Hello, Dolly! review round-up: critics say a warm Hello to Imelda Staunton’s Dolly

Lucinda Everett, WhatsOnStage
★★★★

“Calling Hello, Dolly! ‘beloved’ is a bit like calling Santa Claus ‘that guy the kids are pretty fond of’. The turn-of-the-century-set tale of professional meddler Dolly Levi is as enduringly popular and critically lauded as they come.

“But this cast seems plucked from the Golden Age, too. To a faultless orchestra, the 36-strong ensemble raises roofs and goosebumps with exceptional renditions of Jerry Herman’s songs. They polka and pirouette like an army of Fred and Gingers to Bill Deamer’s buoyant choreography. And almost all of them hold their own against Staunton’s undeniable star power.”

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian
★★★★★

“There is a screwball comedy feel to Michael Stewart’s book and Fred Astaire effects in Bill Deamer’s swooning choreography (which we sway along with). None of it is desperately original or complicated but the gags still zing, and together with Jerry Herman’s music and lyrics this production casts a magic spell. Dominic Cooke’s production is immaculately performed and slowly, beautifully life-affirming, with humour that reins in the schmaltz.”

Alice Saville, The Independent
★★★★

“Anyone craving a taste of good old-fashioned razzmatazz won’t be disappointed in Hello, Dolly!, a 1964 musical served up with all the trimmings in the Palladium’s vast gilded barn. It’s overwhelmingly lavish, its flimsy plot groaning under the weight of extravagances, like the giant train that steams across the stage, or the chorus of dancing waiters bearing silver salvers bright enough to blind half the front row. Charged with bringing both heart and substance to the feast, Imelda Staunton shines in the title role.”

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph
★★★★

“Such is the collective adoration in which Staunton – newly Dame Imelda – is held that when she makes her renewed big entrance in character as Dolly Levi amid the second half of Hello, Dolly!, descending the stairs of the Harmonia Gardens restaurant, New York to be greeted with fond affection – and the show’s famous signature tune – by the waiting staff, the Palladium goes a bit nuts.

“The line ‘It’s so nice to have you back where you belong’ applies to Herman’s heroine, widowed but back on the scene as a match-maker and endearing fixer, and to an actress whose return to musicals in this show was held up by the pandemic and other work.”

Nick Curtis, Evening Standard
★★★★

“From the start, with the cast striding along a travelator past projections of Victorian Manhattan, Cooke suggests a city on the move… It’s also a place where women – widows – like Dolly and her frenemy Irene (Jenna Russell, serenely brilliant as ever) have clout. And where Vandergelder’s clerks, Cornelius and Barnaby (Harry Hepple and Tryone Huntley) start to dream above their station.

“None of it would work without Staunton, our pre-eminent musical performer, gifted with comic timing, radiant charm and dramatic prowess as well as that formidable voice. We – and the late Jerry Herman – are lucky to have her.”

Rachel Halliburton, The Times
★★★★

“Cooke’s production of Hello, Dolly! opens 60 years after the musical first hit Broadway during a time of political upheaval provoked by the continuing war against Vietnam. As Staunton triumphantly takes the lead role, it’s clear why the musical is such a tonic for turbulent times, with its bracingly salty wit balanced by the redemptive philosophy that everyone deserves a second chance.”