Broadway World
HELLO, DOLLY! UK Run Sounding Unlikely
by BWW News Desk
Jan. 17, 2019
Mister D: I knew about this about 3 weeks ago. I visited a theater forum in the UK and saw all this commotion about Bette Midler coming to the UK to play “Hello Dolly” for the Yukkers!!! So I contacted Divine Central and was told it was very unlikely. So I went back to the forum the other day saying not to get their hopes up. But I never posted it here. I’ve just been really under the weather these last few months. That’s why my posting has been so erratic. I have been almost bedridden for 6 months. And now I’m just coming out of the dark into the light.
While I’m posting, I might as well tell you not to expect the official Bette Midler site to reopen. They just didn’t feel like it was worth it to keep it running. They said the lack of traffic didn’t warrant it. I had a lot of ideas to keep it running, but I don’t think they want to get that involved.
Rumors of a Bette Midler led West End transfer of Hello, Dolly! have been swirling for quite some time with the tides pulling in both directions. The latest from Daily Mail reporter Baz Bamigboye suggests that things are not looking good.
Bamigboye tweets:
Baz Bamigboye
?
@BazBam
There has been a heck of a lot of activity on UK theatre Twitter about #HelloDolly and I really don’t want to upset folk but it is NOT happening. I have said this but have been ignored . The Broadway #HelloDolly ain’t playing anyplace in London or the UK.
It seems Brits may need to say goodbye,
The Broadway revival production of Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman’s Hello, Dolly! instantly became the most coveted ticket of the year when it broke the record for best first day of ticket sales in Broadway history. By the time it began previews, it had the largest pre-performance advance sale in Broadway history. In addition to the Tony for Ms. Midler, it won three additional Tonys, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Gavin Creel), and Best Costume Design of a Musical (Santo Loquasto), and continued to break the Shubert Theatre house record over and over and over and over again.
Directed by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle, Hello, Dolly! began performances on Broadway on March 15, 2017, and officially opened on Thursday, April 20, 2017.
This Hello, Dolly!, the first new production of the classic musical (based on Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker) to appear on Broadway since it opened more than fifty years ago, pays tribute to the work of its original director/ choreographer Gower Champion, which has been hailed both then and now as one of the greatest stagings in musical theater history.
I’m disappointed that Bette won’t be doing the show in London, but my bank account is very happy.
I’ll say!!! LOL
Lack of activity on the website….maybe due to lack of updating? Whenever I checked it out it looked like the same info. Just my 2 cents.
That is it exactly. My site was much bigger than hers as far as traffic. I did tell them that that was it, When I met Bette for the 3rd time, I told her she should have an official website like Cher and Babs. That got her attention, LOL She said I do don’t I. She asked if I’d do it, but that she would have total control of what I put up and I laughed and said that that wouldn’t be fun. I told her I liked what I was doing because it was like a living and breathing site because I updated every day. And also, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that because I really do break the law by copying stuff. But it’s like my very own online scrapbook.
And I did joke with her about photos. I said I’ve heard how you are and I just couldn’t stand that (and we laughed)
But I knew it would be pretty much like the last two. I know people probably think I was crazy for not taking her up on it. I could have figured something out. But I was kind of protecting myself in that I wanted to keep a little distance so my lifetime inspiration wouldn’t get smashed. You know what I mean,
But she ended up liking me for my honesty, my politics, and I just felt at ease around her. She’s bailed me out of a couple of bad situations, plus I get access to her right-hand woman.
I did help out a little bit for Showgirl. They had asked for certain photos and some other things. The Betteheads T-shirt was in honor of my site, But they never wanted to promote me because they didn’t want to hurt anybody else who had a site. I fought pretty hard to get a mention on her Showgirl site, but they just felt like they couldn’t do it
Very cool!