A musical that was once the longest-running show on Broadway opened on 59th Avenue in Elk Point this past weekend, as Elk Point Community Choir presented ‘Hello Dolly!’ to its first two of six audiences at the Elk Point Arts and Leisure Centre.
Dixie Coleman and Kelsey Taylor share the role in alternating performances of Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi, a widow and matchmaker extraordinaire, who also has such tricks up her sleeve as giving dance and mandolin lessons, reboning corsets and curing varicose veins, just to name a few.
One of her clients is half-millionaire feed store owner Horace Vandergelder, played by Alan Kostyniuk, who is set in his ways and a demanding employer who won’t even allow his two clerks, Cornelius Heckl (Shaun Sheplawy) and Barnaby Tucker (Ryan Clarke) an evening off once in a while. A widower, Horace knows just what he wants in a wife, including that she is capable of fixing the plumbing and cleaning the stable. Can Dolly find him such a jewel? And does she even want to? That half a million would certainly increase a girl’s tolerance for a grumpy old man, wouldn’t it? If only her late husband, Ephram, would send her a sign that she is free to move on with her life!
His single state isn’t Horace’s only problem. He has custody of his weepy teenage niece, Ermengarde (Kiera Burke), who is bound and determined to marry starving artist Ambrose Tucker (Lauren Peters), if necessary, over her uncle’s dead body, and the two also enlist Dolly’s help to get them out of Yonkers and into wedded bliss.
Yes, yes, Dolly can find Horace some prospects, such as widowed milliner Irene Molloy (Diana Carter), who confesses a predilection for saucy hats to her assistant, Minnie Fay (Jen Withers), and heiress Ernestina Money (Naomi Gaertner), who may not be as rich or as elegant as Dolly claims. She could also take care of delivering Ermengarde to her aunt for him, and if Horace doesn’t know that the artist is along for the ride, what harm is there in that?
With Horace heading off to New York to meet Mrs. Molloy, the feed store clerks plan a little outing of their own, with just a little sabotage of the store involved in giving them a night off to take in the sights of New York, see the stuffed whale at the museum and (gasp!) maybe even kiss some girls!
Romance, sabotage, secrets and hilarious antics abound in this evening of musical mayhem, which also stars Kendall Snyder, Savannah Lawrence, Udo Mueller, Devin Lawrence, Doris Osinchuk, Mabel Gottenbos, Cassidy Thomson, Kendal Tilley, Sydny Hardcastle, Oralee Williams, Kamryn Coleman, John Sieben and, would you believe, not only a dummy, but a horse as well?
Want to see it for yourself? There are four more performances coming up, and a few more tickets are still available, according to Community Choir president Barb Buryn, for dinner and a show.
The Elk Point Allied Arts Society also plays a huge role in producing the annual dinner theatre, by providing bartending and wait staff, as well as selling 50/50 tickets. Allied Arts president Don Conrad told the crowd that the groups’ tireless volunteer efforts have helped to raise the $65,000 necessary for the new sound and lighting system that was recently installed, and that they will be paying the final installment on the centre’s caterer-friendly kitchen in the near future.
