Hello, Dolly! Tickets

It’s ironic that a show focused on finding ‘the one,’ has had so many flings with well-known stars!

Theatres love affair with Dolly got off to a bumpy start when actors Ethel Merman and Mary Martin both rejected the role ahead of the initial Broadway run. Since then, the show has become one of the most enduring musical theatre hits of all time, with four Broadway revivals, 14 Tony awards and an Oscar winning film adaptation to its name.

With the latest revival opening later this year, say hello to the Dollys that made this musical a Broadway and West End staple.

Carol Channing (1964, 1978, 1979, 1995)

Clocking in more than 5,000 performances over three decades, Carol Channing is the Dolly for thousands of theatregoers, but she wasn’t originally meant for the role. In fact, she had to beg producer, David Merrick, to give her the chance after he told her “I don’t want that silly grin with all those teeth that go back to your ears.”

She convinced the shows director, Gower Champion, to give her the role after a lengthy late-night call, and once she got a hold of the part she wasn’t about to give it up. Over the course of her record-breaking run, she missed only half of one performance, thanks to a bout of food poisoning. You’ve got to feel sorry for her understudy, Jo Anne Worley! When Channing overheard Worley practising her vocals in the theatre corridor and calmly informed the young actress ‘not to worry about it, dear’

Channing received the Tony award for Best Actress in a Musical when she originated the part in 1964, she was then nominated in the same category at the Olivier awards when she reprised her role 15 years later. 23 years after that, in 2002, she took home the Grammy award for Hello, Dolly’s original Broadway cast recording. The album reached number one on the billboard charts when it was first released in 1964, the cast recording was knocked off the top spot a week later by Louis Armstrong’s rendition of the same album!

Channing was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981, received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995, and was the first celebrity to perform at the Super Bowl half time show!

Mary Martin (1965)

Martin toured the U.S. and Asia with Hello, Dolly!, before opening the show in London. Like Ethel Merman, Martin had originally turned down the role on Broadway, but ultimately relented when Channing catapulted to stardom, having made the musical a record-breaking success. (Well, you would, wouldn’t you) 

Martin continued to travel the world after her successful stint in London, touring Vietnam and Japan with the show during the Vietnam War. Her exploits overseas were filmed for a 1966 television special: Mary Martin: Hello, Dolly! Round the World.   

There is a statue of Peter Pan in Texas dedicated in her honour, after she portrayed the role on Broadway and TV to critical acclaim. She also scooped up a Tony and Emmy award for this part (which were considerably easier for her to display on her mantlepiece)

Like Channing, Martin was also inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame for her impressive stage and screen career, and also received the Kennedy Center Honors, on top of a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.