Hello, Dolly! opens at Rogers City Community Theater Friday

by Angie Asam, Staff Writer

This weekend marks the opening of the 2009 Rogers City Community Theatre season as Hello, Dolly! hits the stage at Rogers City Theater. The show, directed by Pennie Kelly who is assisted by Andrea Shadbolt, featuring a cast of 23, will open Friday at 7:30 p.m. Show times will continue with a 7:30 p.m. show Saturday and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Those unable to catch the live production this weekend can do so April 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m. and April 5 at 2 p.m. Hello, Dolly! was first produced on Broadway in 1964 and won the Tony Award for best musical as well as nine other Tony Awards that year.

The play is based in New York City at the turn of the 20th Century. The city is a buzz as Dolly Gallagher Levi (Lisa Rhea) is in town. Dolly makes a living ?meddling?, matchmaking and several other things. She is in search of a wife for grumpy Horace Vandergelder (Karl W. Heidemann), the well-known half-a-millionaire. Ambrose Kemper (Michael Idalski), a young artist wants to marry Horace?s weepy niece Ermengarde (Hannah Hazlett), but Horace opposes because Ambrose?s vocation does not guarantee a steady living.

Young Mr. Kemper enlists Dolly?s help and the two travel to Yonkers, New York to visit Horace who owns Vandergelder?s Hay and Feed. Horace explains to his two clerks, Cornelius Hackl (Dan Nordenbrock) and Barnaby Tucker (Charlie Harp) that he plans to travel with Dolly to New York City to propose to the widow Irene Malloy (Tracie Papin) who owns a hat shop there.

Cornelius decides that he and Barnaby need to get out of Yonkers.

They blow up some tomato cans to create a terrible stench and good alibi to close the store. Dolly mentions she knows two ladies they should call on; Irene Malloy and Minnie Fay (Riconda Lamb). They all head to New York where the rest of the play unfolds.

Other cast members include Val Schalk (Ernestina), Mike Marx (Rudolph), Alison Marx, Dave Miller, Charlotte Heidemann, Donna Klein, Mary Hazlett, Laura Winkel, Bob Centala, Gene Modrzynski, Carly Claus, Julie LaBar, Lena Witt, Meghan Riordan and Suni Brotzke. The musical also appeared as a movie in 1969 and starred Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau.

For tickets please see any of the cast members, stop at the Rogers City Theater box office or visit the Advance office.