Great music and theater is timeless, as is the warmth and understanding of one culture to another.
Seen in the red sequined dress that Dolly makes her entrance down the staircase of the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant in New York City, Martin is sitting in her London dressing room and tells the audience of her journey in the part from the first national tour in the United States and the request she got from President Lyndon Johnson to take it oversees to entertain the troops and the troubled Vietnamese people. Martin takes her audience inside the various cultural aspects of their culture, showing a performance that she says has been running for centuries. Her warmth and devotion to her craft is obvious, and when she breaks into the various songs from the show, you feel like you've gone back in time and are both in the early Twentieth Century as well as the 1960's when this took place. Producer David Merrick and other cast members are seen as well, so this is not only a theatrical history lesson, but a cultural one as well.
Seen in the red sequined dress that Dolly makes her entrance down the staircase of the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant in New York City, Martin is sitting in her London dressing room and tells the audience of her journey in the part from the first national tour in the United States and the request she got from President Lyndon Johnson to take it oversees to entertain the troops and the troubled Vietnamese people. Martin takes her audience inside the various cultural aspects of their culture, showing a performance that she says has been running for centuries. Her warmth and devotion to her craft is obvious, and when she breaks into the various songs from the show, you feel like you've gone back in time and are both in the early Twentieth Century as well as the 1960's when this took place. Producer David Merrick and other cast members are seen as well, so this is not only a theatrical history lesson, but a cultural one as well.
