Goodbye, Dolly. Hello, Donna. Last night Donna Murphy stepped into the role of Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” and I’m sure she was just great. For one thing, she’s the right age. Second, she
is a real bona fide Broadway star. Her “King and I” remains one of the landmark shows of all time.
So Murphy took over last night and guess what? There are seats galore at the Shubert Theater! If you want to see “Hello, Dolly!” and pay a normal price for a good seat– like $119 for front row mezzanine– now is the time. I may do it myself since there were no press seats for this show, and Midler’s tickets come in at an unforgiving $500.
Bette is out for two weeks– til July 9th– and then has all sorts of breaks through the end of the year. At that point my guess is “Hello, Dolly!” will wrap its cash register run unless they can find a Really Big Star to take over. Ru Paul, anyone? (I still say Dolly Parton is the way to go.)
Hello, Dolly! Fri June 30 mezzanine on the left, orchestra on the right. Monday box office numbers are going to hurt.
